MEDICAL MATTERS

[Stanley]

One thing is certain, it always pays to take note of what your body is doing and try to make sense of it. Since my double jab last Friday there have been some changes. The main one was an itchy rash that has taken all my will power to ignore and not scratch, That's been a bit of a bugger because it has interrupted my sleep but it is retreating now and good riddance. I can't be certain it was a side effect of the jabs but that seems to be the most likely reason.
Yesterday I noticed something else that has happened over the last few days. For many months now I have had oedema inj my feet and both legs and thought that was just a natural consequence of the fact I am a lot more sedentary than I used to be. It hasn't caused my any problems, just a nagging little circumstance. The change is that I realised yesterday it has gone completely! My legs and feet are back to what they used to be. I don't trust it to be a permanent change but I think it's very strange that it can switch off like that.....
I shall carry on as usual and take note. I hope the change is permanent!
Once again of course I can't pin it definitively on the double jab but that is perhaps the more likely reason.

[Julie in Norfolk]

Stanley, correlation isn't causation! Your kidneys work better when you are lying down so maybe a little more rest did the work? Strangely enough, I used to take pills for swollen ankles and the need stopped almost overnight and so I stopped taking them (overnight).

[Stanley]

Couldn't agree more Julie.... However, Whilst I have of course noted the way the swelling lessened overnight but never to the extent I have experienced now..... This is something different...... I'd love to know for certain what.

[Wendyf]

Could be the colder weather. One of my ankles swells in warmer weather but its fine again by this time of year.

[Stanley]

That's an interesting one! Thanks Wendy.....

[Whyperion]

two years ago I had itch after the Covid Jab - was told it wasnt an effect (diagnosed with "Dry Skin" - which was new to me, problem was I did a couple of other things at the same time , one being consuming a rather sweet doughnut dropping a jam concoction on me - I might have been allergic to one of the ingredients ? Still have "blocked pores) on forearms in places and some peeling skin on the face that flares from time to time. no idea if from covid jab after all that time - and previous year no problem , I missed jab in 2024 never getting round to it

[Stanley]

[PanBiker]

Just been to the pharmacy for our flu jabs. I no longer qualify for the Covid jab, apparently 65 - 75 year old folk are immune!. The gateposts have been moved on qualification. Sally had the Covid jab due to her compromised immune system. I used to qualify as we live together, that applied for the flu jab with me along time before I qualified on age. Personally I think it is counter productive as I thought the aim was to maintain herd immunity. It will cost considerably more if I end up in hospital with Covid, not wishing it of course but the odds of catching the virus have shortened for me, at least for the next 3 years.

[Big Kev]

Same for me and Paulette, we are both booked for flu jabs tomorrow and I have the added bonus of the Covid jab too. Looking forward to one in each arm, not!

[Stanley]

One of the very few occasions when age gives you a 'get out of jail free' card!

[Tizer]

My continuing skin lesion treatment (14 months now) has me going to a hospital appointment every few weeks. That's the one were the attempted skin transplant to my forehead failed. Recently I was also started with a chemotherapy cream on the left side of my face. I'd made a formal complaint to the Trust's Patient Liaison Service about the glitch last year when they should have given me an urgent appointment but the admin side failed. A few weeks ago I was called in and given an apology by the senior maxfax clinician at the hospital. The staff and the treatment were great, it's the admin that let me down. I've got to know the nurses well and this week a maxfax specialist nurse told me the waiting time for a dermatology appointment is now 53 weeks! - more than long enough for a lesion to turn into cancer. They are desperate but can't get enough staff - too few trained people and too little money to pay them. On many of my regular visits to the specialist nurses they have had a trainee working with them, usually from overseas, so they are doing their best with what they've got.

[Big Kev]

That's not very good is it.

We've been for our jabs. After being told I needed a covid jab, it appears I now don't so just flu jabs for both of us.

