I finished the steroids yesterday, and am feeling significantly better than the first day or so. I'm trying to do things slowly, so I'm not sure whether I'm doing as well now as a month ago.

I have gone back to more of my PT exercises, including the ones that I can't do sitting down. Most recently, the "single-leg balance" exercise. However, the back of my left thigh is now feeling a little sore.

I'm still carrying the cane around the apartment, and trying not to stand around for no reason when I can sit, but I haven't used the cane for support yet today.

Carmen called a little while ago, to see how I was doing. I told her, asked about vaccine timing, and then realized after I got off the phone that I did have more questions.

What she told me:

Yes, two weeks after stopping the steroid would be a plausible (earliest) date for vaccination. She advised against getting the covid and RSV vaccines at the same time, so my tentative plan is to get the covid and flu vaccines in mid-October, then wait three or four weeks for the RSV vaccine. She recommended the Novavax vaccine, though that recomendation is mostly because of fewer side effects, for people who got bad side effects from the mRNA vaccines.

She didn't have advice on whether I should still be extra-careful about exposure to covid and other infections, she hadn't thought about that until I asked.

So I called Pamela, the nurse at the MS clinic. She said that I should try to avoid sick people for a month or so, and wear a mask if I can't do that. In practice I think that means resuming my normal level of caution (N-95 mask), and maybe hold off on getting my teeth cleaned.* Pamela also said that any vaccination is more likely to be effective if I wait three or four weeks instead of two, but I may not want to wait that long for a flu vaccine.

What I thought of after the call: do I still need to avoid NSAIDs, and if so, for how long? Similarly, is it OK to resume taking the Yuvafem (estradiol) on Wednesday (i.e. return to my regular schedule)? I sent a MyChart message asking about those things.

* I don't currently have an appointment for a cleaning. I need to find out (a) do they even do that at the dentist's office on Beacon Street? (b) if not, is the dentist really going to be seeing people in Watertown Square again? And (c) is it feasible to go to Belmont and see my usual hygienist, without transferring my other care to Gentle Dental? If at all possible, I'm sticking with the current dentist until we're done with the implants.
I saw my doctor today, by telemedicine, and she thinks the level of precautions the three of us were taking last week is still reasonable, despite having lost Evusheld. Lost in this case means it's not useful against the most recent covid variants, including the one now dominant in New England.

So, as long as I keep wearing N95 masks everywhere indoors except at home, I can keep doing some of my own shopping, and riding the T to go places and do things that are low-enough risk while I'm there.

Based on that discussion I made a new appointment to see her in person in two weeks to have a wart removed. I'd meant to ask about museums, and will probably send her a query about that via MyChart.

* The drug I'm taking to hopefully prevent MS exacerbations takes out all B cells. I am vaccinated and boosted, and I hope that gave me enough T cells to do me some good, but I had no detectable covid antibodies two weeks after my third full dose of the mRNA vaccine.
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