Surely I am not the only one to suffer from Covid vaccinations news overload? For more than year now whenever a radio or TV is turned on we are inundated by endless Covid news. From every conceivable angle the subject is discussed ad nauseum. It has even overtaken news about cricket or masturbating politicians concentrating over desks or sending lewd messages while the Chamber is in ‘progress’, or is it process? One sees those puckered up faces of politicians on TV offering the latest about the pros and cons of Pfeizer versus Johnson & Johnson, or AstraZenica. There seems to be dangers lurking about and experts are then hauled in front of cameras giving us the percentages of fatalities. One doctor offered the rather becalming bit of information that the rates of people being taken by sharks is greater than succumbing to a jab by a vaccination needle. The elderly especially need not panic!
That latest advice about sharks getting to me in preference to death by needle gave me the impetus to brave up to the quack and get my vaccination jab. I had already filled in the form asking about my history of past ailments or disabilities. Most questions were answered in the negative. I have been remarkably free of needing limbs or parts exchanged and apart from low blood pressure and low ejection fraction, I am in good nick. I try and aim for doing my 5000 steps a day and with my recently found love, my ejection fraction is hopefully looking upwards as well. I am so lucky and never felt as happy as I do and enjoy now.
As I mentioned before, I had filled in the form already and my appointment was yesterday. The Medical Centre is just around the corner from me and this Centre was one of the first ones to give the AstraZenica vaccination to those over seventy. Being eighty years old I bravely held off till all the controversy about who dies and who doesn’t as yet, and having regards to the results of deaths by clots monitored by Norwegian experts giving percentages versus those in Germany, got passed and becalmed the anxious elderly that I walked into the Medical Centre yesterday at 3pm exactly. They asked, after I obediently stayed behind the red tape on the floor; what is your name? I said ‘Gerard Oosterman.’ This was followed by; Date of birth please! I was then directed to a room and told to wait for Doctor Jenny. I was soon taken to the friendly Doctor who asked about my low ejection fraction. I had filled in the form and given the information in the positive, to the question; do you take any blood thinners? She wanted to know the level of low ejection fraction which normally ought to be over 50%. A few years ago it was at 28% which the doctor thought too low and indicative I must have had a heart attack. Not that I ever felt I had.’ Apparently you can have heart attacks without being aware of it. She seemed amazed I was sitting opposite her with my burden of low ejection fraction. She looked me over, trying to conceal her amazement or was it admiration?
Anyway, nurse gave me the jab and I felt nothing. All is good. In twelve weeks I get the second one.
It just shows there is hope for all of us.
Tags: AstraZenica, Covid, Ejection Fraction
Oosterman Treats Blog 
April 13, 2021 at 3:18 am |
Ha ha.you are funny. Hope to see you when I am in Sydney.
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April 13, 2021 at 7:02 am |
So do I, it’s been a long time, Sandy!
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April 13, 2021 at 6:52 pm |
I too hope to see you when I feel better!
Hugs, Uta 🙂
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April 14, 2021 at 1:57 am
Yes, Uta. I too hope to meet up with you.
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April 14, 2021 at 2:02 am
🙂
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April 13, 2021 at 4:18 am |
Amen to the shitty News, Gez. In fact it is anything but new. It is mind-numbingly repetitive and if I see one more shot in the arm I am going to spit. One more cop murder, one more corrupt politician (who would have ever guessed that that might happen ?). One more stressful grand final upset, one more hapless village wiped from the face of the earth, more Chinese aggression, Boris Johnson’s effing haircut, one more shot of that muppet Scotty from Marketing looking befuddled ….. take me now, Lord !
FFS, News people, GET A NEW TOPIC.
As you might recall, Gez, I have something of a handle on statistics (I ought to, I failed it the first time and had to pay for my own restitution). The second time I showed up (but, honestly, having a stats lecture at 09:00 on a Monday morning is academic cruelty. I had never before that time, sobered up before Tuesday.
Anyway, the problem as you rightly suggest is that deaths from the jab occurs at a very, no, VERY low frequency … and most people including statistically-competent people struggle getting their minds around what say 1:100,000 or 1:300,000 actually means – without clouding the issue with bloody sharks and lightning strikes.
So, I wrote to that rock star medico Norman Swan and asked whether, as a supra 67 year old I should adopt a wait and see attitude – as you suggest also – viz Astra Zeneca.
Norman replied. (First Mate said… “bullshit, one of Norman’s minions replied”). I prefer to think that Norman is so on top of this that HE actually replied. I quote ” As soon as I get the chance I will take whatever vaccine I can get”. Good enough for me.
