Whenever I travel, I do a lot of laundry before I go: if I die on my trip, everyone will have clean clothes for awhile. When, years ago, I’d first find out I was pregnant, I’d thoroughly clean the toilet, knowing that soon I (2) wouldn’t be able to do it and (2) would have reason to greatly appreciate a nice clean toilet to throw up into.
My Covid-19 booster shot is tomorrow, and I am doing laundry and cleaning bathroom floors. I am so glad to be getting this shot, and I am also nervous. From what I’ve seen/read/heard, the absolute best is to MIX the vaccinations—so although I got Pfizer for my first and second shots, I’m getting Moderna for my booster. I’m nervous! I’m nervous. I’ve seen a lot of things about Moderna side effects. For Pfizer, too, of course, and I DID have side effects with Pfizer: basically a day and a half of feeling very crummy and also depressed. I normally do the bulk of my housecleaning on weekends; I might not feel up to it after my booster shot, so I’m doing it now.
I thought about skipping the bathroom floors and the laundry, because Edward has been sick and I am sort of wrung out. He’s the one with Crohn’s disease, and his immune system is suppressed, so I have been worried about him more than anyone else during this pandemic. Meanwhile my fellow townspeople have been vigorously protesting that vaccines/masks affect ONLY THE PERSON GETTING/WEARING THEM, and probably VERY NEGATIVELY, so both should be left to INDIVIDUAL CHOICE. They have threatened and yelled at the school board until the school board ruled that masks are completely voluntary; my kids wear them, and a few other students/teachers do, but most people don’t. “Close contact” has been redefined, so that no one can meet that definition unless their seat is on another student’s lap. Vaccines are not required, even though many other vaccines (polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps, whooping cough) ARE, and we did not have widespread resistance about those. The school, which has an ancient HVAC system and the town keeps voting against spending the money to replace it because for some reason that’s a decision for the popular vote, keeps talking about how they are doing their “Covid-19 cleaning protocols” LONG after we’ve been VERY CLEAR on the idea that disinfecting surfaces does nothing about Covid-19.
Anyway, on Thursday morning Edward had a fever. It wasn’t a terrible one: 100.9. Sometimes he gets a small fever like that as a symptom of his Crohn’s disease; we’re supposed to make a note of it and let the doctor know at his monthly IV medication infusions (which he had to postpone because of the timing of this particular fever), but typically it’s not a big deal—just something to write in his file so we know if it’s getting better/worse. He stayed home from school, and the school nurse said he couldn’t come back the next day, either, and also that he would need either a negative Covid-19 test or a doctor’s note to come back on Monday. Well, even his specialists can’t know/say for sure that a particular fever ISN’T anything. So I took him to get a Covid test.
I don’t know about your area, but in our area this isn’t super easy to do, even after nearly two years of this pandemic. Most drug stores say they offer drive-through Covid tests, but it’s by appointment only; and if you try to get an appointment, you will find none available same-day, and sometimes not available for days afterward. I called the pediatrician’s office to ask for help, and they said there was a parking-lot drive-up site 35 minutes away, but that it closed at 3:00, “so I’d leave now, if I were you, because they stop testing at 3:00 and anyone still in line is sent away.” It was 12:30. We left now. We did get the test. This was 30 hours ago. We don’t have a result yet. It’s been almost two years of this pandemic, and we are still lucky to get test results within two days. For two days, we make decisions (should Paul and I go to work? should the other kids go to school? how much should Edward be isolated from the household? should Edward get the medical treatment he may need if he’s positive?) without the crucial information we need to make those decisions.
