I received my AstraZeneca jab against Covid-19 on Wednesday lunchtime. It was a pleasant walk to the inoculation centre – basically not much more than going round two sides of Cheltenham College (gothic main buildings and attached playing fields). The sun was out but snow was in the air, fine dots of white that danced around and stung our faces with cold. Fortunately, the wind was strong and blew the snow away before it could land so the road and pavements remained dry and not at all slippery. Almost half a million people were vaccinated today in the UK, par for the course in recent days but an even more impressive figure when you consider that about half of those jabs are done in areas where snow falls have been heavy and where roads, with much reduced traffic, must be treacherous. Yes, I know, we’re weather wimps in the UK but that’s because we never have enough extreme weather to merit investing in appropriate but expensive equipment which would lie unused for 50 weeks a year.
Boy’s T shirt with beetle appliqué (Protorhopala sexnotata, family Cerambycidae, subfamily Lamiinae) Hand embroidered by Mary Addison
Jab plus five hours I started excessive and dramatic shivering. We piled on blankets and I hugged close a hot water bottle, scarcely registering it as hot. The shivering took a couple of hours to die down and at that point I realised I had classic flu symptoms – headache, aching muscles and lethargy. Waking in the night I was very dizzy and fell over. A day mainly spent in bed later, I woke this morning with a red rash all over except for hands and feet. This comforted me somewhat as for years it has been my classic reaction to flu like viruses. It starts with little pinpoints of red and these then join up until I’m pretty red all over and at this point I’m usually on the way to getting better. Still, I’m not complaining if this stops me getting the real thing. And anyway it seems, from reading the information sheets that my reaction is far from unusual as up to 1 person in 10 reacts in a similar way and it is not abnormal to feel unwell for up to a week!
Embroidered long horn beetle, Protorhopala sexnotata, family Cerambycidae, subfamily Lamiinae )Hand embroidered by Mary Addison)
Lethargy is taking me over once more, so I leave you with this wonderful long horn beetle from northern Madagascar, Protorhopala sexnotata, a species in the family Cerambycidae and subfamily Lamiinae. In reality, it is a glorious orange red colour but white where I have used blue thread or revealed the underlying blue fabric of the T shirt .
6 Comments
Love the beetle!
Good to know that you’ve been jabbed and are on your way to being protected from The Great Plague!
Can’t say I like beetles much in real life but pretend ones flat on a T shirt seem quite acceptable!
Nuturing of antibodies well on the way – I hope.
So sorry to hear about the after effects – when you mentioned the rash I immediately thought “shingles” just because I was chatting with a friend who DOES have shingles, and is quite uncomfortable! Glad to hear you are taking it easy, but I certainly hope it doesn’t last a week.
Great beetle, especially the scratchy legs and antenna.
ceci
Not shingles – had those! I think it’s my own personal barometer rash that just appears when immunity challenged. No doctor has ever shown the slightest interest in it and it never develops into anything terrible!
Glad you like the beetle!
So happy for you that you got that vaccine, and what a glorious beetle that is. I have always been impressed by those animals even though I have only seen them pinned in museums. My sister’s whole family got “Covid shingles” as a long term side effect of the virus, so your rash sounds like an acceptable price to pay to me. I hope you feel better soon.
Yes, Amara, side effects of the vaccine are so much better than getting the virus itself, not to mention the additional possibility of long term side effects.
How horrible for a whole family to be affected and for goodness know for how long.
Glad you like to beetle – fun on a T shirt, not sure I’d be happy to encounter them in real life!
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[…] companion intolerant of wishy washy additional colour in the form of appliqué and embroidery. The royal blue T shirt I made for my grandson had a vibrant orangey-scarlet beetle and if frequent wear reflects approval, it’s certainly […]