Coincidence

 A few weeks ago I went to the pharmacy to get my second COVID booster. I understood they took walk-ins, but was informed that I needed an appointment. So I walked back home without one. The next day I woke up with my first cold in a couple of years. It felt like someone was jamming one of those test swabs up my nose.

If I had gotten the booster shot as I'd hoped, I would have blamed it for my cold symptoms: "I was fine with those first three shots, but that second booster really did a number on me."

If I had gotten the booster, I would almost certainly have made a mistake about boosters. If I had gotten the booster, I might also have avoided getting COVID a couple weeks later. 

My COVID symptoms were fairly mild: runny nose, sore throat, and a cough, all of which lasted only a few days. But the morning I tested positive, I also had severe pain in my right leg from my butt to my foot. The symptoms are typical of a pinched sciatic nerve.

There is some evidence of COVID causing neural pain, but it's sketchy. Chances are, my first serious bout of sciatica happened to coincide with the virus and did not result from it. But I'm tempted to associate the the two. I mean, what are the odds?

Once again, I'm reminded not to be too sure of myself. I hate that.

I dunno... Maybe I should just go with making anecdotal claims and damn the data and the consequences. Seems a popular thing to do these days.