Meanwhile Edward’s fever went up to 103.8 for part of today, and that was when he still had an hour left before he could take more acetaminophen. He has developed a cough. His fever has since gone back down to the 100-point-something range, but for a few hours I was poised to take him to the ER—and maybe to the ER of the children’s hospital in the big city where he sees specialists, rather than to the ER of our local hospital, since it is likely he would be admitted. Hey, do you know the kid who sits next to him in one of his classes has been out with Covid? Edward is not considered a close contact, despite sitting one not-at-all-socially-distanced desk away, so the school did not let us know. Edward wears a mask every day, but the other kid doesn’t; Edward has had three shots of the Covid-19 vaccine, but because he is immunosuppressed, maybe none of them worked. Mask-wearing and vaccinations, as the school has been forced by parental pressure to assert, are a personal and individual choice that affect only the individual, so luckily we don’t need to take that other student’s positive Covid-19 test, or vaccination status, or mask usage, into account when deciding what to do about Edward.
We have put Edward off by himself in Rob/William’s room; we are lucky they’re not home so we have this space. I am going up and down the stairs many, many times, bringing him things, checking on him, taking his temperature (101.3 at most recent check, and that’s fully medicated). Then I cycle laundry, and go back to my computer and refresh my email. Still no test results.
This makes me angry and worried at the same time. I hope the test is negative, I hope it is a fluke fever, and I hope everyone stays well. Hope you have some medicinal chocolate available.
This is so stressful. Sending all of my positive thoughts and do update when you get results! I’ll be thinking of you guys.
It’s all so awful. Taking my kids out of their crowded city schools this coming week and feeling your stress and fear. I’m so, so sorry and hope Edward takes a turn for the better soon.
Jesus this country is such a clusterfuck. I hope Edward is OK. I’ll be thinking of you guys.
This fucking pandemic.
Do you have urgent care near you? I stayed home from work when I started having a cough went to urgent care and they tested me for strep, and a combo covid, flu a, flu b, rsv test and I had results within an hour. And thankfully was negative for all.
Oh Swistle, this is all so bad. I hope Edward is negative and his fever disappears and you’re able to get your booster tomorrow. You’ve all been so careful, this is infuriating, every damn bit of it. All my good thoughts for you!
Oh. That’s terrible. I mentioned before, but we are homeschooling this year because I foresaw what you are describing in your town happening in mine. For the moment, and with cases exploding, the state has mandated masks for schools. But I am also a troop leader and we had a girl scout meeting the others day and, let me tell you, I was forever reminding about 1/2 the troop to pull up their masks and I took some of them to the sink to wash their hands and HOLY HELL TWO YEARS INTO A PANDEMIC AND THEYRE AWFUL AT IT.
The worst.
I hope Edward is AOK. And that you’re booster goes smoothly.
That’s crazy on many levels. My pediatrician in Chicago has rapid tests that are ready in 15 minutes while you wait. They do the test first, and by the time they take your vitals and the doctor does a quick exam, it’s ready. They have walk in hours 7 days per week. Why isn’t that available everywhere?
There are rapid tests pretty readily available even in my area, but they give too many false positives for vaccinated people, so the school/doctor want the PCR.
We had a kid exposed and did a rapid test and PRC test on the same day (day 5 post exposure, kid was cranky but no fever and never was sick) – rapid test so we could stop quarantining kids in the same house and PCR to go back to school. Got a negative rapid test in 30 minutes. Positive PRC one week later. We exposed too many people between test dates.
HOWEVER – the rapid tests are pretty accurate when people have symptoms. I’d take him in for a rapid test ASAP so you know what you are dealing with. Your care team may want monoclonal antibody treatment which is best if given early. Or it’s something else and maybe antibiotics are needed.
This must be so nerve-wracking and infuriating for you. Fingers crossed for him and for you.
Do you have any friends in town who might be hoarding rapid tests? I had a day when my seven year old started screaming that her throat hurt, and I checked every drug store in town before thinking to ask a coworker, and she had one and I will be grateful to her for that forever. (Turns out, the seven year old’s throat just hurt because she had been screaming at her sister previously about something else.)
Regarding the booster…I got Moderna and my nurse explained to me that it’s a smaller dose, and I did not have hardly any side effects. Neither did my husband. My mom got a “third dose” instead of a booster because she is higher risk, and did have more side effects, but not terrible ones. So hopefully that’s mildly reassuring.
