My Reaction to the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine
Is this pandemic over yet?
It must be as I am now one of the vaccinated.
I got the Covid-19 Johnson & Johnson shot last Friday.
The hospital had contacted me on Thursday.
Did my sweet endocrinologist get me some fragile patient list?
I am the most charming patient you will ever have, especially if you do what I want. He and I get along well.
I’d been hoping to land the one-shot J&J.
Who has time for two injections?
Ah, my chance!
The drive-through Cedars-Sinai clinic in the parking garage of the Beverly Center was an impressive operation. What a line of cars. They checked my identity several times, in different ways.
Could I have sold my vaccine appointment?
Do I have time to shop?
But then I remembered I’ve gained the Covid 25. None of my clothes fit. Funny how that happens when you eat all day. Best to work on getting back into them and rediscover my own wardrobe. I packed up the skinniest stuff during winter break. Looking at it was irritating me.
Besides, I had to get back home to Zoom in for class.
I have spent the pandemic going to school.
F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!
A few minutes after the shot, my face, tongue, and lips began to tingle as if I had a bee sting. My cheeks flushed red. I felt the itching on my thighs and arms.
Oh, what to do?
I left without mentioning it. I don’t recommend doing that.
I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. People like me have many allergic reactions, but not anaphylaxis, which is when it becomes life-threatening. I heard Dr. Afrin say that to Dr. Bluestein on a podcast. It might have been this one.
I’ve gone to the ER when I erupted in hives and my hands blew up like balloons. They told me I was hours away from death, but they attended to me swiftly so that was nice. My swollen face was downright theatrical.
I bet on this reaction not becoming that bad. I monitored my face swelling in the rear-view mirror.
I called Mr. Pennington to let him know I might have to pull over and dial 911.
“Well, skip the grocery store and just come home then,” he said.
My allergic reaction was waning as I pulled up. Good to know that LA traffic is back to normal.
Does that mean the pandemic is over?
I didn’t bother with a Benadryl pill when I got home because I f*cking hate that drug. But if you enjoy fatigue and brain fog, by all means, partake.
I associate my worst health declines with anticholinergic drug use. My sensitive brain tends toward fatigue and pain. It cannot sustain the brain-damaging effects of blocking the neurotransmitter (chemical messenger) acetylcholine. Those drugs work by inhibiting the parasympathetic nervous system. No thanks!
I do best when my wonky nervous system is supported, not further deranged. Activities that encourage alignment with circadian rhythms, which I will write about another time, are very powerful for me.
The night after the vaccine was one of the worst of my life. Chills, aches, nausea, sweats. Fever climbing to 101.3°. But nothing is worse than withdrawal from long-term use of Vicodin and morphine, those chills and aches. Keeps it all in perspective.
That night, my neck and sacrum throbbed with swelling so painful I could not stay lying down. Nothing had happened there, not today. Those are just troubled spots, severely affected by my EDS looseness.
I had agony there so bad for years and years that I begged to have my head chopped off, which why I needed all those prescription narcotics I mentioned.
That was a long, long time ago.
Before I began injecting Vitamin C every single day, starting in December of 2012. That reversed the trajectory of my inherited disease, making my body hurt less altogether.
Exercise is also a critical part of my healing. My sluggish body needs the circulation. Certain exercise turns the collagen over, strengthens it and heals. Note that is not accomplished in yoga or Pilates. Yoga is a dangerous amount of stretching (for anyone, IMO) and Pilates is nonsense where you work very hard on damaging the L4/L5/sacral junction with those dumb pelvis tucks.
You’ll have to sustain some impact and lift weights to stabilize and rebuild better collagen. Which I can handle, thanks to those C shots.
I should mention, I am extremely flimsy. Many EDSers are not as loose as I am and not as fatigued.
Still, I don’t have the easiest life. My body is high-maintainence and tends to be anxious and uncomfortable. But I never crash anymore. I live a full of life with stressful demands I can meet now.
Have you read my blog?
The night of the vaccine, I could not stay in bed for more than an hour or two. I’d get up and pace the house, wishing it were bigger, half asleep, taking care not to fall and get hurt.
Mr. Pennington was kind enough to escort me around and listen to me wail.
Pop a Perrier for me.
Find the thermometer.
We’ve been through a lot together.
The cat seemed confused by our interference in his “me time.”
I didn’t want to take a Tylenol or Advil. Why suppress my immune system reaction? That would be counter to the whole point of a vaccine.
So I suffered through it and finally slept in, in an upright position, until 11 a.m. Another thing about my body supported by intramuscular ascorbic acid is that pain goes away fast.
Later, my doctor said it’s the history of inflammation in my spine that my body was reacting to, the cytokine surge induced by the vaccine. Ouch.
Good news, my arm never hurt.
And I’m so happy I did not barf.
I was sweaty and weak, pale and cold for days after the shot. Exercise was a struggle. I did it anyway.
I had no appetite.
Good news, I am down a few pounds. Without even trying. Better get on the scale tomorrow.
I’m feeling like myself again.
I’m glad the vaccine is done, that I didn’t know how bad it might be, so I didn’t have to make an informed choice.
