This week in Seattle we have a ton of errands to run, friends and family to visit, and a few doctor's appointments to attend to. Today we saw our travel doctor. He specializes in travel medicine - so things like what vaccinations should you get for travel to XYZ country and so forth. Important when traveling to the middle of nowhere like we have been. We both saw him before we started this venture to ensure we were fully covered with vaccinations and things like malaria prevention medications for when we go into malaria infested zones. We have grown to like him more and more. Today he spent about 45 minutes with us reviewing our current situation and what all we needed to complete our trip. That was not a typo. 45 minutes with the doctor in the room - having a CONVERSATION. He appears to believe is role is that not of god, but of trusted advisor. He explains his thinking out loud and makes sure you are following his logic as he goes.
One of the questions he asked was whether we wanted a flu shot today. Melissa explained that no, we didn't get one last year because being in Central America the shot wouldn't address the right viruses anyway. (For those not familiar - flu vaccinations are formulated based on which particular strains of flu virus will hit a particular area - so a flu shot for North America won't be the same as a flu shot for Europe.) To which he said, yes, that's true - except for H1N1. Duh. H1N1 hit Central America big last year and is expected to hit again this year - and all other flu strains aside - H1N1 is much more deadly than most. So we really shouldn't be traveling without that one. Nice catch doc!
Then we find out he believes in high protein diets. How cool is that?! So many doctors are still on the low fat, low salt, high carb mantra - despite the growing evidence. So to realize he believes what we believe philosophically about diets - WOW - we were totally blown away! So cool!!