Viral Resurgences, Vaccines to get, Precautions to have.

@danielle Hoping you are feeling better soon and that the effects dissipate quickly!

@jsr78 Sounds similar to our reactions - some sleepiness and sore arm. Hope you are feeling back to normal soon!

There isn't a lot of information on what to do regarding boosters if you had Covid recently. I had my one and only bout with Covid while out of town in July, and don't know if it was .4 or .5.  I have found only a few articles about whether this booster would be practical for someone who had one of the recent targeted variants.  I did read an article that said to wait for three months before getting a booster, but is it something I should do if I had the targeted variant?  

Not sure anyone actually knows.  

Getting Covid when out of town is not fun, but I am glad it was a mild case and so far, long covid isn't much of an issue.  There  might be a small one, I am still monitoring myself.  A few "weird" things I question every now and then but nothing major at the 2 month post mark. 

@lovendures 

The information out there is scant, to say the least.

If it helps, I consulted my sister-in-law - she's not a doctor, but she got COVID a few weeks before my husband did. She is also a bone cancer survivor who has taken EVERY precaution imaginable up until this summer. Her husband came down with it in July in France, but she didn't get it til now. She contacted her doctors, of course.

The word she got was that it is OK to get the updated vaccine 2 weeks after you test negative at home, but she was also told it is OK to rely on your new antibodies for 2-3 months (but not past that) beyond testing negative.

So since I dodged the bullet (well, not so much dodged - I used 2 full new cans of Lysol in 3 weeks), I got my booster last Friday. Hubby has decided to wait til late October and get it with his flu shot.

Hope this helps.

@april 

By Saturday dinnertime, was feeling better (I took a 3 hour nap, which helped).

Woke up Sunday morning to "normal".

I got my bivalent COVID booster yesterday. 

It's been more than 24 hours now and the only reaction I've had is a *slightly* sore arm. And that's almost gone. No fatigue or other ill feelings.  Wow.  In contrast, I got the flu shot last week and my arm was noticeably sore for several days. 

 I didn't have much of a reaction to the second booster either.  I think my body has seen so much COVID vaccine and bits of floating COVID virus by now that it just says "Oh yeah, that stuff, no biggie, we got it covered."

We have a trip to Disney planned for Christmas so while I"ll be getting the Flu shot in a few weeks at work I'm saving my bivalent COVID booster until around Thanksgiving since I had it recently and I want very much to make sure I am as protected as possible before heading to that phallic peninsula with ding-dong Desantis as governor.

@dannyboy hope you have a great time- but remember, Florida weather can be unpredictable in December, so be sure and dress appropriately 

@dannyboy 

Good luck. I lived in FL for 4 years and I continue to refer to it as "pestilential" since I lived there. Respectfully recommend you all mask up in crowded spaces and rides, especially indoor rides. Bring lots of Purell too.

*My hubby got COVID by walking around Pike Place Market in Seattle unmasked - it is mostly an outdoor venue *

@dannyboy Are you driving or flying?  If driving, you should make a stop in North Florida to see actual real nature stuff.  And UnkP is right about the weather.  You never know.  It could be 85 or it could be 40.  (Or less.  When I first moved into my unheated artifact of a house, it was mid-December and it went down to 15 degrees F and snowed.  My roll-on deodorant froze on my dresser.)

It finally got me. I avoided getting covid for 2 years and I got it a few days ago. My parents went out for lunch for the first time in ages on the weekend and were in an enclosed space. About 2 days later my dad was ill then my mum and then me. First two days I think were the worst. But we all have had aches and pains fever and chills. We are still getting that on and off and are taking pracetamol (tylenol) every 4-6 hours which seems to help somewhat.

My dad was nearly going down the route of the antivirals which they only offer to very select patients, but they didn't get back to him with an answer for a few days and now he says he feels that he doesn't need them as he feels over the worst part, but the hospital has said he can still have them if he feels worse again.

We all had flu earlier in the year in February/March despite having the flu vaccine and were all extremely unwell. This doesn't feel as bad as that, but still nobody would want it. I think my mum so far has had the worst symptoms - she has had pains in her head and back and has a metallic taste in her mouth with everything she eat and drinks.

