Oh, I am so sorry and hope you are on the mend quickly.

My director was out all this week with a "cold"..till she tested positive yesterday.

They think it came from her daughter's first days in kindergarten.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:

SK, Did you have any other side effects other than migraines? I got chronic fatigue after my second booster.

Not SK here, but I seemed to get a mild case of pericarditis after my booster. Bit of a problem with an arrhythmia. Both have subsided over time but aren't entirely gone.

It's always possible to get the same types of vaccine-associated problems (cardiovascular issues, chronic fatigue, long COVID) if one actually gets sick with COVID. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I've posted about some of the studies that are just coming out that are providing data to help us do an informed harm/benefit analysis.

Very sorry to hear about your heart issues, wtg. Do I understand from your message that you got them (and more) from the vaccine?

And that it's a known (even fairly common?) side effect from the vaccines. If so, I hadn't heard anything about that.

I somehow missed your previously posted info comparing vaccines and covid effects. Glad to get the heads up about this very useful news.

A bulletin helping us arrive at informed cost/benefit regarding choosing vaccine vs the known evil of Covid itself, is invaluable.
What would we do without you as our informant? Much appreciated!

(PS How was the pericarditis diagnosed? Do I understand you hadn't had arrhythmia before? Hope both cardiac symptoms disappear completely - ASAP.)

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
So do I, but alas, it's already worse. I now have a fever! My wife had one for about three days, so I'm mentally (not physically) prepared.

Very sorry to hear this news, PD. That (now gone) sense of being bulletproof, is a good warning - something for me to take to heart.

Hope you get over it, ASAP! Thus making you semi-bulletproof at least in your healing.

How are you feeling, P*D?

It's still fairly mild. A very low-grade fever returned last night -- easily dealt with using Aleve.

Today, I'm just experiencing the usual scratchy throat and runny nose. I haven't had many of the other potential symptoms. The achy "I don't want to move much" went away after day 1.

I will be teaching remotely on Tuesday, of course.

quote:

It's still fairly mild.

Glad to hear this!!

How many days in are you? Three?? Maybe you're almost done with it.
/fingerscrossed!

I guess this is day 3. I started feeling it Thursday night but it really hit on Friday.

Once again, if this is the average experience of Covid, we'll be thinking of it as a normal part of life five years from now. The sensible among us will get the annual Covid/Flu booster (I'm sure they'll be combined at some point), and the needle phobic and politically motivated among us will shun the booster.

This isn't a pleasant disease, but I've had worse. The problem is that this is very contagious, and can do real damage to a vulnerable segment of the population (like the flu).

quote:

Once again, if this is the average experience of Covid, we'll be thinking of it as a normal part of life five years from now. The sensible among us will get the annual Covid/Flu booster (I'm sure they'll be combined at some point), and the needle phobic and politically motivated among us will shun the booster.

This isn't a pleasant disease, but I've had worse. The problem is that this is very contagious, and can do real damage to a vulnerable segment of the population (like the flu).

I mostly agree with this.

With one exception: it is not at all clear to me that the only people likely to get long covid or other lingering complications are those members of a "vulnerable" group... Either that, or, we don't really have a good definition of vulnerable or a good understanding of exactly who falls into the vulnerable category and who doesn't.

These unknowns are what makes me much more cautious than you.

I am not "afraid" of getting the flu myself. Partly that's because I have been getting a flu short for years and haven't actually gotten the flu for many, many years. So to me, the flu and the possible risks from the flu for me personally feel very much like a known entity.

I can't say the same about covid. And, not to be negative, esp. since you are still in the recovery process, but you wrote:

quote:

This isn't a pleasant disease, but I've had worse.

But I think you don't actually know this yet, at least not with certainty. I don't think you or anyone else who's had covid can make a statement like this until you are at least several months out (if not more) from it.

And let me add, I do sincerely hope that where you are several months out from, you can come back and said "told you so!" to me and still feel that this bout with covid was no big deal!

quote:

But I think you don't actually know this yet, at least not with certainty. I don't think you or anyone else who's had covid can make a statement like this until you are at least several months out (if not more) from it.

