Nature’s punishment

Yesterday, I had my second and final shingles vaccine jab. Today? I. Feel. Awful. I know that this is isn’t unusual, just typical post-jab crud. In fact, this is probably only Number Three on my all-time yuckiest post-jab Hit Parade. Basically, I feel flu-like—tired, a little achy, and fever-like (I don’t actually have a fever), and the injection site hurts like a mofo.

BUT: This time they gave me a post-jab flyer from the Ministry of Health talking about most common yucks and what to do about them. For what I’m feeling, they say, “Because paracetamol or ibuprofen can interfere with your immune response to a vaccine, only take them for relief of significant [the boldface type was in the original; I guess they must mean it…] discomfort or high fever.”

I’m well aware that post-jab crud is an indication that my immune system is responding, and that’s both exactly what should be happening, and a very good thing. But I feel truly awful.

I felt okay up until evening, when everything started getting worse. I was in bed by around midnight (which by my standards is still evening…). At around 3am, Leo decided he wanted to go outside, even though I made him go outside right before we went to bed. At that moment, he was my demanding four-footed flatmate, not my much-loved and cherished friend and companion. It took me the better part of ten minutes to get myself to sit up, get out of bed, and lead him to the patio doors. Leo stood and watched me.

I gave him about ten minutes outside, while I considered taking some paracetamol, but the flyer’s words were ringing in my eyes, and I couldn’t work out how to define “significant discomfort”. I just had a glass of water (one of the flyer’s recommended things), and then had to whistle for Leo to come back inside (dogs like to stand around and sniff the air, which Nigel said was them “reading the neighbourhood newspaper”).

We went back to bed (me under an additional blanket), and we got up about 7 hours later—ten hours in all, including the interruption. As a result, I feel rested, but also awful. I feel a rebellion coming on: At some point soon, I’ll defy the Ministry of Health and take the damn paracetamol! Well, probably not: I’m a lousy rebel, and besides, it’s been a bit more than 24 hours since my jab, so it should start improving “soon”, without chemical intervention. This 2-jab vaccination costs everyone except 65-year-olds $700+, so I want to give it the best shot, so to speak, of giving me immunity to shingles. Like I said, I’m a lousy rebel.

Early this afternoon, I was feeling sleepy and tired, somI decided to have a nap. An hour or so later, I woke up, mainly because I had to go to the loo (all that water I’ve been drinking must be returned eventually). At the time, I felt a little bit better.

Unfortunately, that was the high point of the day, because the achiness became a more noticeable part of the flu-like symptoms. I surrendered at 9pm: I finally took some paracetamol in the hope it would take effect before I go to bed. I hope it does.

Fortunately, this sort of thing doesn’t happen to me very often, but every time it does happen, I wonder why I put myself through it. The not getting sick or dying from preventable diseases is my “why”, but right now it’s very difficult to remember that.

Update – July 24, 2024: The paracetamol took effect a couple hours after I took it, and I did feel better. However, I was worried the yuck might return, so I stayed up long enough to take another dose. I slept well enough last night—which kind of surprised me considering how much sleep I'd had during the affliction. This morning, I felt pretty much okay-to-good, and I only put it that way because I felt so washed out after the ordeal. Oddly enough, that feeling aside, I probably felt better than I have in weeks.

Still, I got absolutely nothing done yesterday or Monday evening, and even I was surprised at how much I had to get done today just to catch up. The important thing, really, is that the post-vaccination crud has ended.