The dust has settled... and I am still alive!

Okay, a tad dramatic, but the side-effects were plentiful and not fun from the Twinrix shot! Though I do very much appreciate the future protection from hepatitis A and B, I will appreciate it more when the side-effects have finally worn off.

To start: I did not make it to my three-month appointment. I decided to go back to clinic today to make sure everything was okay--since I felt a certain type of terrible on the weekend and we all know the last cold I had landed me in the hospital for 6 weeks, so one can't be too careful!

The bad news (which I already knew) was that I got every single side-effect you could get from Twinrix. Which includes (just so I can scare a few more people out of getting the shot):

• Headache
• Fever
• Flu-like symptoms
• Malaise
• Loss of appetite
  
• Fatigue 
• Dizziness
  
• Redness, pain, itching and swelling at the place of injection
• COLD??
  

Where I left them puzzled was with my newly-acquired cold, which I developed not too long after recieving the shot. Some people said it was coincidence, others said it was possible the shot caused it... so a little bit of a mixed review there. At this point what matters is that despite my obsessive purrell and clorox skills I still got a cold. BUT it isn't too bad and already seems to be clearing itself up nicely.

Good News In the Bad
Turns out everything is more than okay. Despite not eating much over the past week, I somehow managed to gain weight, plus my pfts even went up 1% which means they are now resting at 28% (.83 L). This is actually pretty typical and why I sometimes wait too long to go to the Docs... when I am feeling under the weather I am performing my best.

I am done my Twinrix shots now... thank god...I just have boosters to do in the future and I hope they won't be as bad. In light of current events, I have delayed my second HPV shot to give my body time to recover. I am also considering not continuing it, because I'm not sure it is a necessary shot to have. This, of course I will discuss with my transplant coordinator.

So all-in-all things are back on track, just a minor blip that unfortunately has come at my busiest time.
With lots of fluids and rest I should kick this cold in no time!