[Stanley]

Peter.... I'm so sorry to hear about your ongoing problems. As I say so many times, I am so lucky, the things that go wrong with me aren't serious.....
Your description of the problems the staff are having sounds depressing. Can you remember the number of times when we were told 'Safe in our hands' and then they spent the money on something else. Why don't we make MPs work under the same conditions as the NHS staff and with the same wages!

[Big Kev]

No flu jab side effects for me, Paulette has a sore arm so they must have hit something on the way in.

[Stanley]

Good. Now you want a flu free winter!

[Julie in Norfolk]

About 6 to 8 weeks ago I wore a ring of my mothers, expecting it to be gold (as it appeared to be) only to find that it wasn't. I know it wasn't because I had an allergic reaction to it, an psoriasis type of inflamation, itchy, flakey, skin splittingly yuck exactly where the ring had been. I have been treating it carefully and have seen an improvement but not quite healed yet.

Today I have been to the dentist and am getting referred because of a white patch on the inside of cheek. It might be Lichen planus.

The interesting thing is that both the Psoriasis and Lichen Planus (if that is what it is) are caused by elevated T cell activity, (caused by an allergic reaction) in other words, what caused the Psoriasis may have caused the white patch.

[Stanley]

That might be where my itch has come from...... Life is so complicated!

[Tizer]

A week ago today I had my covid vaccination in the morning at the local surgery. I've been having flu jabs for many years, all the covid jabs offered, the RSV and pneumonia jabs too and all without a reaction. However this time it was different. Ten hours later, while watching TV I couldn't get up out of an armchair. I started shaking all over, not trembling but shaking as if I had Parkinson's Disease and felt very weak. My pulse rate went up. I managed to move to another chair where I had a novel to read but couldn't keep still, had difficulty lifting a glass of water to my mouth. Felt very weak and ill so decided to go to bed. Had difficulty turning over in bed and couldn't raise myself to drink from a glass of water. Mrs Tiz had to prop me up to drink it. I couldn't sleep and every time I looked at the clock only an hour had passed even though it felt like several hours. Eventually I managed a few hours sleep. The following day the symptoms had subsided.

It obviously wasn't an anaphylactic response because that would happen within the first 30 minutes after the jab. Nor was it one of the rare recorded heart or brain problems because they happen days or weeks after the jab. I've filed a Yellow Card report with the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency and informed my GP. The only possible cause we can come up with is that a mild reaction was made worse because of the chemotherapy cream (Efudix, 5-fluoruracil) I'm currently using to get rid of pre-cancerous skin lesions.

The vaccine was Pfizer's BionTech which I've had in past years but the most recent two have been Moderna's Spikevax. The GP has, not surprisingly, advised me to ask for Spikevax next next time and don't have the jab while on the Efudix cream!

[Stanley]

Worrying stuff Peter.... I'm glad you seem to be recovering. I think I am slowly mending as well but still have the itch and broken sleep. Onward and upward....

[Stanley]

I have to report progress.... I decided to try E45 Itch Relief Cream (LINK) and it does what it says on the tin.
If you have an itch, try it.....

[Whyperion]

Tiz I did a bit of research on the reported symptoms of Covid Vacine side effects (poss better discussed in Covid corner) and I had an ongoing itch from the Oct 2023 jab - I could not put it down specifically to that as a couple of other life events / medications happened at the same time. It is also an effect from some Covid infections too and does seem to be a T-Cell response - indeed this response seems to be behind some of the fatal side effects- it makes it difficult to get a reliable vaccine of the three? types that have been used , some people it is the liquid carrier of the vaccine that is triggering the odd side effect too. The itch carried on for some time (I still have I think a left over from it) and two doctors suggested different causes and thus treatments - one being anti-bacterial wash / moisturiser and a steroid cream - which seemed to help - I wasnt breaking skin as much but eruptions at foliicle sites in the main, much improved and I only used the sterod cream for a month (its life span before it goes off). Obviously more difficult with other treatments for skin cancers.