#get your flu shots and covid boosters kids

[thoughtsofthegirlwiththecurl]

Me @ my immune system: "okay gang, this vaccine contains a blueprint of what I want you to be prepared to fight off this year, so if you could-"

My immune system: "BURN IT TO THE GROUND"

Me: "oh, I mean, you don't have to-"

My immune system: "SCORCHED EARTH"

[golvio]

Me yesterday night: Huh! I feel a little tired after my COVID shot, but not that bad. Maybe the hangover will be a little easier to deal with this year?

Me, emerging from beneath my weighted blanket this morning:

[jonathanbyersphd]

I'm getting my covid booster and my flu shot today but like bed comfy

[echoing--stars]

Hello worm. For your prompts, maybe Wind trying to show off to Wars how he’s just as much a hero as him despite his age? It can be fluffy or angsty, you decide. Also bonus points if Wind discovers Wars enlisted early and starts calling him a hypocrite

This was an amazing idea! I wish I could write more for it, but I hit a wall of fatigue (thanks flu shot and covid booster cries) so this is all I got. Maybe I'll come back to it!

(If you read this and would like to request a short snippet, see this post!)

Wind was sick of being treated like a kid. He didn't get as many watches as everyone else and never the second watch. They'd stopped early when he'd complained about the walk — even though Legend had been complaining for an hour. He was stuck with guarding civilians while the others battled the monsters. And now Warriors was getting his arm stitched up by Sky after taking a hit meant for Wind. He bided his time, however. Wind was mad but he wasn’t mean. He waited until Sky was finished with the stitches and bandaged Warriors’ arm. And then waited until they’d moved away from the battlefield and made camp. Warriors stood and stretched, then grabbed his waterskin, saying he was going to the nearby stream. Wind grabbed his own waterskin and followed. Warriors didn’t acknowledge his presence, but Wind knew better than to think he hadn’t been noticed. He wasn’t exactly trying to be sneaky, but he’d long since learned to not startle the captain, especially after a battle. When Wind kneeled down next to Warriors to fill his water skin, Warriors turned to look at him. “How are you doing, Sailor?” Wind pulled his waterskin out and slammed the lid back on. He rocked back on his heels before standing up. “How am I doing? I should be asking you that.” Warriors sighed and rubbed a hand over his forehead. He stood up and stepped away from the water before turning to face Wind. “I’m fine. The cut was small and Sky took care of it.” “You took a hit meant for me.” Warriors froze for a moment, and his eyes met Wind’s. Like this, their height difference seemed greater than normal. “It—” “I’m not a kid, captain! I can fight my own fights! You don’t need to get injured to protect me.” “Sail—Link. That sword was heading for your back while you were engaged with another enemy. It was coming from your left, so you wouldn’t have been able to block it with your shield. I took a calculated risk to save your life.” Wind opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He’d known the enemy was there, had sensed the attack. But he hadn’t realized how dire it almost was. As much as he wanted to believe that he could have escaped the attack, he trusted Warriors’ battle experience to know what he was doing. “Okay fine. What about not letting me take second watch? And me taking fewer watches than everyone else?” Warriors tried to respond, but Wind cut him off. “Or putting me on guard duty while everyone else fought the monsters in Twilight’s world a few weeks ago?” Wind could feel the heat in his cheeks as he ranted. “I am just as much of a hero as anyone else. And I’m sick of being treated otherwise!” Wind took a deep breath. He spoke his final words soft and cold as a steel knife. “And one last thing. I overheard something the other day. That you lied about your age to enlist early. You’re such a hypocrite.” Warriors sighed and his shoulders fell slightly. It was as if he’d aged years just in the past few moments. Wind didn’t feel bad about it in the slightest. Warriors gestured to a fallen log a bit further away from the river. “Sit with me?” Wind huffed, but stomped his way over to the log and sat as far away from Warriors as he comfortably could.

“Link, I know you’re a hero. You’re amazing. Maybe even the best of all of us.” Warriors looked up to the sky where, the stars were just starting to come out. Wind scoffed. Fancy words with no substance behind them. “I’m serious!” Warriors said. “You’re the youngest of us, but your skill in battle rivals even the best fighters among us. You defeated Ganon and saved your world—” “Before you even joined the army,” Wind muttered and crossed his arms. “Exactly.” Warriors rubbed a hand over his eyes. “But that’s exactly why you should get to be a kid sometimes.” That made Wind pause. Warriors took the chance to carry on. “We all grew up too fast. Nearly all of us began our journeys before we reached adulthood. Some of us never stopped once we started, or at least not for many years.” Warriors expression was grim. It reminded Wind of the old man. “If I can give you — and all the younger heroes, for that matter — a chance to be a kid sometimes, I will take that chance. Over and over again.”

