Nodding in

[pameladean]

The COVID test has about seven minutes left before I will read it. David and I are going to my mom's, which is also my brother's, for the holiday. We used to have larger gatherings, but my mom is very COVID-averse (she's 92, so yeah) and also had such a bad reaction to a COVID shot in 2021 that she won't get any more, so she's essentially unvaccinated at this point, so we don't bring anybody with us, even though they could test too. I don't feel the tests are quite good enough to push her about taking more risk.

ANYWAY, my reading list is overflowing with good wishes, so I thought I would return them all. I hope where you are today and what you are doing are where and what you wish them to be. We could not get any mincemeat, so I've made an apple pie. I had ideas about cookies, but ran out of time.

It is raining here and plans to go on doing so. It was raining, and it was going to rain. I don't see any blackbirds, and NO WONDER. Yesterday I went out in my raincoat and continued the task of edging the back sidewalk so the new (battery-powered, hooray!) snowblower will actually fit through it. We'd thought the path was 19 inches wide, and it had narrowed to more like 12; but as it turns out it's two feet wide, and much sunken. Anyway, I never expected to be out in the rain in 50-degree weather, edging a sidewalk with a sharpened shovel on Christmas Eve in Minnesota.

Test is negative, must run. It has been A Summer and I hope to do a catch-up post soon.

Love and joy to you all.

Pamela

Comments

[graydon]

It's raining here, too, complete with spectral chill fog. There are several more days of that in the forecast and then it might freeze, but I find I no longer believe such predictions. They are too much coloured by the temperature shifts of former days.

With respect to bad vaccine reactions; the COVID spike protein is a mast cell activator, so many people have MCAS symptoms as a result of vaccination and feel protractedly terrible. Taking antihistamines ahead of time can prevent the bad reaction to vaccination. Which is not necessarily something you want to argue with your mother in any case (if she's willing to stay in, the risk of being present somewhere one can be vaccinated is plausibly higher than of staying in), but might be a useful thing to know in other circumstances.

All best wishes for you and yours, and most particularly that it's a Christmas dinner memorable for entirely good reasons.

[pameladean]

It is generally useful information! She can't take Benadryl (neither can I), but there are other antihistamines. She is willing to stay in but I am not sure it's really good for her.

P.

[graydon]

It's a wretched set of tradeoffs.

Apparently the rule is to take Benadryl fifteen minutes beforehand, and the modern H1 antihistamines about three hours beforehand. (I say apparently out of concern for the accuracy of memory, on the one hand, and a complete lack of experience with the Benadryl approach, on the other. Loratadine works fine should one happen to be me.)

[pameladean]

I'm so glad you found what works. I will suggest this approach, and maybe if it's combined with Novavax it might be acceptable. P.

[graydon]

Here's hoping!