Pandemic: Life on the ground

[Jersey Girl]

An attempt to return to topic.

I'm getting the 4th shot on Tuesday. A couple of weeks in advance of a trip to Florida. Will report on side effects if only for my own documentation here. Third shot knocked me out for, I think, 4 days.

Enjoy your trip to Florida! I hope your fourth shot isn’t too brutal. I will probably get Moderna this time. I don’t even have an appointment yet.

All my shots have been Pfizer. Same thing this time. All I really had was significant fatigue akin to returning to altitude on the last shot. If I'm following correctly, I think that by fall they'll have approved a generalized Covid shot for us.

Thanks for the well wishes! My trip is a long time coming. My sis moved there and I haven't seen her in 4 long years. I'm going to finally see Sanibel Island which I've wanted to see ever since a student brought me a bag of cat paw shells 20+ years ago! Shelling is my number one- hands down- no contest favorite thing to do on the planet. Can not wait to bring home a suitcase full of shells and ship my clothes back. I'm completely serious.

[Chap]

Just for the record: I have had three Pfizer shots so far. None of them bothered me much at all, and I think that is the experience of the great majority of people of all ages.

Not a very interesting thing to say, I know, but the fact that the people who talk and post about it are the mostly the ones who had a bad time gives a very false impression, and puts people off getting vaccinated.

[Jersey Girl]

I haven't got my 4th booster yet, but I probably will.

It has been a while since I last double masked, but I still mask when I go into a public establishment with a lot of people. I have found a brand of N95 mask that is actually quite comfortable to wear, and much less prone to fogging up my glasses.

California cases and hospitalizations are still declining, and the positivity rate when I last checked it has dropped to 1.6%, so I feel fairly safe going around without a mask most of the time. I know there is still a potential for another surge due to the latest variant, but it doesn't seem to have started in California yet.

I thought there would be a surge after spring break, but I'm not seeing it and I think we should be seeing it by now. I continue to mask indoors (went out to eat twice with no mask recently) and of course will do so on my flights. I have the N95, surgical, and pretty cloth masks (Vera Bradley and one tartan) with filters for when I want to look nice. Makes me feel better to double mask with the cloth masks even though they have filters.

I'll report back on the 4th shot. As I said in a recent post, I think by fall there will be a general Covid shot available and that will be our mainstay for years to come just like the seasonal flu shots. I don't care how often I have to be vaccinated for the rest of my life. A few days of fatigue is well worth it to me and sure beats the alternative.

[Jersey Girl]

Just for the record: I have had three Pfizer shots so far. None of them bothered me much at all, and I think that is the experience of the great majority of people of all ages.

Not a very interesting thing to say, I know, but the fact that the people who talk and post about it are the mostly the ones who had a bad time gives a very false impression, and puts people off getting vaccinated.

All mine have been Pfizer, too. The only thing I had was increasing fatigue with each shot. Hang out at home for that time and then good to go.

Yes, we typically hear the extreme stories when most of us have little to no side effects at all. I had stated previously that we had 2 family members who were vaccine hesitant for over a year. One of their peers got the Delta variant and was extremely debilitated and on supplemental oxygen when he got the Omicron variant. That scared my family members into getting vaxxed. Then...a week after the first shots, they came down with Omicron but weathered it nicely with no complications including one who is at high risk.

Whew!

The vaccines are well worth it to us as individuals and to the communities we live in. I, like so many others, thought there would be a mad scramble to get vaxxed but apparently the tin foil hat news won the day enough to sway approx. 40 % of America's eligible vaccine recipients. As I continue to watch the trackers, I daily see that folks in my state continue to get their first shots so maybe the alarmists and conspiracy theorists didn't win after all.

Thank goodness!

[Jersey Girl]

So...I wasn't going to mention this out of a sense of vanity, but we're family so I will just do it if it might help someone out there. About 4 years ago I got derma filler in my cheeks and a tiny bit for frown lines between the eye brows (the infamous 11's that run in the family). The products were Voluma and Boletero--both hyaluronic acid injections that stimulates collagen production. Anyway, it was conservative but I really liked it and it lasted well over a year. The frown lines never returned.

