I have often recalled the old saying "The sight of the gallows has a remarkable power to focus the mind." Even though I often remember that saying, I can still be surprised when MY mind encounters a physical direct issue. Today, fortunately, it was a good issue -- what to do AFTER I finally got a covid vaccination (Pfizer, yesterday).
One of my local friends (who handled covid related proposals to NSF before her retirement) also got vaccinated yesterday, and warned me:
Paul,Absolutely no acting "normal" for at least 10 days after the 2nd shot when we should be 95% protected.
I have wondered: what IS the best way for us to act in the day and weeks right after the shot?
It all seemed pretty simple to me yesterday. They handed out lots of paper, which I took. Luda and I walked home, three miles, in sunny open air. After a slight change of clothes and washing hands, I sat down to read what they gave us. It didn't say much we hadn't seen already, except for giving us a CDC web site to get their latest information on the Pfizer vaccine.
It was reassuring to look through the list of about ten possible side effects to watch for, most of which were already impossible for me after the three mile walk. But what about "fatigue"? That one reminded me of how people can construct all kinds of fables in their mind, like the hysteria Freud treated in his first real money making work. But I really did feel tired, maybe because of the walk but maybe more because of the vaccination?
It seemed pretty obvious what I should do. If my body said to rest, I should rest. This is a very special day, a bit like Easter, a special time. If my mitochondria have a whole lot of reconstruction work to do, I shouldn't be like one of those crude dumb bosses who gets in the way of the folks doing the work.
BUT HOW LONG SHOULD I REST? How long do the mitochondria take to respond to the new signal from the messenger RNA injected yesterday? If it's "near instant" (a day? three days?),
why wait three weeks and ten days, as you suggest, based on what medical people seem to be saying? (The papers they handed us certainly did not say, but they did encourage us to stay alert for that kind of time period.)
Luda suggested a picture... maybe it is only a day or three for the mitochondria to start pumping out proteins which REPRESENT proteins that might threaten the cell spikes where covid enters. So maybe the three weeks plus two weeks is all about the good old IMMUNE system learning ITS response, as it would be with a more traditional type of vaccine. So after the first one to three days (?), are we simply called to help our ordinary immune systems somehow?
We talked a lot before about MODELS of covid processes, but I don't remember the kind of model which would really sharpen or clarify what WE should be doing ourselves in this period!
In old times, when my goal was to help my immune system kill off a virus, I would take antiviral tea, rest, and make sure I had the right moderate level of food, enough to feed the immune system but not overwork the digestive system. Showers, mouthwash, fresh air... whatever moderate degree.
But Luda has told me that the SECOND SHOT is needed because the immune system may find it TOO EASY to kill off the simulated bad protein, and thus NOT LEARN what it needs to learn.
The goal is NOT to destroy the simulated protein as soon as possible, but to LEARN. So we are called to prolong and strengthen the learning process, not to make it easy. (That reminds me of what teachers and education systems have to do, and what some folks say God does with US.)
So now, today, should I plan to act more normal than I was planning to yesterday, when I thought about rest?
Not entirely. After all, I do not want to weaken or distract my immune system from learning
the lessons right in front of it TODAY.
And what about those mitochondria? This will not be the last we hear about THEM!!!!
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Three weeks ago, when we last walked miles for a covid vaccine (not administered, managed in a more chaotic place), I was DEEPLY disappointed. In the early morning in bed, the time I trust most, I had built up a vision of that day being like a personal Easter, to go from vaccine to walk to deep rest. It failed so badly, and disillusioned me! But yesterday was a lot like what I had envisioned that other time, more like Easter than any day back then could be -- birdsong, flutes, sunlight in many directions, great breezes and pleasant nature smell, mostly a walk through forest by Four Mile Run (a stream used by George Washington in old times). So the loss was only a normal, necessary time delay.
In addition to covid, quantum annealing and UN response to "existential threats" (from climate change to Terminators) also created thoughts and impressions in the early morning today. But I will try NOT to distract my immune system by overdoing it today. While my immune system does its thing, my brain and soul will lightly dream about what it might mean to "herd cats" when they sound like 10**300 big Schrodinger type cats, remembering and smiling down on all the mitochondria below.
Best regards,
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