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Friday, October 11, 2019

A long week



I started my week with a flu shot, the one with the extra kick for seniors. This year the shot was at the drug store. I don’t remember last year’s, except it might have been at the drug store, in conjunction with the pneumonia and the second shingles (I think) shot. Completely benign.

This year’s shot was radically different. As the needle sunk into my upper arm, I felt a cold line travel down my left arm and into my second finger. Then the icy spear went down my left leg, across the top of my foot and into a toe.

When I returned home, I fell on the bed and slept several hours. I’ll try the shot one more year, and if the symptoms repeat, I’m off the shot for a couple of years. How well I remember about ten years ago, when the flu shot put me back in bed for five hours a day, many days in a row. This year it's put me to sleep a couple of hours a day.

We played cards again on Monday, the first time in a month. The church was so busy with one thing and another, plus a new player joining, a date change, all the usual kerfuffle of summer’s end and fall routines commencing. We played hearts.

I making myself focus closely; this season I want to have no episodes of my brain taking a wander in lala land. No excuses, no mistakes. Well, no mistakes that affect the other players. I believe I made it through. I lost by a lot.

The pots of bulbs were watered every time the mandevilla were watered. The water that ran through and out left brown stains on the drive. This was the same dirt that I used last year, without driveway stains. A mystery.

It has been a lovely, warm week, but tonight is the end. Daytime temps tomorrow will be twenty five degrees lower, in the mid-fifties and rain all weekend. We may miss the harvest moon.


This house makes me smile. It's down the street from me.


 And this may be the end of the mandevillas for this season.

47 comments:

  1. I wonder why the flu and shingles shots gave that reaction? Did you call the pharmacist or doctor?

    that bike in the front of the house made me smile. What it put there on purpose?

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  2. Hari OM
    I think the mandys have done well getting to mid October! Father has had the call for his flu jab. I noticed he was not altogether jumping at thoughts of that. Suspect last year's cough and sniffle were a direct result of it and he is anxious for that. YAM xx

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  3. I read a thing today about how, if you do get a reaction from a flu shot, it shows that it is working properly- that your body is making antibodies to the killed virus which is what it's supposed to do although sometimes it is more dramatic than others. So. That may be good and may be showing that your immune system is working well. I hope so.

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  4. a cold front blew through here this morning, is still blowing through, and it's 53˚ out there, down from 74˚ this morning when I got up, 90˚ or 91˚ yesterday. not going to get too much colder though but I had to put on jeans to walk the dog! and it was a brisk walk too. this is winter weather. what happened to fall? I'm still not getting the flu shot.

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  5. I have heard similar things to Ms Moon, though your reaction sounds too quick for that. I do hope the effects are short-lived and your body adjusts.
    Love the camoflagued bike at that house.
    Hunker down, and stay warm.

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  6. Maybe you have an allergy to something in the flu shot.

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  7. If you go to Google and type in 'Houses that look like Hitler' it is worth the effort.

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  8. Wow that is a very dramatic flue shot. I'd have been alarmed, such a quick reaction.

    I love the bush and the bike, quite a statement.

    XO
    WWW

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  9. I have had friends who have had similar reaction to the flu shot this year. I have not yet gone in for one though they are FREE, hard to pass that up! Not sure I will get immunized this year.

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  10. I had not heard of the feeling right after the flu shot of cold traveling down your leg to your toe. I had my first flu shot in ten years last month, and didn't have any reaction to it. Let's hope they work.

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  11. Yikes - not sure I'm looking forward to getting my jab after all! That is a very weird thing to have happen. I wonder if the needle just happened to hit a nerve or something like that. But still.

    We've had fall here since the last weekend of August. It's sad - we went straight from hot, humid weather to cold and frosty. I LIKE autumn; I want a re-do! lol

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    1. by which I mean I like our usual autumn weather, not the stuff we're getting

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  12. How odd that the flu shot affected you that way. We hardly felt it at all and had no reaction. We got it at CVS too which was very convenient. On the other hand, the Shingrix shingles shot got me tired for about 3 days.

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  13. I'm having my flu shot tomorrow and hope it will not have that effect on me! I've never had a bad effect yet. I get mine at Click's (now Acme) and they give you a coupon for $5.00 of food along with the shot. I hope you feel much better tomorrow!

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  14. We all hate the flu shot in my family but it is a necessary evil with two kiddos in elementary school and my wife who works in a pediatric clinic. Hope you have fully recovered from your shot. We also had a dramatic drop in temps here and I am hoping it's over for a bit but the weather has been a little crazy over the past few months so who knows. Take care.

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  15. Unusual reaction for a flu shot. I might mention it next time I get one and ask possible causes/reasons.
    It will be sad to see the last of the mandevillas, but you'll have some again next spring and summer. I'm going to look around for those "shepherd's crook poles" next time I'm at my local garden centre. I'd like to hang a few baskets of things above my jades.