[actualbird]

following on from your ask about luke and his illness, i was thinking about how he would be classed as chronically ill and would require immunizations and stuff that are given to kids/elderly/chronically ill like flu shots, covid boosters etc. what if luke hates having them?? like i don’t think he’s afraid of needles but im sure he hates the side effects of the jabs (like the stiff arm feeling!!). and then you mentioned that ideally w/ his chronic illness he would need many treatments and i fully imagine him texting the gc like “sorry im gonna be late to the nxx meeting my ecg appointment is DELAYED” or rushing in desperate for food because he had to starve himself for a test ;_; the chronic illness journey isn’t fun but it’s nice to know that luke would probably be in the trenches too

irt to my last ask on luke, how i'd write his treatment, and chronic illness

HES IN THE TRENCHES TOO YEAH!!!! and oh gosh i love these scenarios and hcs. it definitely isnt fun and it isnt a walk in the park but it slowly gets integrated into his life

an alarm on his phone for taking his meds on time, having to beg off of certain hangout plans because he has a doctor's appointment, having to get a whole bunch of shots constantly, fasting before bloodwork, being frustrated with treatment plan after treatment plan....

along the lines of treatment/diagnostic woes, i used to get 243987409328 EEGs back when i was getting my own neuro condition diagnosed (it never got diagnosed....) and i like to hc now that luke hates EEGs particularly because it's SO annoying and difficult to wash the gel node things (uhhh the sticky gel they use to stick the nodes on ur head? idk what it's called) off his scalp. it's also so difficult for him to fall asleep during the Fall Asleep portion of the test. his anti epileptics meds also mess with his mood when the dosage or type changes which is, you know, kinda hellis when hes already rather paranoid thanks to his secret agent background

just in general, luke has to go through A Lot, but god. he trucks through. because it's worth it.

[mizufae]

DID YOU KNOW that in most US states, Costco is required by law to allow people to use their pharmacy services even without a membership? All you do is tell the people checking cards at the door that you are going to the pharmacy and they will let you in. Costco has COVID vaccines and flu shots and you can reserve an appointment window online. Then it’s exactly the same as getting a shot at any drug store or pharmacy, you fill out some paperwork that they will later use to bill the appropriate party (your insurance or the government) you sit for a bit until they call your name, go into a private room and roll up your sleeve, get a quick little pinch and a bandage and walk out.

SO. If you live or work near a Costco, EVEN IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A MEMBERSHIP, please go get the bivalent COVID shot! If you know someone who does their shopping there, ask to hitch a ride! If you have school aged children please ESPECIALLY get them their shots, because the percentage of kids under 18 who have had the bivalent booster is horribly low and SO MANY of them will be coming back to school right now to mingle with symptom-free infected kids. If you don’t have kids, you can still help by offering to do other tasks for parents while they get their kids taken care of, like other shopping, chores at home, bringing them dinner, walking their dog, watching an infant, pretty much any task that would keep them from accompanying their kids somewhere.

This has been your COVID vaccine PSA from your local neurodivergent person who hates masking for sensory reasons and would love to keep being able to leave the house without panicking about panicking from overwhelm on the way home. Wheeeeeeeee

[jenroses]

In the past 30 days: I came down with covid and the flu simultaneously Devoting all my executive function to taking covid/flu meds religiously on time led me to be late on my ongoing antiviral once, by 6 hours, so I had a brief flare of both shingles AND cold sores. They calmed back down once i got back on track. And now I have a bladder infection.

You would think, with my history (rheumatoid arthritis and resulting immune suppression and steroid-induced diabetes, asthma, obesity, physical and mental health issues, EDS, fibro, clotting disorders, etc.) that coming down with four viruses and a bacteria in this period of time would be horrible.

But you know what? Modern medicine is a good thing. Antivirals are a good thing. Antibiotics are amazing. I took ONE dose of the antibiotic and my symptoms for the UTI are already loads better. I got over the flu in THREE FUCKING DAYS. The flu used to take me out for 2 weeks, sometimes 3 if I got a secondary infection, and that was when I wasn't on immune suppressants. Tamiflu plus elderberry, taken soon after symptoms start, work like magic. Covid was minor. Yes, I know it's minor for a lot of people but with my risk factors? And getting it with the flu? I took an anti-covid antiviral, and of course was already taking elderberry for the flu. I have a few minor lingering issues but they're basically issues I already have, just kicked from a 6 to a 6.5, ish. Like I used to hate black pepper and then I learned to tolerate it and now I can't tolerate it again. That kind of thing. Sensory stuff is more brittle than it was, suboptimal pants are not an option. But seriously, shingles used to be a mandatory 6 week excruciating ordeal. I noticed the tingle-itch-prickle in that nerve, took my not-today-satan pills (famcyclovir) and it never really managed to get going. Cold sore was a specific prickle and a single small bump, never even scabbed. My kid was diagnosed with both flu and strep today, and he's not very sick either, and I don't even have to get swabbed for strep because the UTI drug will also treat strep. (Cefdinir)

I caught Covid 2 weeks after the bivalent shot, went off my immune suppressing drug, and kicked it to the curb with the help of targeted meds and a little herbal knowledge. I've been miserable for days with this UTI and finally got the executive function to get us to the doctor and boom, better.

I am begging you. If you get sick, and you know you're sick, if you can, get tested quickly and treated quickly. Tamiflu is supposed to cut hours off the flu, but in my experience combined with elderberry, it has taken a 14 day illness and turned it into a 3 day illness, several times now. I've never had a flu shot. (I don't object to them in principle, but my body can have garbage reactions to immune provocation and by the time Covid happened the tamiflu/elderberry=3 days sick thing made the flu shot moot for me. The math on Covid works out well in favor of the covid shot.)

There's no benefit in suffering. Especially with Covid and the flu, which mutate constantly and can bork your immune system permanently (see: triggers for autoimmunity. I have 6 autoimmune conditions, fun times.) Covid, especially, can target the cells which remember Covid. Kick it to the curb, kick it hard, kick it fast, use the tools we have.

I didn't even catch bronchitis from all this, and I ALWAYS used to catch bronchitis. because CPAP.

