As this is being posted, I will be getting my second jab. I got an sms about it first thing on Tuesday morning telling me to go to Milpark (which is a couple of ks from my house) between 9 and 10 in the morning. I had been chatting with a friend on Saturday at a rugby braai (how amazing is it that we won?? I’m STILL thrilled about it #strongerforever). She got jabbed on the same day as us and had already booked her second shot. Me being me couldn’t remember when I was supposed to get jabbed and hazily thought it was the 20th.
Of course, I meant to check when I got back, but distracted by the mountain of scripts I had to edit, I promptly forgot and thought I would just pitch up on Friday to get jabbed. NO NEED as la deuxième dose du vaccin had already been booked for me AND so brilliantly close to home.
As we can see from the posts on social media, not everyone is quite as keen to be jabbed as moi. I do understand the frustration people feel with the anti-vaxxers, it seems beyond bonkers to put yourself and everyone else at risk by not getting jabbed BUT full disclosure when my kids were babies, I was a bit that way inclined.
It seems silly now, but I really felt quite conflicted, however after much agonizing and research and a lecture from our paediatrician who told me not to be a bloody idiot, I took them off to get their vaccines. (I say I took them off. Hahahahaha. I would leave the room and my husband would have to hold them while they got their vaccinations. I couldn’t bear to watch anyone hurting my babies.)
Those were the days when I was positively EVANGELICAL about breastfeeding and tried to stick to only giving my children natural remedies but when my kids developed asthma (despite all the breastfeeding, and organic food – yes, I am still BEYOND pissed off about this), they were put on cortisone pumps and given antihistamines. I described myself as a natural remedies during the day, stopayne at night kind of mother. I think I was TERRIFIED of giving my kids anything that could hurt them. I was fed antibiotics like smarties as a kid and have the messed up digestive system and rotten teeth to thank for it which I think also contributed to my anxiety. My firstborn didn’t have antibiotics until he was 15.
What finally convinced me to give the kids allopathic medicine was a very understanding GP (shout-out to Robbie Potenza). He wasn’t averse to complementary medicine himself and would advise me accordingly saying things like “in this case you have to give anti-bs – there’s a risk of scarlet fever which could damage your daughter’s heart” etc… I was reassured by this because I knew he would not dish out the hard tack unless it was absolutely necessary.
What we have to understand about medication – and really about life itself – is that there are side-effects, but it’s all about weighing up the risks. If it’s not necessary to have anti-bs – don’t take them – they are definitely over-prescribed in this country. It is, however, necessary to be vaccinated to protect yourself and those around you.
I had unpleasant side-effects from my first jab, but I can tell you that they were NOWHERE NEAR as unpleasant as having Covid which put me out of action for a month over Christmas and New Year. If you have had Covid before, you do have a greater chance of reacting to the jab, so I suggest getting it on Friday or the weekend so that you have time to recover.
Perhaps, because the Covid wards are not accessible, it takes getting very sick and losing someone close to you to understand just how dangerous this disease is. These are SOME of the people I knew that have died from Covid complications: Nas, Neal, Dr. Sindi, Nadia, Lesego, Stan, Chris, Shona. The daily Covid stats are not just numbers to me, they were my friends and work colleagues, one was a cousin – and each of them is a sister, brother, child, husband, partner, mother, father, friend, lover to someone else and I see their loved ones trying to cope with their loss every day.
If you are scared about getting pfizered up, I completely understand, I used to feel the same way about vaccines, AND I’m scared of injections. But I did not feel the first jab AT ALL and in terms of what’s in the jab – go and speak to someone about it. And when I say ‘someone’, I don’t mean a dodgy expert on FB, I mean a medical person who has the correct information about it. I suggest contacting Covid Comms, they have some excellent info about vaccines. You can find them HERE.
Book recommendations for this week.
I lurrrrrrve Jean Hanff Korelitz so I was thrilled to see that she has a new book out. I started tucking into The Plot which is about a down-on-his-luck writer who steals the plot of a student’s novel and passes it off as his own. I’m loving all the wry observations about what it means to be a successful writer and the tension has already got my nerves jangling.
Next up: You Are Your Best Thing edited by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown. These essays are giving me insight into what it is like to be a POC in America, and they’re making me think about everything I take for granted as a white person. Thank you to Helen Holyoake and Exclusive’s for my copy.
Film recommendation: Nobody. We saw the trailer for this at the movies, then the movies were shut down and we never got to see it on the big screen, so I was pleased when it popped up on Box Office. The story starts with some young thugs breaking into a man’s house, he seems like Mr. Ordinary-Everyman – also just the teensiest bit boring.
However, we soon find out that he’s an ex-killing machine type person and not boring at all. For me it had echoes of that moment when Scout finds out that her dad is a crack shot in To Kill a Mockingbird. Having kids myself who often think I’m beyond lame, I enjoy these stories when your kids find out that you had a life before them – and quite an interesting life at that. The movie is stylized – but the violence is stomach-churning, so if that’s not your cup of tea, avoid it.
That’s it for this week. I’ll let you know what the side-effects of my second jab were like – fingers crossed they are mild. But whatever happens, at least after today I will be DOUBLE-JABBED and that gives me hope. It feels like a new beginning.