In the midst of a Pandemic - Part 2 [She is... ...]

   

 This post I start with extreme mental pain. You cry for deaths. Demise of parents, relatives and friends. Some times you cry for the death of people you have not seen. One among them is the demise of my younger daughter's friend's mother in the second wave of corona. 

     SHE IS NO MORE . Remembering this message in my daughter's mobile phone puts me in sorrow and my eyes get wet. The happenings are as follows. While working in Capgemini in Bangalore, my second daughter stayed in PG (Paid guest house - like ladies' hostel) and her room mate was a girl from Orissa. My daughter told she used to apply coconut oil to her face in the night and goes to sleep with it. Their way of skin care is that. 

     During the corona period, the children were given work from home and all reached their homes and were working. The second wave started and also the vaccines came for human use. That girl's mother was a school teacher and she tried to get vaccinated twice- once she stood in the queue of people standing to get the vaccine injection also, but unfortunately she could not get the vaccination. And she contacted  the dreadful covid infection and got admitted in the hospital and that girl was informing us the condition of her mom regularly. I used to tell her through my daughter not to get panicked and that she would recover. What else to be told to that small, tender girl, who seeks solace and sharing with another small girl, that is my daughter, me being a mother as well as a doctor? Some days were going on like this, with informations like oxygen demand etcetera. Since this was going on for a few days, it became somewhat used to routine, every day the progress of her mother's condition and our reply to it. I keep my mobile display in light mode and my daughter keeps in dark mode , so that her WhatsApp screen remains black in colour. 

     And one hateful day, in the morning, my daughter called me from the bedroom telling that, that the girl had sent a message stating that  ' she is nomore.' Even though at a strike , my brain understood what it meant but my heart could not take the news and believe it, since we had been travelling along with them, hoping for the best. I went inside the room at once and tried to see the message. And saw. The black background of the mobile looked like a bad premonition- and saw the message. She is nomore. We could not control our sorrow, but keeping aside my sorrow consoled that girl by telling a lot.

     Like the above said matter, one important thing to be discussed about is the adverse reactions to the corona vaccine. I had my first dose of the vaccine with out any reaction or what so ever it is. Not much pain at the injection site also. In fact I had to search my shoulder in the mirror to identify the injection point. And no fever. But, when I took the second dose of vaccine injection the sequence of events happened were as follows. I had the injection along with my husband and we came back home. Since it was corona period, I immediately went to my backyard to wash face and hands. It was hardly about fifteen minutes after having the vaccine. I put some water inside my mouth for gargling, at once the water tasted blood and I spit inside my kept together palms and saw the fresh blood containing water. I knew I was having a vaccine reaction and immediately I told my husband and prepared myself ready. I did not get panicked, kept my mind cool and sat relaxed, proceeding with my routine in a slow and cool way, and waiting for the next reaction to come. 

    On and off, I was having bleeding from the mouth and slowly developed getting cardiac pain. Might be carditis - inflammatory reaction of the heart. I used to have moderate chest pain, much discomfort, palpitations occasionally and whenever I would get this, would just lie down on the bed and remain relaxed and would take rest. During those times I could not even talk fluently. If I had to convey something , I  had to say one word followed by another word, could just be audible with difficult breathing in between. And I would proceed with my day plans as usual once the pain gets passed away. 

      I developed blood clots at the under surface ( mucous membrane) of my mouth. It remained for a long time with out disappearing or with out getting dissolved. 

                 

   The method of action of  corona vaccine is by producing 'mini corona'. It is mainly giving rise to thrombo- embolic manifestation. In simple terms, many small blot clots are produced.  This action uses up the clotting factors and the bleeding tendency comes on. Imagine the blood is flowing normally in its own speed and pressure  and thickness as if in a tube inside the blood vessels. Suddenly the flow is getting  disturbed by multiple clots, affecting blood supply to the parts of the body and making them suffer. So, the disease is dangerous to many people and the vaccine reaction is little less dangerous. It is as severe as according to the reaction of the body. 

      And the possible treatment for mild reaction are the blood thinners, which prevent the clotting together of the blood cells, fibrin etc, that is happening inside the blood vessels. And unfortunately the side effect is bleeding which is as dangerous as clotting. What to do in such a situation? I just went for the best blood thinner, water. Yes, just plain water and nothing else. 

  Slowly the chest pain disappeared and the bouts of bleeding from the mouth stopped and I felt relieved. So, there was no reaction for the first dose and reaction for the  second dose and when the booster dose was advised and advertised , I decided not to take it, for the obvious good reason. The pathetic thing of the second wave of Covid-19 is, we lost some important relatives, including my aunty, who used to be very close to my mother and us right from her marriage with my maternal uncle, and who had cleared doubts regarding many family matters. Two more losses are that of my elder daughter's mother in law and my younger son in law's grand mother. All are non replaceable. Of course , losing anyone is non replaceable, no?

      And finally the pandemic came to an end. The world let out a sigh of relief.