But mostly just hoping Edward will feel better soon.
We do have rapid tests available, but they give too many false positives for vaccinated people. The school requires a PCR, and that’s what the pediatrician wanted, too.
The over the counter rapid tests (if you can find one), are really accurate if you’re negative. They tend to have a higher false positive rate, but if Edward were to be negative from an over the counter test you could be pretty certain he doesn’t have Covid. Maybe that would help with the decision making part at least while you wait for the PCR results.
This is good to know. I knew they were not reliable in the sense of giving false positives, but I hadn’t realized they were at least good for accurate negatives.
This is not true. Rapid tests are not more accurate for negative results. Also vaccination status does not impact the accuracy of rapid tests at all. I work in vaccine research. Let me try to explain.
The home test kits and rapid tests done at centers work similarly. They look for virus protein in the sample. A person needs a high virus load to test positive. So people without symptoms often test negative using rapid tests, even when they are infected – non symptomatic people may have a lower level of virus in their nostrils at the moment you take the test. This is why if a person has symptoms when you sample these tests are better at detecting positives. It’s an issue of sensitivity and sampling, not test accuracy. At home rapid tests are the least sensitive (with a wide range across manufacturers), rapid tests done at labs are better.
Rapid tests are called antibody tests because they use antibodies to detect the virus protein. Rapid tests do not look for antibodies in your sample, so vaccination status makes no difference in test results. Home pregnancy tests are antibody tests too, they use antibodies for a hormone to make the test work.
PCR test for virus DNA in the sample. It requires much less virus to detect a positive and takes longer to process.
As far as testing accuracy goes there is a lot of misinformation out there, most of its is just not understanding the terminology and honestly it’s confusing. We look at two measures for accuracy of testing: sensitivity (eg how much virus needs to be in the sample) and specificity (when you have a good sample how correct is the result). PCR and Rapid covid tests done in labs are very similar in terms of specificity. Rapid tests are less sensitive. (There is huge variability in home testing and less good data so I’m not sure I can speak to their specificity).
What this means in real life is that a positive result from a lab based rapid result is just as good as a PRC test positive. You can count on a PRC negative test result (done at the right number of days post exposure). A negative lab based rapid result means you didn’t have enough virus in your sample to trigger a positive so there is still a chance you could be sick.
Hope this helps.
GAH, so I am approximately two layers deep of misinformed. Thank you for not only for the information, but for being willing to write it all out for us. This is all so confusing to navigate.
Happy to do it- insomnia is handy sometimes. Besides It’s not just you. I’ve seen many many articles from reputable sources mix this stuff up. Plus all of these tests were approved under an emergency authorization so their specificity and sensitivity are not standardized the way other lab tests are – so different manufacturers have different levels of specificity. Lastly some reports refer to “rapid tests” but don’t differentiate between at home and lab tests, but there is a difference.
If you have symptoms, rapid tests should be pretty good at telling you if you have COVID. If you are trying to prevent the spread of virus post exposure PCR is the way to go.
Yes, agreed. Pediatrician here so you know way more of the details, but THIS! CO-SIGNED!
I hate this for you, for all of us, for Edward most of all. It’s almost like half of the American people don’t care about anyone but themselves.
You are doing such a great job in a shitty situation.
I had almost no reaction to either of my Moderna vaccines, and I did have a pretty bad migraine for about 6 hours the morning after my Moderna booster. I did NOT drink as many fluids as I needed to, I think. Also it was a really stressful week, but I’m pretty sure the fluids did me in.
They can be stupidly expensive, and I HATE that this means SOME people can test and some cannot (THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR WHY WE DON’T HAVE CHEAP IF NOT FREE RAPID TESTS EVERYWHERE AARGGGH), but after we had to get rapid PCR results before a vacation, I realized it was worth having a few tests on hand for those time when we could not wait for labs. Not a lot of help NOW, I know.
I hope you all feel better, soon!
