Vaccines and therapeutics

[Jersey Girl]

I’m sitting in observation after my dose of Moderna. The whole drive-through suite feels like a party! Everyone from the nurses to the parking lot folks is in a happy, festive mood. As I rounded the last corner to the tents, I teared up with a rush of excitement, happiness and relief. I know it’s not over, but experiencing a scientific wonder like this is a rare thing for me.

Wow I can sure relate to that feeling especially with the first shot. I was a bit apprehensive but there was no way I wouldn't do it. Prayed all the way there and all the way back home again, tears included--part scared-part relieved. I think the thing for me was that the one solution we were waiting for all along for a year, finally materialized and it was actually happening to me. All that time and all those adjustments, trying to make the most of my time at home, getting weary of the wait and weepy some nights, the researchers, the volunteers for the clinical trials, the tireless work of health care workers...it was my turn to make a contribution to myself and others because all this time all I had to offer was a mask and six feet.

No, it's not over and if Americans would pull their heads out, educate themselves, and get vaccinated, we'd be moving the needle further and faster. YOU will feel that huge sense of relief when you are fully vaccinated. Yesterday we had family visit us at different times (Jersey Boy is post-op here) and for the first time in a year, I greeted them with no mask and hugged every one of them.

After dreaming of that moment for a year I finally got it!

Everything that happened last year is now coming up in my Facebook Memories. So I'm kind of reviewing it. Me weaving piles of potholders for self care, photos of visits with family with windows between us, howling at the moon in honor of the front line workers, scrambling for products and garden stuff, and folks reaching out to each other and me trying to help in the very small ways that I could, all of that is coming across my screen again. That's probably a good thing. I can process it, put it behind me, and also carry the positive things and lessons learned forward with me.

You devoted so much time and effort here to covering the pandemic and today was your day! I hope the only side effect you have is a sense of relief, RI! If not, then hang in there and tough it out, it won't last long!

[Res Ipsa]

Thanks, Jersey Girl. I think back to the very early days when people were talking about the average time to develop a vaccine. We had a type of virus that no vaccine had ever been developed for, and lots of time and money were devoted to a type of vaccine that had never been used before (at least in humans). Its hard to wrap my brain around the fact that I got a needle in my arm after hunkering down for a little more than a year.

As an aside, Sabin and Salk, the inventors of the polio vaccines are pretty well known. But I recently learned that one guy invented over 40 vaccines, including over half of the childhood vaccines given today. His name is Maurice Hilleman, and I'd never heard of him. Funny how that works.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/ra ... vaccinator

[Doctor Steuss]

I am now about 4 days post first vaccine dose.

No symptoms, other than the pain of them likely hitting my axillary nerve. I had excruciating pain the moment the needle was in that radiated down into my hand. It took about 3 hours for the pain to go away. Other than that, no PIP, and no symptoms.

I was really surprised, because vaccines (and just about every possible bug) knock me on my butt for a few days. I started getting the flu shot every year after I got the swine flu. The flu shot puts me out of commission for a few days, so I just make sure to get it on a Friday, so I'm good to go when Monday rolls around. It might be because of the difference in the science behind this particular vaccine verses the flu vaccine, or it might just be because this virus effects people in such unpredictably diverse ways.

[Res Ipsa]

The day after first dose of Moderna, my arm was stiff and sore, and I had a headache. A day later, feeling just fine.

[Moksha]

Can you imagine hearing more truth about COVID19 from China than the American President? This is from last May. The Chinese are full of propaganda, but still, they were more truthful. Yikes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JduHojB9CPo

[Jersey Girl]

So. Of course if weirdness happens it happens to me, right? I'm 20 days out from the second dose of Pfizer. I noticed in the past 4 days that one of my tonsils looks like I have tonsillitis (if you've ever had that, you know what I'm talking about) but I have no other symptoms of tonsillitis. Trust me, I know what that feels like. Fever, chills, achy sore throat, generalized feelings of yuckiness. I have none of that.

So...I started googling side effects just to go down the list again. One of the side effects is swollen lymph nodes and then...I came up with this.

https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2021/01/ ... -and-more/

So I am thinking that since I haven't had tonsillitis in 30 years, this is actually a side effect of the Pfizer vaccine. Oh and my tonsils are still hanging in there and doing their job.

[Gunnar]

So I am thinking that since I haven't had tonsillitis in 30 years, this is actually a side effect of the Pfizer vaccine. Oh and my tonsils are still hanging in there and doing their job.

You've got me a bit worried now! My tonsils are long gone, having been removed when I was a little lad of 5 in Norway due to tonsillitis, shortly before my family immigrated to the USA. I shared a hospital room with my father, who also also had a tonsillectomy at the same time due to tonsillitis. I kinda wish I still had them now!

[Jersey Girl]

So I am thinking that since I haven't had tonsillitis in 30 years, this is actually a side effect of the Pfizer vaccine. Oh and my tonsils are still hanging in there and doing their job.

You've got me a bit worried now! My tonsils are long gone, having been removed when I was a little lad of 5 in Norway due to tonsillitis, shortly before my family immigrated to the USA. I shared a hospital room with my father, who also also had a tonsillectomy at the same time due to tonsillitis. I kinda wish I still had them now!

Why do you wish you had them? Btw, it's all better now. What the heck? I didn't get mine out as a child because the family doctor we had (the kind that made actual house calls back in the day) told my mother to leave them alone and his theory was that if I caught viruses, the tonsils would catch that and the illness wouldn't go into my chest.

I never got respiratory illnesses as a child. Just tonsillitis and I would get it maybe once each year. So maybe he was right? Believe me, I know exactly if I am getting it, too, because I've had it so many times in my life.

Did you read the study at Stanford? It's amazing the research they are doing!

[Gunnar]

Why do you wish you had them? Btw, it's all better now. What the heck? I didn't get mine out as a child because the family doctor we had (the kind that made actual house calls back in the day) told my mother to leave them alone and his theory was that if I caught viruses, the tonsils would catch that and the illness wouldn't go into my chest.

I never got respiratory illnesses as a child. Just tonsillitis and I would get it maybe once each year. So maybe he was right? Believe me, I know exactly if I am getting it, too, because I've had it so many times in my life.

Did you read the study at Stanford? It's amazing the research they are doing!

Yes, I read the Stanford study in your link. Thanks! It was very informative, and part of the reason I think still having intact tonsils might be a net benefit. Of course, this is not the first time I read something about the potential benefits of keeping one's tonsils, however.

This reminds me of a story a friend of mine told about how he once told a young nephew of his about to undergo a tonsillectomy that the procedure involved removing his head to get at the tonsils to remove them, and then replacing his head, and that he should make sure he got the right head back afterwards. Following his uncle's advice, the kid asked to look in a mirror when he was in recovery, and then threw a fit because he was sure he got back the wrong head! The hospital staff and his parents had the hardest time calming the kid down and convincing him he still had his own head. You can well imagine the wrath of kid's parents and the hospital staff my friend incurred against him for that little tall tale.

[Jersey Girl]

Well Gunnar does what my childhood doctor said ring true to you? It makes a lot of sense to me but of course I'm not a medical professional. I don't know...I never got respiratory illnesses in childhood.