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  16. Hubby got the "extra" senior flu shot this year. He had some aches and pains that he thought might be related to it. Some of his employees that got the "regular" flu shot complained of feeling itchy around the site of the shot. I get mine on Tuesday. I don't usually have any reactions so we'll see. That is a big drop in temperatures over the next few days. Usually accompanied by illnesses. Oh the joys of fall and winter.

    betty

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  17. Love the pictures of the house and flowers. Hop you're feeling better today.

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  18. Everyone keeps telling me I'm stupid and irresponsible not to have a flu jab, but I never have, and won't until I begin to think that actually catching it would finish me off. I had flu for the 2nd or 3rd time in my life around 2008 and lost around 20 pounds and I'm thin to start with.

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  19. I understand why you smile at that house, they can put some other things in there that used to be and now no longer.

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  20. The shots have always been benign for me.

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  21. I don't like the sound of that flu jab. Did you ask your doctor why it felt that way?

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  22. I get the extra flu shot every year and, thankfully, have never gotten a reaction. Next time you see your doctor, you might want to discuss your reactions with her/him.

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  23. Sorry to read you have such a flu shot reaction. I will take note when I get my shot if I feel a reaction to the senior's flu shot. Each year the news reports are scarier about the flu. I stay indoors even more and others I've talked to do the same during flu season.

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  24. I don't like the sound of that flu jab, I think I'll give mine a miss this year! As soon as I feel I'm getting a cold I squirt "First Defence" up my nose. So far so good!

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  25. We haven't had flu shots for years. We take massive doses of Vit D from the first of September and rarely get sick all winter.

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  26. Maybe the pharmacist grazed a nerve when he gave you the flu shot? Doesn't sound pleasant.

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  27. Oh dear Joanne that flu jab sounds a tough time. Fortunately it has never affected me like that and having had flu albeit many years ago I don't want that again. Hope you're feeling much better now. I have had a delightful hour reading back on your blog, the photographs of your parents and relatives could have been mine!

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  28. I agree that your reaction to the flu shot was very odd... soreness around the site, maybe slightly feverish or down for a day or so can happen, but that immediate reaction was strange. As long as you're OK now is good... but I would mention it to the doctor at some point. We don't get the Senior flu shot - just the regular one. It has worked well for us so far.

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  29. My mother had a flu jab when in her eighties...it made her so ill that she refused all others but never had a bout of flu for the rest of her life.

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  30. I have had the odd reaction to shots.

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  31. We got the senior flu shot for the first time this year. After reading about how bad it's supposed to be this year, I'm pretty happy about that. The pneumonia shots sent me to bed for an afternoon.

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  32. I hope you can ease into winter. There is suppose to be a season called fall that eases into winter but it's not very reliable.

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  33. Your body's reaction to the shot was a curious one. -good to read that the shooting sensation didn't hang around.

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  34. Flu shots haven’t started here yet. It is in my future too. My husband refuses to have one, preferring to take his chances with the viruses.

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  35. I used to get acupuncture. It sounds like that needle hit a nerve bundle. In acupuncture that could be a good thing - sometimes, not always. For a vaccine, not so much. Have to question the competence of the person giving the jab.

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  36. Strange how vaccinations affect people quite differently. I had several vaccinations as a child and in recent years I've had several flu shots and a shingles shot. None of them had any after-effects whatever. But beta blockers - I can't tolerate them at all.

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  37. Probably a dumb question: But can you take them inside? yes, I lie and tell the nurse I am not allergic to Eggs. Which I am. This year the shot gave me instant itchies, and so I am off eggs for the year.

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    1. Yes, I could bring them in. Sadly, they are bigger than my apartment, and would severely tempt the cat. Better to give them an honorable burial and begin afresh, next May.

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  38. We finally got a little cool weather this weekend however, it is supposed to warm back to the 90's next week - blah. I got one flu shot years ago and reacted badly so, I just skip them now adays.

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  39. I have yet to take the flu shot/pneumonia vaccine/shingles shot....members of my immediate family had problems with reactions to it so I just decided to give it a miss....I just hope I won't be sorry later.

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  40. That doesn't sound very pleasant… I've just had the 'flu jab, too and as always my upper arm is now twice as big as it was. It's apparently a reaction to eggs and wears off in a day.
    Meanwhile I'm free to worry about everything else…...

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  41. I have only had a flu shot twice in my life and got really sick both times. The last time I had the shot because my dad was so sick and I did not want anything to get in the way of being able to visit him. Shortly after the shot, I had shingles! Could not see him in any event, then. I had the pneumonia shot with no problems, not even sore at the injection site.

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  42. Your mandevilla plant started my obsession - have you over-wintered yours? I did last winter and it thrived this year. I am waiting for the flowers to stop before I cut it back. Such a lovely plant. I am really on the fence about the flu shot. I am going to get the two-part shingles vac because I know too many people who have had it and I would rather have a mild case, if I have to get it at all. Fall is definitely here (and there).

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    1. I just told Mage I could bring them in, but won't. You do tempt me, however, to try one. I'd try the red plant; this one bloomed beautifully and it's the first red to do so.

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