I wanted to do it again this past summer but Omicron had other plans. Fast forward to now...I decided I would do the cheek filler before my upcoming trip because that'd be a treat and made an appointment. When the FDA approved the 4th shot, I jumped on it. Then remembered uh oh...better recheck the delayed inflammatory response side effects I had heard about during the pandemic for folks who use derma fillers.

Though it is only rare cases, folks who mix hyaluronic acid injections with Covid vaccines can experience an allergic reactions which manifests itself by swelling of the areas in which the fillers are used. These are resolved by steroids.

The current advice is 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after the vaccinations. So...no cheeky stuff for me since it would be cutting it too close and with my luck, my face would start puffing while the plane taxis down the runway at Denver International Airport.

Anyway, a bit of information for those who are like minded or know someone who is. Best not to take the chance and just wait it out a bit.

I'm not sure if this applies to Botox. Should probably look that up since I have a family member who gets Botox for chronic migraines.

[Res Ipsa]

An attempt to return to topic.

I'm getting the 4th shot on Tuesday. A couple of weeks in advance of a trip to Florida. Will report on side effects if only for my own documentation here. Third shot knocked me out for, I think, 4 days.

I have an appointment for Friday

[Jersey Girl]

An attempt to return to topic.

I'm getting the 4th shot on Tuesday. A couple of weeks in advance of a trip to Florida. Will report on side effects if only for my own documentation here. Third shot knocked me out for, I think, 4 days.

I have an appointment for Friday

Good on ya! Were you Moderna?

[Res Ipsa]

Great Britain is at it's second Omicron peak in terms of hospitalization, which is just as high as its first peak. That's the B.a.2. peak. As of 3/26/22, the CDC estimated that around 55% of active Omicron cases in the U.S. are B.a.2. This is the way waves work -- at the Omicron peak, almost all of our infections were Omicron. As transmission of Omicron started to decline, B.a.2. was starting to ramp up. But because of the extreme difference in the amount of cases for each variant, The rise of B.a.2. has been masked by the decline in Omicron cases. When the total weekly increase in B.a.2. cases exceeds the total decrease, the infection curve bottoms out and starts to rise again. That has happened in a number of states over the past week. The CDC estimates that almost 70% of new infections in my region are B.a.2., and over the past week, our rate of new infections has turned around and started to rise.

If England, which has higher vaccination rates than the U.S. is an indication of what will happen in the U.S. (and it was pretty close with Omicron round 1), then we're about to repeat Omicron round one, only without masks, social distancing, reduced public building occupancy, etc. All we have are vaccines and a much deteriorated surveillance system.

[Res Ipsa]

I have an appointment for Friday

Good on ya! Were you Moderna?

Yes. If I can, I'll boost with a Pfizer.

[Kishkumen]

All my shots have been Pfizer. Same thing this time. All I really had was significant fatigue akin to returning to altitude on the last shot. If I'm following correctly, I think that by fall they'll have approved a generalized Covid shot for us.

Thanks for the well wishes! My trip is a long time coming. My sis moved there and I haven't seen her in 4 long years. I'm going to finally see Sanibel Island which I've wanted to see ever since a student brought me a bag of cat paw shells 20+ years ago! Shelling is my number one- hands down- no contest favorite thing to do on the planet. Can not wait to bring home a suitcase full of shells and ship my clothes back. I'm completely serious.

Sanibel Island is lovely. I enjoyed the trip, and, yes, there are really cool shells there. If I recall correctly, there is a shell museum somewhere in the area. It was well worth a visit, according to my vague recollection. I love the ocean. Nearly went to school in South Carolina to become a marine biologist.

I hope you don't get hit with a lot of fatigue. Lately I feel like every day is fatigue. It's probably just depression, but depression and my actual COVID case--I ended up getting it when my last booster was past its prime--have combined to make for a pretty grey few months.