FWIW elderberry also helps the immune system clear out post-vaccine yuck faster. Without, I had inflammatory flares for a month. A dose ended that cycle. Next immunizations I took elderberry sooner and didn't have anywhere near as bad a time. (It is not "just" an "immune booster", it specifically promotes the production/function of tumor necrosis factor and this makes it specifically good for things like influenza.) My reaction to the bivalent shot was a sore arm for a day and then a couple days of local pain. A minor RA flare, short lived, not severe.

Anyway. Wear a mask. Get your shots. If you get sick, have them swab you for both flu and covid, not just one or the other, and strep too, if you're getting a sore throat, because we are past the days of one or the other. Get the antivirals and take as directed. Hydrate. Rest, and rest an extra day on top of it, more if you can, to give your body a chance to really kick it all the way. Use the tools available to you.

[mlobsters]

supernatural s10e18 book of the damned (w. robbie thompson)

charlie roleplaying hiro protagonist from snow crash? hacker with a sword. and the nola vampire mob or whatever this group is. surely there's a connection with benny and they didn't just pick yet another character with a very specific regional accent

i like charlie, i like felicia day as charlie, but i am lukewarm on her playing a more action oriented version of charlie. i am on board with her kicking ass, but not sure felicia is the best person to take charlie there. and really straining my suspension of disbelief that charlie just stabbed a guy in a throat, got distracted by a tattoo and shot in the leg but still gets away. wait, not even leg, in the abdomen???? come on, y'all. that's not manageable without medical intervention

started this ep late and flu+covid boosters are startin to kick my ass a little bit, reconvene tomorrow. ass still being kicked by this spikevax - still Stressed. but it's earlier and i've taken some ibuprofen that's still working. let's see

dean in sweats, well i'll be

sam, if you don't come clean after dean is telling you everything that went down with crowley and rowena... 🔪

wiki says charlie was born in 85, so she's two years younger than sam. anyway, 🎵kid sister, kid sister. kid sister and me!🎵

DEAN We’re due for a win, okay? Overdue. I’ll tell you another thing, if this actually does work, we’re gonna take some time off. SAM What, like a vacation? DEAN Mm-hmm. And I’m not talking just like a weekend in Vegas or sitting in some crap motel watching pay-per-porn. No, I’m talking about a beach. Drinking cervezas, go for a swim, mingle with the local wildlife. When was the last time either one of us was on a beach? SAM Never. DEAN Sand between our toes, Sammy. Sand between our toes.

asking for the apocalypse right there. how many seasons until they get a successful vacation together? (15x20?)

also sign me up for the inner-workings-free meatsuit

METATRON What? I thought we were having a moment. Can’t we be besties? CASTIEL No. Because you killed my friend. METATRON Oh pfhht. Dean is fine, mostly. Can’t you get past that? CASTIEL Never.

thinking about the boys perpetually stowing their baggage, but we can respect someone who holds tight to a grudge

often bitch about the musical score but i like this sound design and filming. more atmospheric and creative than they usually go

oh, dean. sammy, tell him about cas and metatron rawrgh

every tom, dick, and harry has an angel blade. so goofy. is that a standard issue cupid weapon?

DEAN And you call yourselves nerds. Come on. You got this. CHARLIE He’s right. Let’s get our Alan Turing on. Decypt this bitch.

neal stephenson (who wrote the aforementioned snow crash) also wrote cryptonomicon which contains a fictionalized version of alan turing. and

According to Stephenson, the title is a play on Necronomicon, the title of a book mentioned in the stories of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft

necronomicon aka the book of the dead (not damned but close). also mentioned evil dead/army of darkness recently and this heartbeat drum beat thing for when dean's gettin the whammy from the book reminds me of ... that. (evil dead movie contains the necronomicon)

KEEP YOUR EYES TO YOURSELF, BUCKO

SAM Look, just let us translate the book, okay? If there’s a cure, we’ll do it and deal with the consequences later. I can’t lose you. DEAN Really? SAM Yeah, really. DEAN You change your mind on that, cause that’s not what you said last time. SAM Oh, come on, man. You know I didn’t mean that.

many thoughts. sad and tired thoughts. realizing now, would dean even remember how sam said he lied about that right before dean died? and this is one rough conversation to be having in front of charlie. really part of the family, esp if she's on board with the fuck the consequences we gotta fix dean. hurts to think dean really is still doubting sam's commitment to him. hurts and is exhausting that sam still hasn't told him about what he got up to.

this cabin sure is swanky for one-of-many bobby-managed hunter safehouses

CHARLIE What did Dean mean? When he said you changed your mind? SAM So, awhile back, we had a chance to, um…close the gates of Hell. And in order to do that, I would’ve had to die. And, I was okay with that, and I am okay with that, but Dean was not. And so, he uh… CHARLIE He saved you. SAM Yeah, he saved me. CHARLIE And let me guess, in doing so, he did something you didn’t want, and that pissed you off. And you said something that hurt him? SAM Yeah, that sounds about right.

round and round we go on the patented winchester merry-go-round

either they're mending my emotional connection to the show or padalecki is just that good but got me crying. felt very genuine

SAM You know, when Dean came to get me at school, I-I told myself… one last job, you know? One more job. And then when – when I, um…. When I lost Jess, I, again, told myself one more job. There’s always one more job, you know? And one more job, and one more job, and then I was gonna go back to law and – and to my life. CHARLIE You were the Dread Pirate Roberts of hunting. SAM Yeah. I guess I really understand now that….this is my life. I love it. But I can’t do it without my brother. I don’t want to do it without my brother. And if he’s gone, then I don’t…. CHARLIE I got it. I-I do.

that was nice, having her give him the out to stop and collect himself

samateur hour, hated that it made me laugh

so does cas get like, extra powerup now that he had someone else's grace and his own back? like super mario bros flower power, shooting fireballs. based on those raggedy ass wings, guessing not

dean slippin into southern accent talking to this bad nola witch man

DEAN It’s calling to me, Sam, okay? I can hear it. It’s calling to the Mark. It wants me to take the book and run away with it. Burn it now.

reminds me of naomi and the rocket with the protomolecule sample in the expanse. why yes, i will destroy this, of course.