Yep. Sure enough. But people get "Long Flu" and "Long Pneumonia" as well. But we are more afraid of the new and don't fairly consider all the older diseases out there that have the same (or worse) effects on us long term.

Also, long Covid seems quite associated with the severity of the illness. Surprise surprise, that's also true of most diseases. It's hard to fully recover from big bad systemic attacks that nearly kill us.

Coronavirus FAQ: What is Long COVID

There is so much we don't know about cause and effect.

There seems to be a correlation between MS and Epstein-Barr, but not everyone who has EBV gets
MS.

Some people get chronic Lyme problems. I had Lyme three years ago and no lingering effects.

Or maybe Lyme was lying in wait and my heart blips were somehow triggered by getting the COVID vaccine. Or having had mono back in college. Or maybe they were a direct result of the vaccine (it appears to be a side effect in some people). Or maybe not related to any of those things.

We simply don't know.

With respect to COVID, I've decided to take advantage of the precautions and treatments available to me, and that I'm comfortable with. And then move on with life.

P*D:

quote:

But we are more afraid of the new and don't fairly consider all the older diseases out there that have the same (or worse) effects on us long term.

I am certainly afraid of the new -- because I already know what I've got (a chronic condition - migraine) and at this point, I don't have any reason to think I'm going to get any different/new problems from the old (e.g., the flu etc.)

Now, btw, "afraid" doesn't mean I'm paralyzed with fear (I sometimes think American culture has an overly negative view of fear, but like stress, a fear about certain things is normal and probably healthy)

WTG:

quote:

With respect to COVID, I've decided to take advantage of the precautions and treatments available to me, and that I'm comfortable with. And then move on with life.

WTG do you still wear a mask indoors, like at the grocery store? ETA: what other precautions are you still observing? (not including vaxxing/boosters)

AFAIC, I am moving on with life. I'm back to working from my campus office 100% (yay! this is already helping my work/life balance!) I'm teaching in-person (have been for a few semesters, so this isn't new).

At the same time, I'm still taking way more precautions than most people I know: masking indoors (excluding my home, my office), masking while teaching, not eating in restaurants. Those are the main ones, other details that might look like "taking precautions" (like the fact that I haven't been on an airplane etc) are mostly coincidental.

But at this point, I'm not really sure when I'll feel comfortable teaching without a mask on. Not any time soon...

ETA: what I would like, however, is for masking to be treated more as one normal thing people do (I don't mean by WTFers, I mean by people in general). I don't see that happening though, at least not in this country.

People have different risks they face, and different attitudes toward those risks. The answer that is right and feels good to one person may not apply to another person.

I have certain risk factors, like age. But I have none that are Covid-specific.

I will take newer vaccines as they come on line, happily. But I do think we're entering the endemic phase and I won't let the possibility of long Covid keep me from living as I see fit. I don't let the prospect of severe long term issues from other common diseases (flu or pneumonia) affect me either, beyond doing the usual precautions. That reminds me, I think I need the pneumonia vaccine!

We do go out to restaurants. We fly (masked). I do still tend to wear a mask in grocery stores because ... tradition!! I haven't gotten out of that habit. I'll continue teaching without a mask -- I guess I'm reasonably immune for the rest of the term.

I know that even with precautions, I could get COVID.
I worried a lot about getting it when it first showed up in our lives, but these days the prospect doesn't keep me up at night.

We are taking the same precautions you (SK) are. But for us the only real change in how we live day to day compared to how we lived pre-pandemic is that we mask when we shop. We have never been travelers, and we fell out of the restaurant habit well before COVID.

We're just a couple of social pariahs, we are.

Masking isn't much of a problem for me, but I also don't have to do it for long periods of time. I don't know what I would do if I had to interact with people as frequently as you and P*D do. My gut feel is that I'd probably keep masking.

Let's face it. I'm basically a chicken.

eta: I cross-posted with P*D.

quote:

People have different risks they face, and different attitudes toward those risks. The answer that is right and feels good to one person may not apply to another person.

This.

quote:

Let's face it. I'm basically a chicken.