Covid Pain and Brain Drain

Howdy Y'all.

I've been trying to write all morning. I can't make my brain work. I've just gotten the second dose of the Moderna Covid 19 vaccine. I'm not able to function well.

Maybe I ought to have heeded @MarcDeMesel's ideas on vaccines and loss of autonomy.

However, I live in an area where the average age of the population is 75 plus years. I also have some medical conditions and bad habits that deep me squarely in the group who are more susceptible to having serious complications after contracting Covid-19.

I have diabetes.

Though my blood sugar is well controlled with medication, diabetes is at the top of the list after age for probability of severe complications. My immune system asking with my entire endocrine system is impacted by diabetes.

I have Hashimoto's disease.

This causes hypothyroidism (not enough thyroid function) and affects my immune system.

I am a long-time smoker.

I don't smoke a lot compared to others, about 1/3 of a pack a day, but smoking is smoking and it weakens my lung function and overall immune system.

I am overweight.

This last condition is related to the diabetes and the Hashimoto's disease. It's also genetic. I was relieved to discover this when I took a 23&Me DNA test. My doctor likes to say, "You can't fight genetic."

All of these reasons, as well as wanting protect the more vulnerable members of my community, led me to the decision to go forward with getting vaccinated.

The first dose causes severe arm pain, localized to the injection site, joint pain, and brain fog. I'm uncertain of the brain fog was caused by the vaccine or by the stress of the pain. Either way, I couldn't think straight for about a week.

I knew going in that the second dose would be worse.

It has proven to be the case. The pain in my arm moves up through my neck. I have a severe headache, a sore throat, and a dry cough, along with exhaustion, intestinal troubles, nausea, and joint pain.

Is it any wonder I'm having difficulty stringing three words together in any sensible way?

I had editing duties today for the publication The Bad Influence over on Medium. I had to read, edit, publish, and promote stories submitted to our Thrifty Words micro stories theme challenge. I had to write the introduction to the roundup story where we gather all of the week's submissions into one article.

I managed to do all of this, but I'm not sure how well it came out.

I started and deleted and started and deleted articles for read. cash about 18 times.

I finally decided to just write whatever popped into my head without worrying about readability, the message, if it has value or not.

What you are getting is raw, unedited, uncensored me. I apologize if it isn't up to my usual standards.

@CryptoMax

and

@Pantera have been very supportive and encouraging today, so I want to give them a shout out here.

I hope this fog and pain only last a few days. I hope to see you soon!