You may recall that a few years back I made fun of S for getting poison ivy for the 90th time since we began dating. I bragged about how I had never gotten it so I must not be allergic to its oils.
Within two weeks I wandered into a whole mess of poison ivy vines, had sores all over my body, couldn’t sleep because of the itching, went on steroids to stop the itching and then couldn’t sleep because of them, and soon had my first major Afib episode.
You’d think I would shut up about such things.
When I went in for my annual checkup last December I got my first shingles vaccine. When I got home S yelled at me.
“You’re an idiot. I’ve heard that’s the most painful vaccine out there. I’d rather deal with shingles than go through that.”
Keep in mind that she has had bad reactions to other vaccines, where I generally just get a sore arm for a few hours. Still, I thought calling me an idiot was a little harsh.
My arm was indeed tender for a few hours but I had no other issues. I even trash talked a couple friends who got stomped when they received their first shingles shots.
Shingles shot #2 was Monday at 9:00 AM. Again, some arm soreness but otherwise I was fine. Twelve hours after my shot I gloated to those same friends that I had once again skated without any side effects.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
An hour later my head started to hurt. As did my legs. I planned on getting up early today to take L to the gym before school, so I figured I might as well go to an hour earlier than normal and sleep off whatever these pains were.
Within another hour my entire body hurt. I tossed and turned for hours. My headache got worse. I got up to go to the bathroom around 1:30 and was nearly floored by intense nausea. Soon every one of my joints was aching. There was no position in bed that was comfortable because whatever body part I put weight on screamed out in pain.
At 5:30, when I was supposed to get up with L, I came downstairs to eat some cereal so I could take some ibuprofen. I had to hustle onto the couch as another wave of nausea hit. Eventually I choked down the cereal and the meds and tried to get comfortable on the couch. I squeezed in 20-ish minutes of sleep, bringing me to a grand total of maybe three hours for the night. S checked on me on her way out the door. She had the grace to not make fun of me.
I haven’t had a reaction to a vaccine like this in at least 20 years. With that track record, you can see how I might brag about my body’s resilience.
Luckily I had nothing pressing on the calendar today. I’ll skip the gym and my planned trip to Costco. Over the past hour or so I’ve started to feel a little better, so hopefully if I can get a nap in I’ll rebound by the afternoon.
My apologies to all of you who I have mocked over the years because you had a bad, short-term reaction to something that was going to protect you. I now literally feel your pain.