I Woke Again and Again and Again.
I got my second vaccination on Saturday and I admit: it was not the picture-perfect spa treatment I got when I went for my first shot. Instead of walking briskly through the stadium alone, I stood for well over an hour in a socially distanced and miles-long line of people. But the experience was quick and quite painless overall.
Eight hours later, the body aches started. I decided to go to bed and “sleep it off,” but there was no sleeping. Instead, I rolled and tossed and turned and audibly moaned literally all night long.
Somewhere in the middle of the night, I awoke feeling severely chilled. I wanted a new blanket but I didn’t want to get out from under the blankets. I wailed a little more, quietly, way too cold to sleep, and finally got up and pulled a blanket out of the closet. It took every ounce of effort I had to put the blanket on the bed, and then I collapsed into the pile.
I was still shivering – but now those shivers had gone from tremors to body-wrenching, below-zero level tremors. It occurred to me to wonder if one could die from the imaginary cold produced by a fever. Suddenly I had a brilliant thought: dogs have higher body temperatures than humans. Loki was sound asleep on his bed next to mine, and I called him frantically to join me. He couldn’t believe I wanted him to wake up in the middle of the night and get into the “good” bed, but eventually he figured out that I was serious.
I grabbed him like he was a furry little float and I was drowning. He cuddled up next to me under the covers and – finally – I could breathe a little. The shivering started to slow and, eventually, I slept.
What felt like minutes later, I woke again and again and again – moaning and regularly waking Loki, who looked at me, confused, then went back to sleep – every time. Several times, I reached for the thermometer and checked my temperature, which registered somewhere between 97 and 99.5 every time. My body thought it was 305.
By morning, I was not a lot better. I sent Loki out so that Bill could feed him, and I went back to bed for a few more hours. When I crawled downstairs sometime before noon, I know I had a fever but I didn’t want to take my temperature anymore. I slept most of the day away and went back to bed early.
Nearly 48 hours after the shot, I awoke from what was almost a full night’s sleep. I felt better. Slowly, carefully, I got on with my life.
My third bout with COVID was by far the worst one yet. I am sincerely glad it’s finally over.