Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (176)
October 16, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 199: A brief vaccine timeline starting Friday night.
* BOOSTED! Tiny poke, felt like nothing.
* 4 hours post-vax. Arm very mildly sore. Top half of body feeling mildly seedy but well within my normal range of “feelin’ terrible on a Friday night”.
* 15 hours post-vax. The bones in my entire right arm were pretty sore, my right hand hurt the worst. Tylenol helped ease most of that aching but I definitely felt like Kipo with her giant arm.
* 18 hours post-vax. Oh no I feel terrible. Generically terrible. Achy, tired, maybe nausea but can’t tell for sure, no longer happy to be upright, put myself back to bed for a bit.
* 24 hours post-vax. It’s distinctly weird to feel so sick but knowing you’re not sick. JB and Smol Acrobat have been told that we’re basically sick so y’all need to listen and help out. Smol is, of course, no help at all. JB is insisting on minding Smol so we can rest (with one ear listening).
* 32-38 hours post-vax. I woke up every hour drenched in sweat and then shivering minutes after removing blankets. Body couldn’t decide between hot and cold. Gross and annoying.
* More than 48 hours after the latest COVID vax and we’re pretty much good now. I think all the stuff going on today (aches etc) are entirely down to my usual health nonsense. It sucked but being out of sorts for about two days is so much better than coming down w/actual COVID for days and weeks.
A lot less of this arm thing going on today, for which I’m very grateful:
In exciting news, our blackberry bush arrived today! We freed it from the box, JB welcomed it with a watering, and I’ve been reminded that our normal weather is wind, wind, and more wind. I’d better get to repotting these two babies sooner than later, the blueberries have been knocked over three times already and the wind only just came back yesterday.
Year 4, Day 200: What a hard day. Work is inundated right now and I’m scrambling to cover as many bases as we can with what resources are available but they’re all stretched thin.
I’m stretched too thin at home, too. School dropoff, school pickup, and after school class are all routine and squash my day. I was already tired. Then we had to swing by the ortho visit and get JB’s thing installed so that put us further behind. Their discomfort and distress was manageable until we got home when they were especially clingy and needy. That would have been fine but Smol Acrobat decided to see that as a competition/ challenge and started demanding separate and equal attention. The kid who demanded group hugs this morning was offended by the ask to share my hugs this evening. Of course. Their bickering continued through dinner. Brushing teeth turned into a half hour ordeal as I had to help pick out all the food stuck in the appliance. I can handle all manner of ear gunk and dog yuck but this grossed me out. I’ll have to tighten the appliance nightly for two weeks as well. It’s part of our parent deal. I handle dental care because PiC can’t handle it and he handles all vomit and swim stuff.
Both kids are sniffly, sneezing, a cough here and there. I’m eyeing my antivirals thinking, do I take them now? Am I feeling sick or am I just extra fatigued?
*****
The tragic killings in Gaza and Israel are horrific. Anything I would say is deeply inadequate, my heart simply hurts for the families caught in this terrible conflict.
Year 4, Day 201: It’s time to start reading up on Open Enrollment again. I have a couple weeks to make some decisions. We’ll keep our HMO plan, no cost changes this year, and max out the FSA / Dependent Daycare allocations as usual. I have to decide when we need to change our vision and dental plans. We missed the window for orthodontic coverage for JB this year. We’re expecting a second treatment all the adult teeth are in so we’ll have to be alert to when that rolls around and upgrade to the premium plan ahead of time.
*****
So much household stuff today in addition to the usual school drop-off and pickup. Laundry, cleaning up, loading the dishwasher, swapping out gross old pillows that can’t be revived anymore with the new ones I got on sale. It feels like a bad week to be doing ANYTHING extra because I already overloaded the week with two big items: JB’s ortho care and their eye appointment. I’m tapped out already and we still have days to go.
Year 4, Day 202: Smol’s fever hit in the middle of the night. PiC fielded the first two rounds, a wake up and a night terror two hours later. The second night terror hit at 430 and I took that one, sending him off to bed. I remember JB having nightmares and being sick but they were more rocklike. They’d need me to hold them until they fell asleep, then I was usually free. Smol Acrobat requires a whole lot more getting up in the middle of the night. Multiple times. I felt that telltale tickle in my throat by morning as well, and started my antivirals in hopes of holding it off.
Just like with money, margin makes all the difference in time and health. Having more margin means being able to handle one more thing in the mental load, or stretch to one more sleepless night. This week has zero margin. Last week, I worked on improving my sunscreen habit, putting it on sunscreen every time I go out, to keep my rosacea in check. This week, that mental load shifted to JB’s dental care – I haven’t remembered to sunscreen all week. This week I can’t work late to catch up because Smol will need me at some point. I can’t afford to work late AND get up too early and depress my system enough that I get sick. It’s simply not in the budget.
Year 4, Day 203: Friday food review! Chicken fajita night: I only like chicken fajitas if someone else made them. Salmon: I’ve been baking salmon wrapped in foil about once a week lately, I think it’s becoming a regular item. Smol usually eats it like gangbusters (don’t jinx myself don’t jinx myself). I started pondering switching to parchment paper, but I set tortillas on fire in the toaster oven so I was done for the night. On Thursday I diced chicken into the tiniest of pieces to make chicken porridge for JB. PiC also brought them home a large pot of chicken noodle from Costco. We are awash in soft foods.
Water bottle goodwill: I got to repay the universe’s random assistance fund. PiC has unknowingly lost Smol Acrobat’s water bottle on their bike commute and had kind strangers notice, rescue it and flag them down. Today I saw a little kid’s water bottle fall out and roll into the street, right as I was saying goodbye to JB. The kid knew not to run into the street, they were yelling to their grandma that their water bottle was rolling down the street, and I was able to hop out, grab it before it’d gone a full car length and give it back.
Three weeks ago, genius that I am, decided that 4 pm Friday was a grand time to have JB’s eyes checked. Three weeks ago Me was cruel and/or foolish. We were there for two hours all told after a long day, at the end of a very long week. It is as if the Hope-Crushing Horde stampeded my SOUL.
I like your concept of budgeting your energy and time in a way that accounts for the big picture of what you have to/want to accomplish.
I have not encountered the notion of tightening dental appliances – yikes!!!! That is a superpower that you can handle it.
If picking out food is going to be a regular thing, maybe a water pik might help? I know they’re not cheap but doing that for long doesn’t seem sustainable.
With chronic fatigue, you’d think I’d be better at the energy budgeting but I’m still learning š
That whole course of tightening the appliance was nerve-wracking, so poorly designed!
I’ve been thinking about the Waterpik since you suggested it and keep debating whether it’s going to turn into a big regret (because it’s basically a hand held water gun in the hands of an eight year old š¬)