I’m so mad on your behalf. The selfishness we’ve seen displayed by half of the country has led me to believe that most people are neither good nor kind. That makes me sad. I had the moderna booster. It’s a lower dose than the first two shots. I was a little tired. I’m finding that over the counter rapid tests are getting easier to find. I hope you’ll be able to get ahold of some of future testing!
Oh, Swistle, I am so sorry. I would suggest gin (for you!), but while in some ways it would be perfect for this situation in others it seems perhaps not entirely advisable, so maybe not. I hope you get the results soon, that they are negative, and mostly, that Edward recovers quickly.
I’m so sorry, what a terrible situation!
Re: booster shot. My husband and I both had Pfizer 1st and 2nd doses followed by a Moderna booster and both had very mild side effects with the booster when compared to the original doses. I only had a much more sore/tender arm, but I also had Covid last winter, so my immune system is probably super-charged at this point. But my husband only had a sore arm and a bit of fatigue for about 18-24 hours. Way better than the splitting headache/fatigue/body aches/low fever we both got with the Pfizer shots. So hopefully your experience will be similar!
I am so sorry. You are doing amazing in an all around shitty situation. I did get a booster shot, and I did not have symptoms. I was Pfizer for the 1st 2, and I did have “symptoms” & felt shitty for a day at the second shot. I got my booster early enough that they were still mandating that it be the same, so it was also Pfizer. That said, like you I took care of things in preparation for feeling shitty afterwards, and it was for naught. I wish the same for you.
This is dreadful – even if the various outcomes are all good. I hate that other people’s selfishness put you in this position.
You know we are all holding your hand and thinking positive thoughts.
I am so angry for you. The worry and the stress and all of it is just enraging. It’s been almost two full years of this!!! How can people be so flipping selfish? How can the school not have informed you????
I got the Pfizer booster at CVS, and they said they were giving full doses, because we had the J&J single dose. I felt nauseated the next day and the day after. Not nearly as bad as the J&J side effects.
I’m so sorry. That’s all. You’re doing a good job in a shitty situation and it sucks that so many Americans have chosen to do a Very Bad Job. Thinking of you.
I Hope he feels better soon! I’m sorry this is happening!
I had 2 Pfizer followed by a Moderna booster. After the booster a bit achy but nothing worse than from achiness from yard work or working out.
I had J&J then Moderna. I had a headache but it may well have been tension alone. Otherwise nothing!
We have been in this boat twice with a kid sick out of nowhere. Neither was covid. I am hoping same for Edward. Pfizer booster after pfizer shots made me super sick for 24 hours but was totally worth it. Wishing you a healthier few days ahead.
I am enraged for you. The selfishness of individuals and the placement of the individual want above the common good continue to baffle me. What is wrong with people has sadly become my mantra. The situation in Germany is, depending on which area, better/somewhat better/the same, but we still have a far too large number of anti-va##ers. Blood on their hands.
Re: boosters. I had AstraZeneca for #1 and #2. Booster this week with Biontech. Slept poorly one night (different poorly than my usual perimenopausal poor sleep), no other side effects.
I’m so sorry about the situation with Edward and hope you get results back soon. As far as booster shots go, of course side effects vary from person to person but I always like hearing real life results from friends in the same situation so here goes. I also had Pfizer followed by a Moderna booster. Evening of the booster I fell asleep super early and thought I was over it the next morning. But then proceeded to have 3 kind of blah days (headaches, sometimes feeling a chill, no fever really). I managed to do regular workload with help of Advil (it wasn’t like it was a man cold for Pete’s sake!).
Why are people so awful.
Swistle, I am so angry about your/Edward’s situation and so anxious for you both.
This is such a frustrating, upsetting situation. I can’t imagine. Truly. Unthinkable. So sorry that this is so complicated and confusing and that the people in the town (I am picturing angry mob cartoon types like in the movie Beauty and the Beast) are so uninformed and self involved.
Best of luck. Sending good thoughts. Hope Edward feels better soon and doesn’t have covid.