And as for old farts like you and me, Gez, the stats in Australia are pretty clear. If you or I get Covid we have a 10% chance of carking it from the virus versus a 0.001% chance of the vaccine rubbing us out. My money is on the vaccine for the win.
As you might recall, Emmlet 1 is a 30 year old GP and she said that although she is in the group entitled to get the Pfizer vax, in the outback she hasn’t seen any. She also said that she is a member of a 10,000 strong Facebook group of doctors who are also mums and that this group to an individual has voted to take whatever vaccine they can get too.
While I have your ear (or eyes, I guess), I’d like to complain about all that Prince Philip is dead shirt rending and teeth gnashing crap. Insufferable old racist and privileged git.
I wrote the Pig’s Arms report on this one – you can read it at.
Kind regards
Therese (aka Emmjay)
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April 13, 2021 at 7:35 am |
Yes, and what makes it really galling is that now our beloved ABC is joining the mob. Perhaps it is lack of funding but I find an old 1972 fishing manual more interesting or the Body Corporate by-laws. I thought that going to the BBC would offer some relief but it was full of Prince Phillip and the latest speculations if Prince Harry would look at prince Williams or not. And then they added; ‘The tension between them was palpable’. Is it any wonder that we, the wise and old, suffer reduced ejection fraction?
I am glad that The Pig’s Arms has come to the rescue. Geez, i must be getting old for not having sought solace there in the first place to alleviate my overload of Covid misery.
‘Wife admits Error of Judgement’ reads a lot more intriguing than ‘Covid has been diagnosed in suburban Vladivostok’.
For the uninitiated, my illustrious career in trying to free up words started with the encouragement of Therese (Emmjay) many decades ago when the floating of the Pig’s Arms idea was first raised by Emmjay.
Both The Pigs Arms and the Oosterman Treats have survived those decades by many brave souls clinging to the wreckage of ageing, life’s tempests, trammels and trifles, with an obstinate dedication to just keep going.
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April 13, 2021 at 7:01 pm |
Yes Gerard, sadly lack of funding for the ABC is becoming more and more noticeable. But I’d rather watch repeat programs on the ABC than going through all of these Body Corporate by-laws.
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April 13, 2021 at 10:10 pm
Yes, I tried watching different commercial channels but too many adds and silly programs. Mind you, SBS is now as commercial as the others.
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April 14, 2021 at 12:20 am
This is why I stopped watching SBS!
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April 13, 2021 at 8:22 am |
YAY! So glad you got the jab! 🙂
Where we live they quickly dropped the vaccination ages from 75 to 65 to 55 and then to 16!!! 😮 By March 12th everyone over 16 who wanted the vaccine could get it. So hubby and I have both had our two doses!
(((HUGS))) 🙂
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April 13, 2021 at 10:13 pm |
I have had my first and will get the second in twelve weeks time. No worries. The US has done well as far as the vaccine roll-out is concerned.
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April 13, 2021 at 10:57 am |
Good for you. I’ve had both of the Moderna shots and besides one day of side effects, I feel fine.
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April 13, 2021 at 10:16 pm |
Right now there has been a lot of confusion about who gets what shots and there was a bit of a hold-up of the promised vaccines in Australia. People queueing up only to be told the vaccine was in transit etc.
For once being old we were given preference.
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April 13, 2021 at 2:54 pm |
I’m with you re: the overload. I find it quite interesting that once we began gaining control of things here, the news picked up the existence of variants and began running with that. Now, of course, six people have had a reaction to the J&J vaccine, so that’s all the news. Enough. The most recent statistics I could find indicate that someone dies on Texas highways every 2.5 hours. The last time I looked, people still are driving.
I’m a month past my second Moderna shot. I did have about 48 hours of reaction to the second, but they came on quickly and left just as fast. At this point, nearly 60% of the people in my county have been vaccinated. It’s somewhat ironic that since our governor lifted the mask mandate and occupancy restrictions, our case numbers have continued to decline significantly. My theory is that choice makes the difference. Free of governmental dictate, people still are behaving mostly responsibly, and there are smiles in the streets.
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April 14, 2021 at 2:10 am |
All of a sudden the main subject now has moved away from Covid and is now all about a high profile business woman who is accusing our Prime Minister for having bullied her.
I am sure that the audience has tired of all the Covid news.
Fortunately, the lock-downs are mostly over and both weddings and funerals are doing good trade. This morning I drove past a church which had a large black stretch limousine parked outside with most people dressed in black, so I assume it was a funeral even though people looked happy and were shaking hands. No one had masks on.
I also noticed that the medical center around the corner were I am living has now smaller queues, perhaps indicating that at least in our area, the over seventies are now sated with the Covid vaccine.
At my Stumps café this morning there was a large patronage with smiles and bonhomie all-around.
