Once More Into the Fire

[daidoji_gisei]

I've just gotten back from my third rabies shot.

I'm feeling better about this than I was on Monday. By Tuesday morning the side effects of the Sunday shot were pretty much gone, so I now have an estimate of how long I have to put up with this shot's effects. Also, tonight I'm supposed to hang out with a cassandra_e, and tomorrow night is my gaming night, so I won't be sitting alone in my apartment with nothing to distract me from the pain. Generally speaking I'm ok with living alone, but there are times when it is a distinct disadvantage. These are the kind of times I envy my married friends the most.

Yesterday's tetanus shot went smoothly, btw. Both the doctor and Cheryl were certain that I was almost certainly not at risk from the alleged bat bite: their teeth are too small to create an actual puncture wound. (This, I guess, is the dubiously-silver lining to their ability to give you rabies without you knowing it.) The doctor was more than happy to give me the shot anyway, because a) I was up for a renewal regardless, and b) they have started packaging the whooping cough vaccine with the tetanus vaccine for double public-health goodness. I am now immune to two and a half diseases. Five and a half, if you want to count the measles-mumps-rubella shots of my childhood. (Which I got a booster to in the early nineties when UNL had a measles outbreak--I was pretty sure my shots were still good, but the vaccine was free and I'd just started being a Girl Scout leader: I didn't want to the person who spread measles from the UNL campus to the Lincoln Public School system.)

At any rate, my shot took place about 45 minutes ago, and I can already feel some weakness and tenderness in my right arm. Clearly, I am not going to be scooping cookies today! But that's all right--yesterday while reviewing the OSHA regulations on Personal Protective Equipment I realized that our oven mitts qualify as PPEs and that my overhaul of our policy document was going to be more extensive than I first thought.

Comments

[akaihyo.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I had so much blood drawn when I was in the hospital following my pulmonary embolism and afterwards that I never want to see a medical needle again. Not that I liked needles even before that experience . . .

Glad that you are weathering the shots fairly well. This is the last one, yes? Good luck.

[daidoji-gisei.livejournal.com]

No, I have two more: one on Day 14 and one on Day 28. And thanks for the good wishes!