The Tdap Shot…Heard ‘Round the World…

I wrote about…keeping up…with my medical information the other day…which…made me remember…getting my last…actually my first…Tdap…vaccination…I say first…because…the adult vaccine was changed a few years ago…from…TD…tetanus/diptheria…to…Tdap…tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis…

Anyway…to make an long story…even longer…seems there has been an increase in…pertussis…whooping cough…in recent years…so…all us school nurses got an email…recommending that we get the new vaccine…

I’m pretty diligent about that kind of thing…so…I rolled up my sleeve the same afternoon…and thought that would be that…well…my arm was a bit sore…but…I expected that…

What I didn’t expect…was to discover…a fairly…large…tender…lymph node…hiding behind my left collarbone…but…on Sunday afternoon…when…all the doctor’s offices were closed…I did…

I must admit…it scared me half to death…so…I did what I had to do…I Googled…yeah…I know…you saw that one coming…you know me so well…anyway…what I found scared me even more…lymphoma…that’s what all the sites said…would cause supraclavicular lymphadenopathy…

At some point…just before I Googled lymphoma treatments…I remembered…the Tdap shot…could it be connected…yes…I Googled that…and…somewhere…in tiny print…at the very end…of an obscure site…I found what I was looking for…yes…Tdap…could cause that big honking lymph node…if the injection was in the ipsilateral appendage…

I have to tell you the truth…I’ve been a nurse for a lot of years…and I didn’t have a clue…so…I Googled…one last time…it meant…same side…and…yes…my injection…was in the left arm…I breathed again…

But…I still called…and made an appointment with my OB-GYN doctor the next day…just to be safe…he agreed…all was well…but…since I was there…he might as well…do my yearly stuff…including…sending me for a mammogram…

I went…and…thought…that was that…

Until…the hospital called me…there was a lump…could I come back for an ultrasound…now…as frightening as this sounds…I was at least 95% certain…that it was the same lump…that…I’ve had for years…that had been biopsied…and was fine…so…I only fretted…I didn’t panic…

But…I did have to take off a second day from work…and go for the ultrasound…but…they couldn’t find my old films…so…they weren’t sure if it was the same spot or not…

A couple of hours…and…lots of frustration later…we found films in the doctor’s office…that verified the spot…it hadn’t changed…once again…all was well…

So…let’s recap…no…let’s not…it was too much the first time…but…all of this…happened…as a result…of one little Tdap shot…

Bertha…says it is a lot like life…of course she would…she says…my biggest messes…usually start…with…a small event…and then snowball…into a fiasco…and…she’s right…they do…I always say…I get into the most trouble…when…I’m minding my own business…

Well…she did say something else…about my tendency to…make mountains out of mole hills…and…that if I didn’t settle down…she was gonna take away my Google privileges…but…she couldn’t be serious about that…could she…

No…surely not…so…for now…I’m just glad that I’m not due for another Tdap…for seven more years…I hope I remember about the lymph node by then…just saying…

Jane

Herbs…Dinner’s Ready…

Oooh…Bertha got excited by the title…she…mistakenly…I might add…thought I was referring to sharing the kitchen with a couple of guys named Herb…

And while I admit that scenario could have been…spicy…it just isn’t the spicy I’m talking about…and identically named men brings up thoughts of Larry’s brothers…Darrell and Darrell…definitely not spicy…and I’m not sure what they would have added to the pot…but…I digress…

Growing up…we always had a large garden with fresh veggies…but…I’m almost embarrassed to say that my first remembrance of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme…was in a 60’s song…I loved the song…didn’t have a clue about the herbs…and now…I wonder if that was even what they were singing about…hmmm…

Okay…getting back on track…

Learning to cook…I remember the basics…besides salt and pepper…sage went in dressing…basil, oregano, and parsley in spaghetti sauce…and bay leaf in stew…all were purchased dried in a little yellow can…and kept for years…I may still have a few of them…okay…not really…it was a joke…geez…

I have no idea what precipitated the consciousness change leading to cooking with fresh…or good quality dried herbs…although it was probably from watching cooking shows…it happened slowly…one recipe at a time…Mama planted some oregano…I tasted it…started clipping it…dug up a piece to plant…

And before I could figure out how to spell bouillabaisse…and don’t laugh…it took me a while…even with spell check…my spelling attempt was so bad that all I got was ‘no suggestions’…I finally gave up and Googled…I love Google…but I digress…

I had an herb garden…with basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, lavender, oregano…and a few other friends thrown in…then I moved…

I dug up the tiny rosemary plant and two small lavenders…they moved with me…they are now huge…and are totally taking over my shrub bed…

Beyond that…I mostly have herb pots…lots of basil in the summer…cilantro is not my friend…can’t get it to grow…this year I had…dill…culantro…a little friendlier…with a similar flavor…thyme…mint…lemon balm…bee balm…catnip…oregano…some things I thought were edible…that turned out not to be…and yes…I found out before I ate them…

I’ll be the first to admit…I don’t know nearly enough about herbs…how to grow them…how to use them…but…I’m learning…I’ve bought books…but mostly…I rely on advice from my friend Bea…who has an organic herb farm…she always seems to know what to add to what…to make it a bit more special…and she saved me from the inedible sage…

Case in point…I made my first attempt at French Onion Soup this week…yup…I haven’t been to the store in a while…starting to get creative…anyway…it was bland…she mentioned adding thyme and bay…now it is special…

Bertha seems to have lost interest in my writing…and is heading to the kitchen for a bowl of that soup…she may not understand about herbs…but she does know what tastes good…

Jane