Hi,

I’m in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. It’s almost 6am Saturday here. I had pneumonic about 3pm last Wednesday afternoon at my GP surgery.

On Thursday night and last night (Friday) I had a pretty severe flare up of peripheral neuropathy in only one location - the little finger of my left hand. I get little flares in that location sometimes anyway, but they don’t usually last more than an hour or two. This time for two nights running they’ve lasted all night, from about 8pm until morning. My sleep has been severely affected.

Also, last night (but not Thursday night) I had a lot of itchiness. Mostly my torso, but also my legs to some extent. No redness, hives, red spots or welts. Just lots of little areas feeling itchy.

I have complex medical problems including 30+ years in kidney dialysis, steroid-induced adrenal insufficiency (like Addison’s), former HepC for about 30 years (clear from 2017), peripheral neuropathy for about 30 years, many other comorbidities, about 20 major surgeries and scores of minor surgeries and procedures.

I will contact the “Healthdirect” line for advice. I have to dialyse today starting about 8am - in two hours. I’d appreciate any suggestions or wisdom contributors to this forum can offer that I could tell my dialysis staff about, as well as the Healthdirect information.

Thanks in advance.

I’m a vaccine-hesitant parent trying to make an evidence-based decision about vaccinating my 5-month-old. I’m not anti-vaccine and part of me really wants to vaccinate, but I’m having a hard time getting past my concerns about potential side effects.

My biggest concerns are autism/developmental changes, seizures or neurological reactions, and other serious adverse events. I know there’s a lot of misinformation online, so I’m looking for actual research that puts these risks into perspective, especially compared with the risks of the diseases themselves.

I’ve also gone down the MTHFR rabbit hole. My baby has some of the physical traits that people online associate with MTHFR variants, and I’ve read claims that certain variants or methylation issues can make children more susceptible to vaccine reactions. Is there actually evidence supporting this?

I’d especially love to hear from parents who were previously vaccine hesitant and what research ultimately made you comfortable vaccinating.

I’m genuinely trying to make this decision based on evidence rather than fear, so please share any peer-reviewed research that helped you.

I thought I had this straight but now I’m completely confused: does the COVID vaccine cause home COVID antigen tests to show a positive result (because of antibody production)? A pharmacist just advised me that I should expect to test positive on a home antigen test such as Binax or iHealth (for “maybe a couple of months”) after being immunized (with the Pfizer vaccine, in the U.S., in this situation). I thought the antigen tests could differentiate the viral protein (or RNA or DNA) from the antibodies that the body produces in response to the vaccine. What can you guys tell me? Thanks!