Today’s edition of Wise Madness is not going to go the way I thought it would when I went to sleep. I had yesterday nicely planned. I woke up early, popped out of bed, blogged early, and was finished with breakfast before noon. For me that’s early. The CDC announced Emergency approval of a second COVID-19 booster for those over 50. As a status seeker I wanted to be the first one on my block to have one. I went to the CVS website and made an appointment for 2:15. I walked over there and discovered I was the first one to take advantage of the new approval. The pharmacist didn’t know if it would be approved. It was. While I was there, I also got my first shingles vaccination. Some people on Facebook advised me to not have them together but I’ve been getting vaccinated all my life and never had an adverse reaction other than a sore arm.
The pharmacist was the same one that gave me my flu shot. I liked when I can joke around with medical professionals. I’m an easy patient. I don’t get nervous and get stripped down for action as fast as I can. It went off like a breeze. My next plan was to go to Aldi which is in the opposite direction. I had to stop at home first. The postman had left a package meant for someone in a different building at my door. I picked up the package and delivered it to the right house. Then I was off to Aldi. Taken together with the walk to CVS I walked 6 miles. I was quite pleased with that. I bought what I needed at Aldi and made my way home. While I was walking, I was thinking about my attitude towards vaccinations and the outcomes. Do people get adverse reactions because they expect adverse reaction? The Nocebo effect? That’s the same as the placebo effect except people instead of being helped despite getting something inert get sick despite getting something inert. Conversely, might I be benefiting from my high expectations for a favorite outcome? It isn’t easy to disentangle these things.
In the evening I made matzoh brei pizza for the first time in a while. That is so good. I need to buy more pepperoni now. I prepared Gord’s Gold to post on Mixcloud and collected the pictures I’ll use to promote it. I was feeling good about myself. I solved the rdles, Nerdle, Wordle, and Quordle, quickly when meant I could go to sleep earlier than usual. I was all prepared to write about my functioning day. And then …..
I woke up in the middle of the night shivering. I rearranged my comforters, so I was totally ensconced but was still freezing. I know what that meant, I had the chills. My temperature was rising rapidly. This happens to me when I have bowel obstructions from Crohn’s but as I just got the vaccines, I figured it was likely that. That theory started to fall apart when I got queasy, I had a bowel obstruction. I suspect, but this is far from proven, that the vaccines triggered a strong immune response and my small intestine swelled in response. For a long time, I couldn’t do anything. I was too cold to move from under the comforters. When my temperature started to stabilize, I was able to move enough to take Tylenol and the Budesonide I take when I have a Crohn’s flareup. It took a while, but it cleared up the nausea. It took me a long time to get back to sleep. When I woke up, I felt the way I often used to from the Crohn’s, a general weakness but no digestive symptoms. At this point it might just be a reaction to the vaccines. As I wasn’t bothered at all my earlier COVID-19 shots I suspect it’s the Shingrix or as I like to call it Shindig. My immune system is partying. I’m not sold on any of these hypotheses, there’s not enough evidence. Maybe it’s hubris as I was so sure I wouldn’t have a reaction because I never have vaccine reactions. That’s terrible reasoning on my part, so many things never happen until they do. Yes, I am less likely to have a reaction than someone what never has one but it’s not at all unheard of for someone to be fine for years and then there’s a change. I often get annoyed at people that say that whatever they are doing for COVID-19 is fine because they haven’t caught it yet. It’s a tough, your brain really wants to work that way.
I was supposed to go to the Knick game tonight but of course canceled. I have spent much of the day sleeping. I finally ate around 2 PM, poached eggs. When in doubt keep it simple. I watched Moon Knight. I need a new show to follow. The first episode of is all set up so it’s hard to judge. We don’t see the Moon Knight costume until the end. In the comics Marc Spector, one of the Knight’s “true identities” is the son of a rabbi. I suspect on the show he’ll lose his Jewish identity. There’s no hint of it so far. Some people will be upset by that.
I’m running out of gas. I’ll be going back to sleep soon. I’ll know I’m over it when I’m not sleepy all the time. I could take some more Tylenol but that would involve standing up. That’s too much to ask now. So would looking for my thermometer. I can’t find it anywhere. I’d like to know how high it went last night. Based on how it felt 101 to 102. My record is 104.8. I have hit 103.5 many times. Time to enter slumberland.
Wise Madness 