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April 14, 2021 at 2:14 am
I suspect there are plenty of smiles, even at funerals. The sheer pleasure of being out and among other people is immense. There are more and more smiles here, and a lot of casual conversation among strangers who just are happy to be able to comment on the weather or whatever to another human being.
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April 13, 2021 at 3:19 pm |
Gerard, you say: “I had filled in the form and given the information in the positive, to the question; do you take any blood thinners?”
I guess, you mean you do take blood thinners. Do you take them because they think you had a heart attack?
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April 14, 2021 at 2:20 am |
Yes, Uta. Well spotted. A few years ago the cardiologist did a test and found out that my ejection fraction was very low. He did a stress test where I had to run in my singlet on a sloping board with increasing speed and steeper angle. I looked a sight!
Hence he thought it best to try and make my heart function more efficiently with the help of blood thinners and other medications.
I never feel out of breath or feel my heart giving up, so it must help.
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April 13, 2021 at 9:18 pm |
It so nice to know that you are very happy again and that you have a lovely companion. I assume that she took the photo of you that is posted above. And it is good to know that you have begun your COVID vaccinations.
It does wear on the nerves a bit with so much written about COVID, vaccine reactions and numbers, and the number of people dying from the various vaccines. I keep up with the latest and the number of cases in the two hospitals in my town of about 120,000 or so The cases were down to 18 hospitalized for the past week but as of yesterday the number had climbed back up to 25. I’m not sure if that is significant or not. I have a different theory than my good blogging friend and fellow Texan about why the numbers are down. Several things factor in. More open air and perhaps open windows and doors for folks who have no central heat and air. That would mostly be minorities who have been the most severely affected. Next the most vulnerable of the population have already been vaccinated. That is when the number of hospitalized patients began to decline. And last but not least there is a significant number of people that have already had COVID and had mild symptoms. I know of around 10-12 people who had mild symptoms and said they did not get tested. They are among the people that keep spreading the virus. I completed my series of Pfizer in February and have relaxed a bit and am far less worried. I continue to follow protocol and severely limit my exposure.
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April 14, 2021 at 2:38 am |
Yes, a new partner and love friend is so good, fantastic really. We both are united in all things we care about. She and I bounce off each other very happily.
I was a bit hesitant when Europe came out with some of the younger people getting blood clots through the AstraZeneca vaccine but at the same time we had a few people being killed and eaten by sharks, also a number of swimmers surviving shark attacks but with serious injuries. There are also a few missing fisherman in the North suspected of being eaten by crocodiles. They found empty tinnies so it is assumed that large crocodiles must have leaped up and snatched the hapless person from the boat.
I too hesitated but cut the knot and had my first jab. All is well and I slept like a king afterwards. Australia did very well and most of the country is now free from covid infections. Travel is slowly coming back and we can now go to New Zealand. Local tourism is booming and last week-end when I was away with Annette to visit my brother all restaurants were booked and we were lucky to find food higher up the hill of the main street. It was a Thai place that must have newly opened and had a free table.
All places still have the sign in option whereby you log-on and register your stay with the commercial entity that you use, sa restaurant or hotel. This is to trace if Covid raises its ugly head again.
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April 18, 2021 at 4:56 am
How wonderful that your country is fully open. We still have many non believers about COVD so they wont follow guidelines and thus continue to infect other people. I had written that the number of hospitalized in ICU was way down but that was a short lived victory for my small part of the world. The paper today reported 25 cases as of April 15th. It is so very distressing because there are many who refuse to be vaccinated since they they think Gates ,Fauci, and Clinton along with China, created the virus to damage the US and to seek control of all who get vaccinated. I must say that those folks have a severe mental problem.
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April 14, 2021 at 12:47 am |
I would assume too that Annette took this lovely photo of you. Well done indeed!
As far as Covid is concerned, I prefer to keep my social distancing! I am 86 and in a Labor seat. Nobody has bothered me yet to enrol to be vaccinated! I do not mind waiting my turn for as long as everyone stays well enough away from me. Honestly, I am more scared of being overrun by a mad car driver or having a nasty fall or a stroke. All these things are life threatening. What am I to complain about some life threatening dangers. I am lucky to have had a very long life already with ups and downs, but mainly ups! 🙂
Well, for how long do I aim to live, really?
I love fresh air and sunshine and stay away from air-conditioning whenever possible! 🙂
Recently I was able to catch a real lot of fresh air and sunshine. 🙂
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April 14, 2021 at 2:47 am |
Yes, Uta. There is no hurry. I just wanted it out of the way. My next medical adventure will be with the podiatrist aptly named ‘Dr Foot’. I have never been before and who knows what avenues will open up after taking my socks off to a stranger?
