Nope-still not dead. What a surprise that is!
I was looking for some good news to cheer everyone up-but we all know about Murphy's Law, and Murphy struck again.
I had a call on a Thursday evening, inviting me to have the third Covid vaccine. Inviting. Hmmm... so I said yes, of course. We know that it isn't over, so I figured that I should go, since everyone and his Aunt Nellie (if anyone has or had an aunt Nellie) kept writing to tell me that I'm in the clinically extremely vulnerable group and would probably die if I wasn't careful. That's the kind of letter that gets a bit demoralizing, I can tell you. So I was born without a functioning immune system-so you don't think that I know how to take precautions? Of course, with Covid there don't seem to be precautions. Nobody seems to be wearing a mask, or practicing social distancing...people are such morons.
Of course they're morons. Where am I living again?
So I went along to the medical center that was closest to me, figuring that if I had a reaction, I wouldn't have to travel too far. I got there-early-and the queue outside was huge. So much for appointments on the NHS-but everyone who uses the system knows that it's a case of hurry up and wait. Over an hour later, I had the jab, and I decided to take the bus back to the flat-just in case.
Good grief! I had absolutely no reaction at all, so I emailed my friends and told them that I was fine.Only I wasn't fine. The reaction started at about 7pm, and it was vicious. Incredibly vicious: thumping headache, worse than any headache I've ever had-and excruciating pain throughout my body. I couldn't get out of bed for the next four days. I couldn't raise my arms to call for help. I was completely incapacitated. I wondered if I was dying. If I was, it occurred to me that nobody would know until the body started to smell.
So, nearly four weeks later, I'm starting to get back to normal. I did tell the team over at the hospital-and they said: so? You're okay now? That much have been difficult. I wanted to punch someone. That would have been difficult. For them...
It's been an interesting four weeks, but I survived. I then had to email my friends and tell them what happened. Not only were they horrified, but each one of them stated categorically that there would be absolutely no booster. Two shots, they said, were more than enough.
The worst thing about the entire situation is that the nurse practitioner (the one who said: so?) informed me that the shot that I received was the third shot, and that the booster would be given in six months. Wow. Look what I have to look forward to! Maybe I'll leave town. The country. The continent...
So we're now up to date, although I'm still keeping my head down. There is so much fighting, killing, anger, bitterness-I almost long for another lockdown, so everyone has to stay inside and they can all beat themselves senseless. Almost. It was so quiet! And so boring!
I'll try to keep you up to date more often-when something interesting happens. We've all had enough stress over the past 22 months, who wants to hear about people beating the crap out of each other?
Not dead yet-but learning how to move very, very fast...