SAM Well, you know what, Cas? You got your Grace back. You’re back. You did the right thing. CASTIEL You did the right thing. That book needed to be destroyed. We will find another way, Sam.

you did destroy it, right, sam?? very convincing reaction here

that was cuter than i expected

i continue to not understand why sam doesn't just tell dean about the cas and metatron thing! jesus christ. do we have to do this?? making cas lie about it too. sigh. so tiresome

these lyrics and the slomo pizza party as sam has a minor internal breakdown over lying about, SHOCKER, not destroying the book. made me laugh, not gonna lie. hammering the point down way too hard. this is how you lose me, show

having sam's voiceover as he talks to (as yet unseen rowena) while still on the shot of sam looking increasingly Stressed at their little party is unusual for this show too. i like to see them trying different things, like with the clip i had at the beginning

hopefully this will be interesting, at least?

spn s5e10

(god, remember the party before jo and ellen died? that had vibes and atmosphere. cas getting drunk with the girls, and first ep with crowley)

[price1972]

TLDR. If I knew how to put this under a cut, I would, but that bit of tumblr magic is beyond my skills. I’m warning you, this is long. I’m trying to catch any typos as I write, but please forgive any I miss.

Traditionally, I am VERY pro-vax. I’m vaxed, both my kids are vaxed and I am not saying one way or the other that a vaccine(s) are the root of my issues. All I’m doing is writing what I personally have experienced. Everyone should get as much info as they can, talk to your doctor if you have one you trust, and do what’s right for you.

Ryan is my husband. I live in northern Harford County, Maryland, about 1 hour North of Baltimore. My alcohol consumption has never been alcoholic level, I’m talking about a glass or two of wine over several hours in a night, maybe a little more if I was at the pool over the course of a day, or a dinner out or something, but not insane levels consumed. I stopped drinking because it stopped tasting good, probably because of what I was starting to go through.

So, back in 2021 I got my 2 Pfizer shots when I was eligible, had no problems. When I was eligible for the first booster shot, I got that too. At the same time as the booster, the pharmacist said, “hey, do you want your flu shot now too?” Since my elderly parents live with us (also vaccinated) and I didn’t want to risk getting them sick, I said sure. Got both at the same time.

3 days later, I woke up and could barely move my legs, my legs felt like they were encased in burning metal and swords being shoved up my heels and my hands also felt like they were on fire and so sensitive to touch, it felt like they were being constantly scrubbed with super rough sandpaper and also had no strength in them, so they were basically worthless. Went to my PCP (Medstar doctors group), they told me to go to the ER, because they didn’t know what was wrong and wouldn’t prescribe me anything for pain other than Tylenol or advil. Went to Upper Chesapeake ER, spent 14 hours in the waiting room to get 2 bags of saline to help with being dehydrated. However, once they found out I had stopped drinking 6 months prior to that (this was December 2021), they basically treated me like I was a drunk and looking for pills and sent me home to follow up with my PCP instead of admitting me and running more tests. I kinda understand, because it was the height of Covid and the ER was packed and they were running the ER out of the waiting room, but the lack of giving even a little bit of a shit about what was wrong with me was pretty disconcerting. There was a 20-ish year old kid who was sitting next to who smoked so much pot over 3 days that he forgot to eat or drink and the staff treated him more courteously than they did me and admitted him while I was still sitting there, waiting to see if they could find a bed for me.

So the next day, I did follow up with my PCP, and they said they’d been researching it more, and thought I might have Guillome-Barre Syndrome, which is a nerve disease where your white blood cells attack your nerves (most usually starts in the hands and feet), and is dangerous to not get treated because it can paralyze your lungs and kill you. They wanted me to go back to the hospital. I refused to go back to UC, so they suggested going to Franklin Square instead and I agreed. They wanted me to go right away, and would “call ahead” so my ER wait wouldn’t be as long. It was only an 8 hour wait there until I got called back and then eventually admitted me after they found me a bed. Ryan couldn’t stay with me because they were being super strict about visiting hours (armed guards in the ER and everything), so that sucked.

That night, the neurologist examined me and said I probably did have GBS and explained the treatment (there are 2, one is a intravenous medicine given over 5 days -IVIG- and the other was a total blood transfusion or something. ) I got the IVIG and everything that would go along with it. Starting the next morning, the doctor in charge of the ER or something (I don’t remember what his title was at this point, but he was a pretentious blowhatd who had at least 6 if not more of his students following him around like ducklings on his rounds every day) examined me and thought the neurologist was wrong and there was nothing majorly wrong with me and I was most likely just looking for pain meds to abuse. Of course he didn’t use those words, but his demeanor and attitude toward me, even when Ryan was also allowed to be there, made it clear what he thought.

