the coronavirus diaries: week 92

I scheduled my Moderna booster shot (and flu vaccine) for Friday afternoon. I’d been hearing that lots of people have been getting sick with the booster, and, with the wedding barreling down on us, I knew that taking 24 hours off to be sick was maybe not the best idea, but I really wanted to get this over with before the wedding.  

So for two days prior, I busted my butt getting all the stuff done. I cooked ahead, ran errands, did chores, made the kids’ to-do lists for the following day and lectured the whole family about expectations. To my husband, I was very clear: even though I might be sick all day, you have GOT to keep things moving, I said. And then, hoping to get in a few hours of good sleep prior to the vaccine kicking in, I went to bed early. 

At around four o’clock in the morning, I grew restless and achy, but when I got up in the morning, I actually felt pretty good, all things considered. I had energy to walk to the bathroom, and I was hungry for breakfast. I popped some Tylenol and went downstairs to make coffee. 

My husband had just come in from milking. He felt terrible, he said. He’d slept horribly and had a wicked headache. 

You’ll feel better after your coffee, I said.

And that’s when he confessed: he’d gotten his booster the day before, too, just a couple hours before me. He wasn’t going to tell me, he said. His plan was to be all cool and unaffected, and then later, he’d tell me all nonchalant-like.  

HA. His little I’m-so-cool plan backfired.

BIGTIME.

For the whole day: chills, rattling teeth, splitting headache, nausea, the works. I wasn’t too hot, either, mind you, but I wasn’t that bad.

It was sort of funny, but I was pissed, too. He’d sabotaged my day! Instead of resting and babying myself, I was making him tea, covering him with blankets, and overseeing the kids’ chores while he shivered and moaned on his bed of pain. 

my mom sent over a little care package for the sickies

That night, my simmering temper finally erupted. I didn’t care that he got the vaccine — that was FINE, that was GOOD — but he couldn’t just sabotage my carefully-laid plans and squander a precious wedding-prep day and then act like everything was all peachy cute. 

To make the restitution I demanded, he spent the next day working double-hard and now marital peace has been restored. 

Plus, we’re boostered.

Yay.

***

P.S. Sunday night, he had chills and achiness again (and another horrible night of sleep), and he discovered that his lymph nodes under his arms were wildly swollen. Monday was much better, though he was still draggy. And me? I’m totally fine, go figure.

P.P.S. About the Omicron variant: “For now, vaccinated people can reasonably continue to behave as they were — but many should feel urgency about getting booster shots.” (New York Times) GET YOUR BOOSTERS, PEOPLE.

This same time, years previous: the quotidian (12.7.20), “take out the trash”, the quotidian (12.7.15), all sorts of bolstered, my kids are weird, raisin-filled cookies.

8 Comments

  • Thrift at Home

    I would be mad, too! But I like your solution (my husband would never go cooperate like that – ugh).

    I suffered with my Pfizer booster just about like I suffered with my first two shots and my bout of covid. Nothing Advil couldn’t handle. My husband experienced ZERO effects from his vax.

  • Elva

    I got my Moderna booster last Friday too, and as with the other two vaccinations, I was very lucky and had absolutely no problems. A few days prior, I had accidentally poked my eye, which was incredibly painful. When the vaccine giver tried to warm me about potential side effects from the booster, I told him that I was so happy that my eye had finally stopped hurting that nothing would bother me!

  • Jenna Guenthner

    Hey J! Just had my Pfizer booster. Neither of the first two shots bothered me at all. Less than 16 hours into this one, my whole armpit is huge! Not just in a swollen lymph nodes way, but in a whole-thing-puffy way.
    Anyway, I should comment more often. I love, love, love your posts. Read ’em all the time.

    • Jennifer Jo

      Aw, thanks! (My husband was horrified at the lymph node thing. If the pharmacist who gave me my vaccine hadn’t made mention of that side effect to me in passing, it would’ve been quite alarming.)

  • Marie Joiner

    We’ll, I’m sorry that happened, but it makes me feel better about the irrational and possibly ego-driven decisions my husband makes on occasion. As long as it’s really only occasionally and I’m a few days past the inconvenience, I try to just find the humor. And some gratitude for my two Xs! Thanks Dad!
    -Marie

  • Becky R.

    I felt horrible for 48 hours after all 3 shots, but I was glad to get them. I went with the rationale that if I felt bad, they must be working. Glad you are boosted! Men!

  • ccr in MA

    Oh, would I be mad at him! It never even crossed his mind to consider the possibility that he would feel bad? Yeesh. Still, glad that you’re both boosted and moving on.

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