Without venturing into the weeds of partisan views on the subject, vaccine injury is a real thing. Science has tabulated and studied the effects of vaccines on populations since the original development of inoculations for public health management.
Vaccine injuries are not new or news. Our perceptions have just changed with current events.
Public Health
Vaccines are developed by medical doctors to address diseases that produce significant illness and death in the population. Understanding that no medical treatment (i.e., pharmaceuticals, surgery) will be tolerated in the same fashion by all consumers, vaccines occasionally produce less than desirable effects in certain individuals. From a public health point of view, a few casualties are expected and accepted as the greater good of a disease-resistant population is developed.
Stepping away from this objective scientific view, there is an element of tragedy when outwardly healthy individuals can be compromised or even die as a result of vaccine intervention. Medical tragedy is a challenge in life. Like life’s other trials, we can choose to run away, deny existence, or step up and respond.
We always have a choice.
A Vaccine Injury Story
While I do share ideas with the reader in these blog posts, I do not usually share much of my personal life. As vaccine injury is an important concern and reliable information has been difficult to obtain, I am sharing this information so that others may know that the biology of things can get in the way of life at times. If the reader has also experienced or has a loved one who has experienced less than desirable effects from the COVID-19 vaccine, know that we survived and are all in this together.
Using a heart rate monitor during exercise is a habit I developed when technology became affordable about 30 years ago. Glancing down at my cycling computer on my handlebars to see just how hard my heart was working has been a useful exercise tool. (I found that my heart could be goofing off while my legs said I was really doing something.)
Fast forward to 2021 and vaccine mandates became a reality. The data at that time were beginning to support the effectiveness of the COVID vaccines. To make my long story short, instead of fighting with an employer over an exemption from the “jab”, as it has been described, I crossed my fingers and took the shots.
I gave Moderna a couple of days to start producing an immune response. Everything seemed okay, so I rolled out for a bike ride over the weekend. A few miles in, as I was warming up, I felt a flutter in my chest and my computer showed a quickly increasing heart rate.
No big deal, I thought. This must be an unadvertised side effect of the vaccine and it will pass. If I just pedal more lightly, the symptoms will just go away.
Bargaining with myself did not go well. My heart rate stayed up for the duration of the ride and the rest of the day.
Houston, I think I have a problem.
Working the Problem
Never one to pass up an opportunity to learn from my body, I took this on like any other “Hmm… that’s funny” event my aging body has chosen to present. The diagnostician in me started running down the symptoms and evaluated them on a serious scale from “I can fix this” to “maybe time for a trip to the ER”.
Keeping panic in check was job one. Thoughts of mortality had a whole new light around them as I realized I might really be in trouble this time. Injuries are one thing. A heart muscle going rogue was something else.
Taking the problem in smaller pieces seemed the most logical method, so I started with assessment.
- Symptoms?
- As with a crash, what can I do or not do?
- What made things better?
- What made things worse?
I found (continue to find, actually) loads of things my body does differently than before the vaccine. I allow these changes to direct my responses.
Planning was the next step. The plan needed to be specific to changes, flexible to accommodate new information as it comes in, and it must promote a positive (healing) experience.
Reflections
Call it humility but I have learned to take a lot of things far less seriously than I used to. I always fought restrictions on my actions. My vaccine injury changed all that to questioning “Is this worth the fight or just something I can let go?”
It turns out that I really am mortal.
Physically, some of my parts work as before, some do so with modifications, and some things are just not happening. Not good things or bad things. Things are what they are.
Now, moving on to that positive approach, I have experienced a real redo. I have a new body to get acquainted with and this time around, I have old experiences to draw from as I go. Sort of fun to test drive and discover what this new body can (or cannot) do.
I am always up for challenges.
Doctor Thinking
From my clinical view, science has much to learn from this vaccine experiment. Rhetoric notwithstanding, it is still a science experiment.
It is incredibly important now to gather relevant statistics. Describing injuries and the types of people affected is vital. Then share these findings with everyone! Ignoring, suppressing, or cherry-picking data fails to serve the common good.
Most importantly, we must remove the politics that persist in the scientific communities. We need to find out just what happened with mass vaccinations without all of the petty bickering (and all of that good/bad qualifications) getting in the way.
The adults really need to come back into the room.
Knowing that I might not have survived the COVID-19 vaccine over the short-term (the jury is still out on long-term effects), I find it funny how our physiology does not care about the politics of vaccines. Biology does what it does without concern over whether it agrees with opinion.
In the meantime, I am going to go exercise and see if I can add another PR (personal record) for this body rebounding from vaccine injury.
Coming back from challenges is what we do.
“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
― Marcus Aurelius
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