Two weeks before I was to leave Tibet, I was walking through my campus with staff to inspect the leak in my ceiling. Dogs roam free so I didn't worry when 2 dogs barked as we walked, but one little orange yappy dog circled back and bit me in the lower calf! It was only a small punture that didn't bleed, but the skin was broken so we worried about rabies. Off I go to the local hospital where my foreign status did help with line-ups, but was told that they didn't have the correct immune globulin for me. I phoned my SOS health care, who searched China and found the glubulin only in Beijing. I returned to the hospital to receive my first shot (photos below of the nurse who kept money in a box) andddd the next morning I left at 7:00 for the airport. My plane was delayed 3 hours, so I landed in Beijing during rush hour and after a train and a taxi ride that dropped me off a mile from the hospital, arrived at the hospital 4 hours late. Finally at 9:00 pm I received my 3 injections then found a hotel and dinner. Not my idea of how to spend a day so close to leaving my beloved Tibet! Four days later I got the third shot, and when I returned to Vancouver, I found a community health unit with a rabies vaccine. Done! The little black dot on my leg is the only reminder of a horrible week, and my stomach has forgivine me for the yucky serum.
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