Nov. 14th, 2021

arkessian: (headbanging)
I had a Pfizer booster on Tuesday, and wiped out the week.

My previous two (AstraZeneca) jabs were at my GP's surgery, which was brilliantly well organised (even if at one point the queue was halfway down the street, it moved very quickly, and -- as everyone in the queue was 'extremely clinically vulnerable' -- everyone was distancing and sanitising and wearing masks). It was also a benefit to be dealt with by a doctor that knew my medical history -- we had a good discussion about the balance of risks and benefits, and came down on the side of All of the Jabs!  I didn't have any reaction afterwards -- it was a non-event.

This time, I was only offered a slot at a (fairly) local Hall, organised by the NHS using local pharmacy staff and a doctor from the local hospital to oversee it, and volunteers from local organisations to manage the queue. Again, the queue was manageable, and when I asked, I was provided with a light weight chair that I could scuttle along on while I was waiting (quite a lot has happened between the original jabs and the booster, not least my SCA). Everybody was masked and distancing again, and they weren't mixing up people going for their first/second jabs with those going for boosters, which was a relief.  For the first two jabs I was steered away from Pfizer, given my history of anaphylaxis, but this time they have much more data to go on, and in discussion with the supervising doctor, I agreed to the Pfizer jab.

Woke up the next morning feeling as if I had been worked over with a 2 by 4 by a particularly aggrieved thug. Sore arm, chills, fevers, pain in every joint.  Paracetamol has helped, but it has taken until today to feel mostly human.

Until I look at the backlog of things I've not done, and then I just feel defeated.

arkessian: (Default)
Sherwood Smith The Phoenix Feather 1. Lovely, and I have number 2 in the stack.

I then diverted for comfort reading to Laurie R. King's Mary Russell series. I read the first few of these when they came out (a long time before I had an e-reader) and enjoyed them, but was constrained by reasons of shelf space, and stopped after the first 4. Shelf space is no longer a constraint, so I am reading my way though the series again. However, I'm not sure it holds up to serial binge reading. I need to interleave it with other stuff, so that my eyebrows don't climb into my scalp with the personas that turn up -- real and fictional (Sabine Baring-Gould, Kim, Dashiel Hammett, and I know not who else.) I suppose if I'm willing to entertain Sherlock Holmes (so to speak), other personas shouldn't perturb, but it does feel a little like ticking off a contemporary bingo sheet.

Next up? Possibly Sherwood Smith The Phoenix Feather 2. Or possibly (courtesy of a review by @Mrissa) A.K. Larkwood the Unspoken Name.