choosing illness now over worse later

vaccinations are a good thing

I wanted to write a newsletter this week, as I recognise I’ve been patchy of late. I think this will continue for a few more weeks, so here’s a glimpse of what’s been happening for me.

When I was pregnant, I was tested to see if I had had chicken pox in the past. All pregnant women are tested as it can be dangerous to contract chicken pox while pregnant. My mum had told me that I’d had a very mild case when I was a young child, so I was surprised when the result was that I hadn’t had chicken pox before. I was careful during pregnancy; it wasn’t long after birth that the pandemic hit, so everyone else was careful too. Now that I’ve returned to work and my children are going to a preschool, I decided it was time to get vaccinated. Unfortunately, the boys were both too ill to receive it when we finally had an appointment. This turned into a fortunate thing, though.

Last week I had the chicken pox vaccine. Within hours my mind was cloudy, and I was starting to struggle to perform at work to the standard I would expect. I wondered what was happening and assumed that I was experiencing some confusion related to my reaction to the vaccine. I was not expecting that within a couple of days, I would be experiencing one of the worst fevers I can remember having. For two days, I took paracetamol, drank lots of water, slept, and nothing else. The third day was my partner’s 50th birthday. Thankfully I was well enough to travel and sit at a venue. However, my temperature continued to spike for three more days.

My friends who remember having chicken pox tell me that if my skin wasn’t on fire from itching, I had a better time than if I had actually had chicken pox.

I have to have a second dose six weeks after the first… The boys are yet to have their first…

Recently I blogged about An Extrovert’s Journey Away From Oversharing over on WordPress.