#apparently it only happens if you don't complain or resist the doctor's tests at all

[corpocyborg]

The Devil Ending // Where Is My Mind? “Cognitive function test. Solve the cube.”

[threeunrelateddescriptors]

It's been a day.

It started with my 10am student arriving at 9am. They texted "we're here!" I texted "I have you on for 10am, give me 5min" And so I stopped buttering my toast, ran to put on pants, asked my flatmate to turn off the stove where my, and was ready for my student at 9:02am. The biggest saving grace was that it was a lesson at my flat, rather than at the space I rent (20-25min away, depending on traffic).

They apologized, and I told them it was fine a) because it was [they had a brainfart shit happens and I had semi predicted this would happen so mentally I was slightly prepared] and b) I didn't have another student scheduled so it worked out.

Got a laundry done.

Then it was time for my covid+flu vax appt. I expect to feel like shit. That's how all the previous shots have gone. I get a fever and feel painful and achy. I get exhausted. So far, nada. But that won't last. Lovely if it does, but I prepared my entire Tomorrow for Feeling Like Shit (tm).

Which brings me to something tangentially related that might prove interesting/helpful to others.

Lately (past year or so), I feel I've physically taken a decline. I can't precisely pinpoint how, but vague ~*things*~ which I'd be hard-pressed to go to a doctor and say "I have a vague constellation of inconsistent shit happening that I can't quite tell you where the issue is but I definitely have an issue; do tests and diagnose this and please do not dare tell me it's You're Getting Older disease"

So in light of not being able to determine at least one thing to point to, I've just been sitting in my incrementally failing body. The path of least resistance. I am a huge fan of the path of least resistance. I jellyfish my way through life, and it seems to really work for me.

But, here's where I come back around to vaccines and such.

When I was younger, I learned a fun fact about my body: If I am fighting a virus/infection/whatever, and I get a fever, and my fever goes above 104F, I fight that shit off but my immune system trips a wire and goes into overdrive.

It decides, for shits and giggles, that there must still be a threat. Usually that threat is All Of My Joints. It's like temporary rheumatoid arthritis or something. It can last months.

When it first happened, we had no clue what was going on. We went to doctor after doctor and no one could figure out what was doing and why I had suddenly developed arthritis. Clearly, I was making it up to avoid going to school or whatever.

Then I complained of night sweats and my parent, on the very off-chance, took me for a TB titer. Just to make sure I hadn't managed to contract TB.

I hadn't. But the horrid joint pain? Disappeared. Like...in a day of getting the TB titer.

My parent saw this and went "huh." and filed it away in their brain. I did no such thing because I was not mentally in a place to do that.

The second time this Fever-induced Auto-immune Response thing was triggered, we went to doctors, I was in pain for months. Blah blah.

See, we still hadn't fully put together that the fever (or, a fever going to 104F) was the causal event. Why would we? It seems clear now, but I had a high-as-fuck fever because my body was fighting off Terrible Things. So maybe it was lingering Terrible Things.

Well, we finally got a doctor who 1) believed us and 2) found that every one of my joints was impacted. I had only been complaining about one set of joints because it was the most terrible. [Kind of how if you stub your toe and then someone slams a car door on your hand, it's likely you don't feel your stubbed toe quite as bad.] The doctor didn't know what to do with me, but in finding this determined that it sure sounded like an autoimmune response.

Cue my parent going "Oh fuck me, Bee Sting Therapy" My parent has a broad range of odd knowledge. One of which is alternative and traditional medicines. Apparently, it is a thing to have a bee sting someone who is having joint pain. Don't ask, I don't know.

So, my parent carts me off to the general doctor, says "kid has night sweats (I was not), I want a TB titer to rule-out TB" and doctor went 'sure'

I was given a TB titer. I do not have TB. What I do have is a fucky immune system who can be easily distracted. What my parent figured out was that the fever did something like fucked an auto-shutdown procedure after the initial threat was eliminated. So they introduced a (controlled) threat (TB titer).

My immune system immediately turned its attention to this New Horsehit and "eliminated it" (it's a TB titer y'all, there's no threat). And so it said "Good job everyone, back to bed, our work here is done."

And that is why I am somewhat hopeful these vaccines will address at least some of the decline I feel I've been experiencing.

The End.