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MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Does My Arm Hurt After Getting A Flu Shot?

Gotten your flu shot yet this year? If you have, good on you! If you haven’t…do it!

 

If you’ve ever gotten a flu shot in your life, though, your upper arm probably felt sore for a day or two. And, according to immunologists, that’s just a sign that the vaccine’s doing what it’s supposed to.

 

The way the influenza vaccine works, it introduces a foreign substance called an antigen into your body, which, in this case, is a deactivated/“dead” virus similar to the flu. When you expose cells in your immune system to an antigen, it “primes” them to create antibodies if/when they ever encounter that foreign substance again. Because it’s an inactive virus in the vaccine, it can’t make you sick. But, it does sensitize your immune system to potential threats. So, basically, the vaccine puts your body on high alert for anything resembling the flu, which enables you to fight off infections & illnesses faster & more effectively than without the vaccine.

 

When it takes on that inactive flu virus, your immune system also puts out histamines. They cause inflammation, which is important during an infection, since it helps your body fight off the bad stuff & repair damage. But, that’s also what causes soreness. The flu shot, usually injected into your upper arm, is why your body’s early immune response (and pain) tends to be concentrated there.

 

Around 1-in-5 people have this sort of painful reaction. But, if you tend to be sore after receiving a flu shot, there are a few things you can do to alleviate the pain. Doctors advise taking ibuprofen about 2 hours before getting the shot. Also, try putting ice on the injection site to reduce redness & swelling. Be sure to move your arm around after getting the shot, too, so the vaccine isn’t as concentrated in just the one place. Aside from that, try getting the vaccine in your non-dominant arm so any pain doesn’t interfere with your everyday activities.

 

Any pain is worth it, though, since odds are that you could get the flu in the future, even if you’ve never gotten the flu before. And, getting a flu shot contributes to herd immunity, as well, helping to protect those around you at higher-risk like children, older adults, and those with chronic illnesses who often can’t get the flu vaccine themselves. Keep your vaccines up-to-date! It’s an easy way to help keep your community healthy, and, with most insurances, it’s free!

 

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Why Do We Wear Costumes At Halloween?

Though it’ll probably look & feel a bit different this year (thanks COVID), Halloween’s almost here. And everyone is trying to figure out exactly how they want to dress up. But why do we put on costumes on “All Hallows’ Eve”?

There’s no single explanation for how the tradition of wearing Halloween costumes originated. Much like Halloween itself, our ritual of dressing up is the result of a hodgepodge of traditions from across the ages & around the world.

A lot of historians suspect it comes from the Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. Samhain marked the official start of winter, known to Celts as “the dark season’, when it was believed that the world of the gods was “made visible to humankind”.

That idea made the Celts a bit uneasy, since they believed their deities liked to play tricks on human worshippers. So, many festival-goers would disguise themselves as animals or beasts to hide from any malevolent spirits that might bring them misfortune.

If you were to fast forward a few hundred years, the modern-day practice of dressing up & trick-or-treating has its roots in the European custom of “mumming & guising.” Mummers were folks who’d dress up in costumes, a lot of times woven from straw, to perform plays & songs for neighbors in exchange for food. Scottish & Irish immigrants brought that tradition over here to North America, where it later morphed into what we now know as trick-or-treating.

It wasn’t until the mid-1900s, however, that Halloween costumes really hit their stride. And we have New York City entrepreneurs Ben & Nat Cooper to thank for that. They started a company (Ben Cooper, Inc.) that produced inexpensive pop culture-themed costumes to help kids become the characters they idolized from TV & comic books. The company would oftentimes purchase merchandising rights before characters ever even became popular. Thanks in no small part to the Coopers’ innovation, Halloween costumes became an accessible & even necessary part of holiday festivities.

Today, Halloween costumes are big business. According to the National Retail Federation Americans will spend about $3.2 billion on costumes this year (of which, about half a billion will go to costuming our pets). I just wonder what the ancient Celts might have thought about our Halloween costumes nowadays.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

{Katie’s Kitchen} Special Glaze Salmon

Brought to you by Catoctin Mountain Orchard.

Who likes Chick-fil-A?!!?!?! ….now what about their chick-fil-a sauce?? Yes! It’s so good.

One of my friends posted this recipe that she made up because she also is obsessed with the sauce, so I had to steal 🙂

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

I used 1lb of fresh Atlantic salmon that I got from a local seafood deli and placed it on a baking sheet with parchment paper/ foil (I always ask for it to be skinned; your choice!).