I hope Edward is doing ok! You are a good mom. My highly mature assessment is that everything about this is stupid. The testing situation is infuriating- I’ve done it once, at the free site offered by our school district (a trailer in a stadium parking lot with the forlorn ambiance of an unpopular food truck), and had a similar experience. I didn’t even know if they were going to email me or text me the results. At least it was free, to me.
Why school districts ask the public for so much input I don’t know. I mean, I know it’s “our” tax dollars at work, except once we pay, it’s not our money anymore. Our district just passed one out of three bonds, and now they are asking for input on WHY from the same public that didn’t turn out to vote on the bonds, and also voted them down… make it make sense.
In the spirit of sharing information I will tell you how my booster experience went down. I too got Pfizer, Pfizer, Moderna (pandemic Duck Duck Goose). I had ~36 hrs of flu like symptoms after the second dose, and the same after the third. Maybe not quite as bad but it’s hard to say. I hope it doesn’t take you down. In more encouraging news, my 7 year old had nothing more than a sore arm and slight headache after her second dose.
I am hoping not Covid, and wish you had better answers, faster. We didn’t have any side effects other than a sore arm with the Moderna Booster. Pre-vaccines, we all had Covid, including my elderly, sick mom, and all was ultimately okay. And there are much better treatments now, so if it is Covid, there’s that, too. You might want to do an OTC rapid test at home, just so that if it is positive, you’ll be able to start the treatment side sooner.
Hoping for the best for all of you.
I see you wrote this last night; I hope by now you have received the results.
Oh, Swistle, my friend. I just want to envelop you in a big hug and feed you tea and See’s candies. I am just deflated, thinking of the people in your town and school board, who still, this far into a pandemic, cannot see how their actions affect other people. I find it just so disheartening when things like masks and vaccines are so politicized and All About My Personal Choice, when the pandemic has always been, or should be, about Protecting Other People. I’m so sorry.
Also, I am not sure how “the student sitting next to Edward” would not mean that EDWARD IS A CLOSE CONTACT. Like, how much closer can TWO STUDENTS SITTING NEXT TO EACH OTHER, ONE STUDENT UN-MASKED be? How can one define “close contact?” Do they actually have to make out or something? Do they have to be conjoined twins? It makes no sense and I am so sorry you are in a town with such people running the show.
I am so sorry Edward is sick, regardless of whether it’s COVID. Neither my husband (Moderna) nor I (Pfizer) had difficulty after our boosters, so good luck on that!
I’m so sorry. I hope you have good news by now.
I’m not sure if this is helpful or not, but I guess it’s an added piece of information. My parent who has Crohns and COPD was able to get tested quickly at an urgent care location near the hospital. I’m not sure how long it took but the results came back quickly. She was positive but it seems like the vaccines helped. She was also sent for monoclonal antibodies. She wasn’t hospitalized and has now recovered. I was so sure last year that she would not survive a case of COVID so when it happened a month ago and she survived, I felt like it must have been the vaccines and the antibodies that saved her. We have no idea how she could have caught it because she barely leaves the house!
I am so sorry you are going through this and just downright EMBARRASSED by the state of affairs in this country! I wish Edward a fast recovery and you a smooth booster experience.
To add to your data. I did Pfizer, Pfizer, Moderna-booster. No side effects with the first two. About 36 hours of flu-like feelings after the booster — tired, body aches, headache, chills.
And I love that, as horrible as SO MANY people are during this tragic time, YOUR readers are all lovely and level headed, loving and reasonable!
We are well into the next day with no update, so I am very worried things have developed in a way that means you’re not able to update us. We are all so very worried for you and Edward, and holding you all in our hearts.
I know this is now an old post, but can I tell you how ENRAGED I am reading it anyway? I’ve just deleted like 6 incoherent sentence-starts because it’s mostly just rage at people, Americans, humanity, all of it. NONE OF THIS HAD TO BE LIKE THIS. I just… I cannot. I cannot. I’m so sorry.
Alice, I so agree with you! My rage at anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers is reaching an ugly level. I am furious that we have been in this for 2 years. There’s no reason except American selfishness.