I too love fresh air and walk. My 6000 steps a day is what I aim to accomplish at the end of each day. If there is a shortfall I just make up by walking rapidly around my sitting and dining rooms. A complete roundabout involves 47 steps. So ten times that is 470 steps.
Have you watched the ABC about the elderly spending time with the 4 year olds? What a great show! It proves to be very beneficial to both the old and the children.
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April 14, 2021 at 5:59 am |
Yes, Gerard, I like the show with the 4 year olds and the ‘elder’ adults very much. 🙂
I have to ask my GP whether I can take Aspirin as a blood thinner.
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April 16, 2021 at 1:22 am
Yes, it’s best to ask the GP. The ejection fraction is the percentage of blood that the heart ejects at each beat. A healthy heart should eject well over 50%. Too much blood staying behind and pooling in the heart risks blood clots.
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April 16, 2021 at 4:55 am |
Here, Gerard, on the subject of Podi’s…: Alan Bennett’s : “Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet” …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J0XtWtloWE&t=9s
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April 16, 2021 at 3:49 pm |
Language is funny. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of ejection fraction in relation to our blood. I can sort of imagine what it is, but I think it’s called something a bit different on this side of the pond. My mind, knowing of your recent romances of the heart, misread the terms. I was prepared to blush as I read your post.
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April 16, 2021 at 9:12 pm |
Yes, and it reminds me of the US Justice ‘Frankfurter’ who deemed something pornographic and therefore banned, by the angle of his erection after having ‘perused’ the offending material. It was during the trials of Portnoys complaint and DH Lawrénce ‘Lady’s Chatterley lover’. It became known as the ‘Frankfurter test’.
https://www.thefire.org/first-amendment-library/justice/felix-frankfurter/
What an unfortunate name for a judge presiding over pornography. It all reads rather deliciously, don’t you think?
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April 22, 2021 at 11:11 pm |
Is there another blog of yours coming up before the weekend, Gerard? Or maybe not until next week – – – So, I wish you and Annette a very good weekend! 🙂 I too find I am not always in the mood for writing or reading. But I enjoy right now our beautiful autumn weather. I do like sunshine so very much! 🙂
In May I am going to see this movie:
June Again (2020)
M | 1h 39min | Drama | 6 May 2021 (Australia)
Releases May 6, 2021
During a fleeting bout of lucidity from her dementia, June Wilton has precious little time to bring together her estranged children, save the family business, and rekindle an old flame.
Stars: Noni Hazlehurst
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April 23, 2021 at 2:21 am |
Yes, Uta. I wrote another article. How are you going? I don’t go to cinemas anymore as my hearing is so bad that half the time I can’t hear what is being said. So, subtitled foreign movies only.
At home I put on Netflix and that is a wonderful solution as I can put on subtitles and read the text.
I am watching a serial ‘House of Cards’, absolutely brilliant.
In between I see Annette at her place or mine and that is wonderful.
I try and walk 5km daily and have seen the doctor after having a cough that just doesn’t go away. It seems I have a bit of emphysema as a result of past smoking.
Hope you are well, dear Uta.
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April 23, 2021 at 8:34 am
Yes, Gerard, I am well, or let’s say ‘not too bad’. I hope I can improve a bit over time. In hospital the other day, all the test they did showed, that I am in good health! So I could go back home the same day with some new blood pressure tablets because my blood pressure was still much too high. My doctor is very concerned that I might have a stroke if the blood pressure is not treated adequately.
This video I found very interesting:
I can’t see anything wrong in treating ‘the underlying causes’ of high blood pressure. I think, I tend to be rather anxious and worried about having to do everything very, very slowly. I try now to spend some time each day with meditation. This helps me to relax, so that I do not let myself feel at all rushed, no matter what, but that doing things at my own pace does really start to feel very okay! 🙂
I hope, dear Gerard, that you get good treatment so that the coughing may get better.
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April 24, 2021 at 3:36 am |
Yes, Uta.
I did not read any underlying causes or perhaps one has to ask the doctor.
I have the opposite. Low blood pressure. Even so I take blood thinners. Perhaps we put too much trust in doctors!
My coughing is probably related to my smoking days, thirty years ago. We shall see when I go next to the doctor.
I am looking forward to going to Canberra next week to see the Van Gogh and Botticelli exhibition at the NGC. Annette and I are going by bus organized by our local Art Gallery in Bowral.
It should be a nice day.
Keep well, dear Uta and don’t worry.
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May 24, 2021 at 2:31 pm |
Not had mine, but I’m only 61. Waiting for them to say it is not necessary, or win/get offered a trip abroad when it will be mandatory. I’m sure I have low ejection fluid whatever it is, as well.
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