In a small bowl, scoop out one container of the chick-fil-a sauce, then add 1 tbsp. of brown sugar and 1 tbsp. of Dijon mustard. Mix together!

Then spread evenly over your salmon (Double if you have more salmon).

Bake for 20 minutes. ENJOY!

INGREDIENTS:

-1 container Chick-fil-A sauce

-1 tbsp. brown sugar

-1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

-1 lb. Fresh Atlantic Salmon

 

 

{Katie’s Baby Blog} Baby #2!

Another baby GIRL on the way!!!

We are all so excited and I can’t wait to see Lily with a little sister. I think she is going to be such a sweet little helper. She already loved to play “house” and pretend to be a “Mommy” with her dolls.

She likes to change and feed the and carry them around and give them kisses. So, I can’t wait to see her with our new baby.

Right now, I am 14 weeks! We just found out the gender and baby girl is as big as an orange!

Again, I had serious nausea and vomiting from week 7-13; something I had with Lily, but this time seemed to be worse. So I’m VERY happy to be pretty much done with that. Insomnia is setting in now on top of me already being extremely tired. So juggling an early work schedule, a 2 year old and just being exhausted in general has been a little bit rough. I’m hoping I start getting some of that energy back now that I’m out of the first trimester.

I’m super excited for this baby girl to get to wear all of the cute clothes that I ALREADY have from Lily 😉

<3 Katie Ryan

 

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: Do Crosswalk Buttons Actually Do Anything?

 

Crosswalks rarely give you the green light (or, to be more specific, the human-shaped white light) after you press the button, so you’ve probably wondered if those buttons even work. The answer is…it depends.

 

The first thing you should know: crosswalk buttons aren’t designed to be immediate. They just tell the system someone’s waiting to cross. Some systems around the country won’t give pedestrians the crossing signal at all unless someone presses the button. Others shorten wait times for walkers once the button’s been pushed. But, no matter what, the traffic light system still has to cycle through all its programmed phases to give vehicles enough time to go through the intersection. Regardless, you’re probably gonna have to stand there a while.

 

During busy traffic times, or under other extenuating circumstances, cities can switch the system to something called “recall mode”. That’s where pedestrian crossings are already part of the cycle & pressing the button makes no difference whatsoever. Unfortunately, there’s no way you can tell if a particular button’s in recall mode…unless you were to call up city officials & ask a tech to come inspect it. (Good luck with that.)

 

If you feel like a button isn’t doing anything, it’s a safe bet that it’s been permanently deactivated. As congestion’s increased & the systems managing it have become more advanced over time, some cities have moved away from using crosswalk buttons at all. Like New York City, which CNN reported in 2018 had only about 100 of its 1000 buttons still functioning. And, since removing the crosswalk buttons would cost a pretty penny, cities usually opt to leave them intact, just waiting to be pounded by exasperated pedestrians who are none the wiser.

Got a Mundane Mystery you’d like solved? Send me a message via social media (@AndyWebbRadioVoice), or shoot me an email at [email protected].

How it Started Challenge!

Whether its a comparison of how things were when the pandemic started vs now, the beginning of your relationship vs now, then and now for 2020 or a weight loss journey….Here’s my #HowItStarted Challenge from Fire in Ice in February to the present day:

What would yours look like? #HowItStarted

Posted by Gabby on 99.9 WFRE on Monday, October 12, 2020

 

{Katie’s Kitchen} Mummy Hot Dogs

Brought to you by Catoctin Mountain Orchard.

Happy Halloween! Here is a cute treat that your kids will love for lunch or dinner. It’s so easy, too.

All you need are crescent rolls, hot dogs, cheese (optional), mustard. Pre-heat the oven to 375

Open up the crescent rolls and roll out the dough so it is one flat rectangle, press together all of the perforations.

Using a pizza cutter, cut the rectangle lengthwise into strips. If adding cheese, cut that into thin strips, too.

Wrap pieces of dough around each hot dog to look like “bandages” leaving a little room at the top for the “face.” If adding cheese, lay that down on the hot dog and wrap dough around it.

Place wrapped hot dogs (cheese side down) on parchment paper on a sheet pan; spray dough lightly with cooking spray.

Bake 15-17 minutes until dough is light golden brown.

Use a toothpick to dip into mustard and make dot eyes on the “face.”

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 can 8 oz refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
  • 1 Package hot dogs
  • Cooking spray
  • 2 1/2 slices American cheese optional
  • Mustard or ketchup for eyes, if desired

 

 

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