At the start of the infection, I made sure we had some zinc and vitamin c lozenges since there was a pubmed article I remember reading that said zinc can reduce the viral of the coronavirus at the start of infection but whether that has helped I am not sure. I have also taken my weekly dose of Vitamin D3 (20,000 IU) which I have to take to keep my Vitamin D levels optimum as per instructions from my hospital because of my gastrointestinal problems. Hopefully that may have helped also. But most importantly we have all had our covid vaccines and boosters but that was sometime ago, but hopefully that still has helped strengthen the immnune system. 

We were all due to have our flu vaccine but we will have to delay that now because of covid.

Keep safe everyone.

@luminous   I wish you and your family a swift recovery!

I missed all the replies to my post :-) 

@unk-p - Yes, though the weather in Michigan is the most unpredictable in the country so I'm feeling confident I'll crack the code to keep us in 2 suitcases vs the "whole house" approach my wife likes to employ :P

@laura-f - noted!  It's just such a weird time to be alive.  I'm not looking forward to being in the magic kingdom with a mask on, but you're absolutely right - especially in Florida!

@ana - we drive.  I lived for Japan in a year by packing two suitcases.  My wife can't seem to spend a weekend at my mother's an hour away without packing everything in the house and squeezing it into the back of our Jeep, so... given the costs of baggage, driving seemed preferable.  If we have time we will definitely look for the real nature stuff :-)

And - not a reply to my post, but a shoutout to our amazing @luminous - I hope your recovery is swift and uneventful.  I took my bout of it this summer as an omen that I needed to take advantage of the time to really rest and prepare mentally for another pandemic school year.  Please take care of yourself and get better!

@dannyboy you said you missed replies. )-: Was that because you didn’t get an email notification that you were tagged? Praying you will say you did get them. If you didn’t, I want to troubleshoot that for you. Could you reach out to me via email so I can fix it?

@jeanne-mayell Ope!  I often (but not always) unsubscribe to replies as many of them come in while I'm at work, and it distracts me (even though it's a very welcome distraction!) This is one of those threads.  My comment about missing my replies is because I try to come back and check in but I forgot I posted in this - probably because the bulk of my post was just me making fun of DeSantis vs anything profound, exciting, reflective, or nurturing.

Posted by: @dannyboy

The bulk of my post was just me making fun of DeSantis vs anything profound, exciting, reflective, or nurturing

so was my response to your post- the link that i labeled "dress appropriately" was just a pic of somebody wearing a rainbow colored speedo and a Santa hat.   Hope you have a fun trip, my friend!

@unk-p OH! I didn't even see the link!  I was "man reading" which is what I call survival summarization.  Now I'm giggling all over again!

@laura-f 

Went with my boyfriend to get his vaccine and got 8 free tests. Was told to get 8 more every 30 days.

@ghandigirl 

That's good. I tried to get some free tests but was told our insurance doesn't cover them and they're not free anymore. So I just bought 4 instead to replenish the stock we depleted with hubby's illness.

Marburg, a deadly and highly infectious disease, has been detected in Equatorial Guinea.  WHO identified one confirmed death and 8 suspected deaths of this hemorrhagic fever in that country which until now had never had a case.  16 other cases are likely.

Cameroon, a neighboring country,  has detected 2 suspected cases

Currently, there is no anti- viral treatment or vaccine for Marburg.

https://www.insider.com/marburg-virus-who-confirms-outbreak-in-equatorial-guinea-2023-2

Three young grizzly bears in Montana that were euthanized last fall later tested positive (In January) for the highly contagious bird flu, fueling fears that the virus that has killed millions of poultry in the last year is rapidly spreading to other animal groups. We already know many different land and sea animals have gotten the virus including dolphins, otters, raccoons, mink and foxes.

The bears were disoriented, had begun to go blind and were euthanized as a result of their poor condition.

It is feared that as animals emerge from hibernation, the virus is likely to become more widespread among other animal groups.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/us/grizzly-bears-bird-flu.html