March

 We’re into the end of March 2022.

Bean is back in school, after schooling at home for most of January. I kept him home an extra week to get closer to the recommended time period before having his second vaccine and in the end I’m not sure if it would even have made a difference. It caused him to get a bit behind in his school work, so together we had a marathon catch up session one night and by the next day the teacher wrote me a note thanking me for working with him to get him comfortable with the material they were working on. She couldn’t believe we had done it all in one evening. I must have had some super energy that day and Bean just rode along with it.

We had a week away in early March at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. It was a very family oriented resort with a fantastic kids club. It was the first real kids club I have ever really come across. The previous times we went on holidays, there was never anyone actually working at the kids club, or if there was somebody there, there was no actual activities. This one was fully active. The teacher was terrific and Bean could not wait to get there every morning. It actually took me a few days to get used to the concept of not having him with me every morning but eventually I found a routine for myself, often involving walking a stretch of the beach (you can’t go too far away and definitely not off-site re the kids club rules). Bean was able to do a good three days of swimming, and he made friends with a girl in the kids club who he had some fun swimming with. She and her family left a few days before we did and after that Bean didn’t want to swim in the pool anymore, but I’m glad for the opportunity and the sense of freedom we had while we were there.

Now back to home and the reality of work, and the cold, albeit with spring around the corner. A big issue is the construction at EVERY turn and place around our house. Directly facing us, behind us, on every corner, big tall thirty floor high-rises going up. You’d have to see it for yourself to believe me. There is drilling going on all day and even on Saturdays. Often two at the same time on different sites. Sometimes I think I tune it out, when possible, but sometimes my body just takes it on without me realizing it and I do not sleep well and have been having constant acid reflux and pain throughout my body. I also seem to have pinched a nerve or something in my hip area which I am being treated for by my chiropractor. I expressed this to a friend recently and she suggested trying CBD oil which has no active ingredients and is supposed to help these things. Absolutely worth a try.

They have lifted the mask mandate at school and Bean says that most of the kids and the teacher, who had Covid earlier this year, no longer wear masks. About three kids still do but Bean doesn’t want to and I have no fight in me to make him. He is happier lately at school and there is a sense of hope that things are getting back to better times. He says he feels freer without having to wear a mask all day. We still wear them into any businesses or restaurants and Bean is fine with this.

I am starting to realize that the pains I have been feeling, which have often been there, though this is definitely the most severe they have ever been, is along the lines of fibromyalgia or another type of neuralgia. It has always been there to varying degrees and I have treated it with chiropractic and massage and regular walking, but it flared to a different level after I had the first Covid vaccine (Moderna). Nobody wants to hear that I’m sure, but in the time period starting a few days after the vaccine I felt burning and stabbing all over my body, similar to how you hear shingles described. I had the shingles vaccine four years ago, so I didn’t consider shingles as a cause. I had never felt any pain like it and it lasted about a week and it was intolerable. I finally took some Advil which helped a lot but it took me a while to think of it as a solution since it was such an unfamiliar pain. It is worrying anyway. I wonder what these twinges and stabs are doing to me. I worry about what the long term damage is. I have signed up with some online support groups to find out more about it, and my chiro has scheduled me for weekly visits for the next while.