So the neurologist won the start of the pissing match between the two of them, and I got all 5 days worth of the IVIG treatment. On the 6th day, I had to get a lumbar puncture to see if I had the GBS protein that they use to diagnose the syndrome. I apparently didn’t have the protein present, but even though the neurologist wanted to keep me there for more testing (because they are seeing GBS a lot more now than they used to, and they don’t know much about it yet; he was arguing that the protein they look for may have mutated into something different, etc, but otherwise I had all the symptoms of GBS. They two of them had the discussion (fight) in front of Ryan and me, with the ER doctor waving my test results in the neurologist’s face and saying “See? I told you there’s nothing wrong with her! She’s morbidly obese (fair, I was 300 lbs at that point, and looked about 15 months pregnant with a 20 lb baby), an alcoholic, looking for pain meds to abuse and the pain is all in her head. Anxiety. I’m discharging her.” And he won that fight, because I was discharged the next day. I still could barely walk and Ryan had to basically lift me up into the car to take me home. They sent a nurse with us to supervise me getting into the car and keep us from stealing the wheelchair I guess, but she didn’t do anything to help at all. Discharge papers said I didn’t have GBS, but a description of GBS and how I was treated for it, a list of vitamins and anxiety medication to get filled and to follow up with my PCP. Oh, and I wasn’t allowed back there to be treated for anything unless I had documented proof that I had completed a 30 day inpatient rehab program for alcohol..even though it had been months since I’d had any alcohol at all.

So I did follow up worth my PCP. Who has been treating me for over a decade or more as needed, knew my drinking was moderate and I’ve never had a history of looking for pain pills. But it was clear that they agreed with the ER doctor about being too fat, an alcoholic and looking for pills. Even though I never asked for oxy or narcotics, I just wanted something to stop the pain. I didn’t care what they gave me, as long as it worked. Never with either hospitals or the PCP was cirrhosis or potential liver failure mentioned or tested for.

So they gave me a laundry list of vitamins and medication, including Gabapentin to try to help with the nerve pain. Had a bad reaction to that one: it made me dizzy, pass out and fall, most of my hair fell out in one large clump, suicidal thoughts. Basically every side effect that could happen did happen, so I stopped taking that one. The anxiety med I was sent home with could be upped from 20 mg (anxiety) to 60 mg for nerve pain, so my PCP did that. This was around April 2022. I was OK at RJ’s (our son, 23) wedding (issues walking, but not needing a walker or wheelchair yet), but soon after that, the new medication caused me to sleep 23/24 hours per day and to hallucinate horribly when I was unconscious. I still remember most of those hallucinations and I feel so bad for people whose brains make them go through that, because it is SO REAL when you’re in the middle of it.

So this went on for the rest of 2022, until Ryan started to wean me off the meds. His reasoning was that I looked like I was dying, couldn’t eat or drink, couldn’t recognize him or Ryleigh, (our daughter, 17) and if I was dying anyway, maybe I would die with enough sense to be able to say goodbye to them and it mean something. I basically “woke up” on December 1, 2022 as if nothing had happened. I didn’t know when it was or what had happened, but could sit up, get in the shower, get dressed, etc with a walker and/or Ryan helping me, use the bathroom instead of a diaper etc. by this point, I couldn’t feel anything in my feet, very little sensation from my ribs down and hands still basically worthless and painful. Also couldn’t write anymore, type or even see very well, even with my glasses on. But better than being comatose or dead.

At this point, I wanted nothing to do with doctors or hospitals, and I told Ryan if he forced me to go, I’d leave AMA because they wouldn’t believe me, and I wasn’t going to go through all that BS again when it did nothing for me the first time. So for most of this year I walked/moved around as much as I could, did light PT exercises with rubber bands and tried any holistic or natural remedy we could find. But I was steadily getting worse.

Until July 20 of this year when I finally crashed. I was really bad, and Ryan begged me to let him call 911 and go to the hospital. I agreed and after a flurry of movement that I don’t remember much of, I had almost 8 liters of fluid taken out of my liver. The ER doc at UC told Ryan that he’d do the best he could to stabilize me, but that I might not survive until the next day. Also that UC wasn’t equipped to treat me and either University of MD or Hopkins would have to accept me for me to have a chance. UM wouldn’t take me because they didn’t take our insurance and Hopkins wasn’t sure if they could free up a bed for me.

Amazingly, after being at UC for 2 days, Hopkins found me a bed and transported me there. After what seemed like every test in the world, miraculously they found me a liver that matched me perfectly (a 23 year old man who died from a drug overdose; I’m allowed to contact his family, but I have to figure out what to say without sounding like a complete bitch) and my transplant values were bad enough to move me up on the transplant list, so instead of going home to wait for the “bat call” as Ryan calls it and potentially wait years for the transplant and hoping to stay alive in the meantime, I miraculously got my new liver after 2 weeks, on August 6.

I won’t go into the boring details of recovery, but from the start, my body seems to be accepting the new liver very well. The GBS has complicated it a lot (even though I hadn’t been drinking much before, and had 0 alcohol since RJ’s wedding more than a year ago, my liver was so bad, they couldn’t even use it for research. I still can’t feel my feet and have nerve pain in my hands, legs and feet and also have optic nerve degeneration from the GBS causing my vision problems. So I might not ever be 100% or be able to drive again, but it’s worth it to be alive. I have pain specialist, neurologist and neuro-ophthalmology appointments with Hopkins doctors, but not until mid-November.

So hopefully the GBS will eventually reverse itself (for most people this happens, but I’m not holding my breath) or there might be medication that would help my nerve pain and eyesight. Very irritating and tedious, but again, so worth it to be alive and able to walk with a walker and get out of the house, which I hadn’t done since RJ’s wedding last April. I’m doing PT/OT through Hopkins to relearn stuff, learn workarounds for stuff I still can’t do and to hopefully get those nerves to wake up and start working the way they’re supposed to. So for the most part, doing well, and aside from some hiccups with the medications (I take 16 pills daily, some multiple times a day); which I’m told is fairly normal, life is good.

It’s funny. A lot of people in the hospital and since have been surprised at how upbeat I typically am, and not overly upset over the issues I still have. And honestly? Surviving nearly dieing at only 51 and getting a second chance to witness the amazing young woman Ryleigh is becoming and getting to eventually (hopefully) have grandchildren to fawn over and love, why wouldn’t I be supremely grateful and happy about surviving? Yeah, there’s stuff that’s annoying, but if it never gets better than this? WORTH IT!

So, there’s the majority of what’s been happening to me over the last 2+ years. I’m sure you’re sorry you asked, lol. I do really appreciate you caring about what happened and all the good thoughts and prayers I must have received for everything to have worked out the way it did. Not that scared of dieing anymore, but hopeful it won’t happen anytime soon. ❤️

Also, my point of bringing up the Covid/flu vaccines is because (anecdotally; no proof yet) the medical community is seeing a sharp increase in nerve related issues in people after being introduced to MRNA vaccines, which the flu shot is now as well. While they’ve known about GBS for awhile, until recently it’s been pretty rare in our population and it’s not a syndrome like MS or Parkinson’s that’s been studied a lot. Best guess from multiple doctors is that it was more the flu shot, but especially getting it at the same time as a Covid booster that caused the GBS to manifest now. I might have always been going to get it, but probably not until much later in life. They still don’t know enough about the nerve related issues or even the vaccines to say for sure. So that’s been fun.

And, I only weigh 165 lbs now. It’s a hell of a way to lose weight, I don’t recommend it. 😂

I am the lucky recipient of one of those 11 livers.

[boyduroy]

dumb family bullshit under the cut, I have no outlet elsewhere and I don't want to bother hubs as he's not feeling well

I love my mom, I know she means well and is trying to do things she thinks are helpful to us as we prepare for the boydling.

Sending us a paywall article from the epoch times about how "the NIH claims that COVID boosters during pregnancy are beneficial are part of a flawed study" is not helping. It's the opposite of help. I'm now stressed out for no reason.

We got pushback from her for requesting that EVERYONE be up to date on vaccinations this winter or no bub time allowed. She's "medically exempt" from all future COVID boosters because she kept getting shingles as a reaction. Her doctors and the CDC know this and agree she would not benefit from further immunization. We are fine with that. She's the only exception.

However, we (hubs and I) are still going to get vaccinated. I'm trying to wait as long as possible before bub is born to get my yearly shots because it gives his immune system a boost. I usually get mine later in the season but I want him to have the benefits before he's born. He's going to be a fresh potato and the most vulnerable to diseases during flu season/winter.

It's simple: get your seasonal vaccinations or you don't get to see bub. This is my first kid and I will draw a line in the sand over this, and I know members of my family will probably criticize me for this decision. Jokes on you, you don't get the right to hold my bub if you can't respect my wishes.

I'm tired of not sticking up for myself and being over backwards to please my family.

[strangesequitur]

Fuckin' measles in Columbus.

For the past few years I've been doing this thing, where every time anti-vaxers cause a preventable outbreak of some terrible, easily-preventable disease I go get another immunization out of spite.

In the past two years I've had four Covid shots, three flu shots, three HPV doses, three Hep B, one pneumonia, and a Tdap.

I am fully boosted and prepared to fight god.

But I'm out of shit to inject at this point. I need another pneumonia because it mutated or the new jab is better or something but I can't get that until next year because I just got the Less Good One.

So in light of a dozen-plus sick children in my hometown, I need somebody else to go get a Spite Vax for me. Hey, you! Is your Td/Tdap up to date? It's every ten years for adults! Lockjaw isn't fun, and diptheria is so, so gross. And potentially deadly. And almost entirely preventable! Basically every top search result for diptheria is just medical professionals lamenting that it still exists at all, because frankly it shouldn't.

They increased the recommended age range for Gardasil recently! It used to cut off at 26 but I'm 37 and my insurance just covered it in full. If you were born before 1991 you might not have gotten Hep B as a kid.

Make sure your shit is up to date, because we can't rely on herd immunity at this point.

Nine children - all under the age of six - are in the hospital with measles in central Ohio, because their parents were swayed by charlatans. Or, in some cases, because they are under a year old and can't get their first MMR yet - and the parents of other kids in their daycare were swayed by charlatans.

Measles can infect 90% of unvaccinated people who come into contact with an infected person, or share a space where an infected person was, hours before. Measles can also delete your immune history, making your body forget how to fight off diseases that you've previously had or been inoculated against.

Also, y'all know about the second booster/4th dose for Covid, right? (Probably US specific, that one.)

Go be loudly pro-vax. Fight god.

[fangirlsuperhero]

10 Songs on Repeat

okay, @10paper20heart wanted to know what 10 songs I’ve had on loop. I got my flu shot and covid booster today and I’m a little loopy and a whole lot tired so ignore my mistakes or embarrassing answers. None of them are embarrassing.

1. Norwegian Wood by the Beatles which is totally a boring answer BUT! my friend Vicki and I used to make ouija boards out of cardboard and try to talk to the dead while putting this song on loop (for some reason) and this is closely related to my nano story I’m working on so it gets the number 1 spot

2. Lean on Me -Club Nuveau (I totally spelled that wrong but we’re ignoring it because of the side effects). My dad was on a bowling league when I was in like, 6th grade maybe and a bunch of us kids that got dragged there would all hang out and do dumb kid stuff around the bowling alley. Anyway, this song had just come out and we collectively decided it was our favorite song and I spent the whole next week trying to record it off the radio (I’m old. We didn’t have Spotify or YouTube or anything back then) and when I finally did, I listened to it every chance I got and it still to this day makes me excited when I hear it on the radio

3. Love Eyes by Rosemary Clooney is one of the best songs you’ve ever heard in your entire life and I really think you should try to seek it out (it’s a rare one and it’s only on the Rosemary Swings Softly album. I think)

4. No Control by One Direction because listen to it!! You guys should be making mixed tape notes on all my song choices

5. Poison by Bel Biv DeVoe. Actually the whole album but it’s a song list so I had to choose one. And the choice is poison and try NOT to dance when you hear poison by bbd in the grocery store. This album came out when I was in 8th grade and it’s the only thing I listened to for like, a year. I still have the tape and the cd and a burned copy of the cd when I thought I had lost it. So two cds I suppose. Very awful lyrics, highly recommend.

6. Try Me by James Brown is my favorite James Brown song of all time. Also a really fun song to belt out in a parking lot after work with all your friends at 1am.

7. Paint it Black by The Rolling Stones is cliche but it’s a perfect song and you will deal with my decisions

8. Surfer Girl by The Beach Boys. There was a 50’s restaurant here in Denver and my friend Vicki (ouija board) and I would bring like a roll of quarters in and play surfer girl on the jukebox over and over (i know it sounds like I’m doing the John mulany bit, but I’m not this is real) and finally after months and months, no matter how many quarters we put in, they wouldn’t play surfer girl anymore. Then we moved to California and fast forward like 10 years, I’m home visiting and we went to the diner and I was like, “hmmm shall I???” And I put several quarters in and pushed the surfer girl button several times and nothing. They removed Surfer Girl from rotation. I ruined it for everyone. Then I moved back here and the restaurant had closed down. I have to assume it was because I had been keeping them in business with my Surfer Girl quarters. Your loss, Gunther Toody’s

9. Lost in Emotion by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. I used to roller skate to this song and it makes me happy and it’s my go to song when I want to listen to music when I’m cooking or doing the dishes or cleaning or something equally boring

10. Love Me by Elvis. When my oldest son was a toddler, he decided that Elvis was his favorite and while all the other children were watching Cars and Polar Express, he watched Blue Hawaii and GI Blues everyday an he wore a jailhouse rock jacket everywhere we went. And so I would play an Elvis cd that I found and it had this song on it and it hits me in that same spot that Try Me does. It’s perfect.

Alright I did it!!! I need to go find out if Love Eyes has finally made it to YouTube. I’ll post it if I find it

[wistsandmagic]

OKaAaY so....got my covid booster and flu shot today, first flu shot I've had in WELL over a decade because of being allergic to the egg protein in 'em...BUT they are now recommending people with egg allergies GET the flu shot because the chance of an allergic reaction to the current formula for making the vaccines is HIGHLY UNLIKELY, unlike how it was when I was a kid/teenager. (So IN YOUR FACE, immunocompromised body, I GOT MY DAMN FLU SHOT.)

...yes I am already feeling the effects of both. Which is okay.

But it's also put me at that point of deliriously tired where my brain is going 900 miles a second and I am wanting desperately to chatter. But the cats won't listen, nor do they really care about Transformers AU stuff. XD;

I think I shall just have to sit and vibrate until I get past that, then.

[aelfwyn]

The Plague

So after three years of successfully avoiding covid, my very own parents brought it into our house (dad had “just a cold” and was “no longer infectious”). Uh-huh. I’m managing with cold/flu tablets, but OH is having a very tough time, and also I get to spend the next weeks, months and possibly years being anxious about post-covid complications, like anything from brain fog (I already have ADHD, I do not need MORE brain difficulty, thank you), to ME/CFS or life-threating cardiovascular illness. YAY!

ALSO I was already aware of this, but being actively in it is really driving home just how badly this is currently managed in the UK. And by “badly” I mean “practically not at all”. Essentially, unless you are in a designated high-risk group, you cannot get a booster shot (my last vaccine was the third dose/first booster, back in DECEMBER 2021), cannot get free tests, therefore cannot report positive test results, and you are not eligible for treatment (unless hospitalised).

On top of that, the guidance for if you have symptoms or have tested positive basically amounts to “try to stay home”. If a kid has symptoms but feels well enough, you can send them to school or child care (!). In the advice for how to avoid spreading it, there isn’t even a mention of FFP2/3 masks, they just say “a face covering that fits snugly against your face and has more than 1 layer“, and again, it’s all “try to work from home”, “try to stay away from other people”. The mind boggles.

And of course I have a ton of work at the moment, so I cannot take a few days off to just stay in bed / on the sofa and take things VERY slowly, which (I hear, on the internet, NOT from health services, because see above for how awful that guidance is) can reduce the risk of long covid.

At least I actually CAN work from home (because I already do anyway, I’m self-employed, I haven’t worked in an office for YEARS), but still. Urgh.

[atlanticcanada]

'This is still evolving': Health experts urge caution as illnesses continue into 2023

Monday afternoon, Nova Scotia’s top doctor dropped into a mobile vaccination clinic at the Sackville Public Library to get his COVID-19 bivalent booster dose.

“I'm at the end of my 168 days after having COVID infection in late July,” said Dr. Robert Strang. “Now I’m eligible. I can get my booster dose.”

His message in the post-holiday season -- update your immunizations.

“Flu season is starting to be on decline, fortunately, but we still have COVID around and we're seeing some signs of an increase in COVID,” he added. “Which is not unexpected after all the socialization around the holidays, etcetera.”

“The new variants, even the so-called ‘Kraken,’ it is an Omicron strain,” he said. “All the evidence would say there is still good protection against severe disease.”

That message – one Nova Scotians at the clinic take seriously.

Daniel Momberquette stopped by to see if there were long lines at the clinic. Discovering little to no wait, he chose to get his COVID-19 booster and his flu shot.

“I’d rather err on the side of caution,” he said. “I think people have fallen into a false sense of security about the numbers. Unfortunately, they don’t publicize the numbers as much as they used to and I wish they would.”

“I started hearing about more people getting infections, so I decided to get it,” says Leigh Martell. “I want to be safe and I don’t want to get too sick. I have two little kids at home that I need to take care of.”

Strang says flu season is waning but COVID-19 cases are on the uptick.

Nova scotia's latest respiratory report recorded 140 new cases of Influenza A, 165 of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and three flu deaths between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.

The province’s latest COVID-19 numbers show 73 people were admitted to hospital because of the virus over the two-week period ending Jan. 3, and it added 19 more deaths to Nova Scotia’s total of 694 lives lost since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Department of Health and Wellness has also confirmed that two cases of the new Omicron sub-variant -- known as “Kraken” -- were also detected late last month.

“I think it's fair to say that this is a more infectious variant that we've seen so far,” says infectious disease expert Dr. Matthew Oughton. “But that’s just about transmissibility,” he says.

“It doesn’t speak to the severity of the cases … and very clearly after the months and months of primary doses, of boosters, as well as to a certain extent, natural infection, we have a population that is more immune now than it’s ever been.”

“That’s not to say that this will cause zero disease, but I think it’s safe to say that the current boosters available to us will still continue to be effective,” Oughton adds.

Epidemiologist Susanne Gulliver remains concerned.

“When you infect more people, there's more infections, [that] means there's a greater chance of death and Long COVID,” she says.

The St. John’s based researcher at NewLab Clinical Research would like to see more data on COVID-19 made available to the public more often.

“It would be nice if the provincial governments gave out numbers on a more frequent basis,” she says. “People aren’t masking, and unfortunately, they need to be told to mask,” she says.

“This new variant, it’s the same ‘song and dance’ as we had with Omicron,” Gulliver adds.

Before the holiday season, several Nova Scotia emergency departments (ED) were dealing with record numbers of visits and struggling to keep up.

According to the province’s online reporting, average overall visits have decreased, but many emergency departments remain at or above 100 per cent acute care capacity.

In November, the head of the IWK Children’s Hospital said Nova Scotia was seeing extremely high numbers of children sick amid a "perfect storm" of respiratory illnesses.

Monday, the interim head of the IWK ED said there has been a slight reprieve.

“Overall, our volume has definitely gone down on a day-to-day basis,” says Dr. Emma Burns.

But she says the hospital is still seeing children sick with COVID-19 and RSV.

“We’re still seeing a fair amount of acuity,” she says. “We have a winter uptick every season … the difference this year was that the peaks coincided … they came earlier than expected, and they were larger than expected.”

“Just before Christmas, things felt really dire,” she says. “I’m glad to say we’re now in more what we would expect to see at this time of year.”

When asked what the post-holiday outlook might be, Burns says it’s difficult to predict, and that means precautions remain important.

“If you're sick, and you can, please stay home. If you're sick and you can't stay home please wear a mask, wash your hands, get any vaccines that are available to you,” she says.

Back at the vaccination clinic, Strang said it’s all part of dealing with the current reality.

“This is still evolving,” he said, “still lots that we need to learn.”

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/JspgKuY

[tramontane-fire]

So my earlier post, joking about the world ending with a hacky cough, that wasn't a joke.

Don't know how much medical news y'all read (and I don't blame you if it's none after the years we've had), but there's a covid spike like always this winter, a really bad flu season, and an RSV spike. RSV is a respiratory virus that mainly affects children. And by affects, I mean puts them in the ICU.

Every freaking shift, it's kids with RSV/flu/covid, elders from care facilities who are half-septic with respiratory infections, and sometimes healthy young people who just got unlucky and now have the pneumonia.

I am begging everybody to get their shots. Whatever excuse you have that does not contain the words "anaphylactic shock" is invalid. Get vaxed. Get the flu shot and the bivalent booster, available for free at a pharmacy near you.

Wear masks in indoor public spaces. I know we're all sick of masks but I'm sick of putting nebulizers on two-year-olds and calling in sepsis alerts. Skip events if people are going to show up sick. Stay home if YOU are sick.

And, if you're sick, or your kid is sick, know that in otherwise healthy people, most viral illnesses can be treated at home. Read the tylenol directions, bust out the humidifier, drink water and pedialyte/gatorade aggressively, watch a funny movie, and you'll feel better soon. Hospitals, urgent cares, doctors offices, and ambulances are beyond capacity. Do your part by staying home unless it's an emergency, so that the people having real emergencies are able to be seen.