A note of explanation, from (Z): The last month has been pretty shaky, production-wise, particularly on the weekends. At least one time, that was due to problems with e-mail. But mostly it's due to medication. I have to take a GLP-1 (Mounjaro) to control blood sugar, and I inject it on Thursdays. That puts as much distance between "injection" and "teaching class" as is possible.

Five weeks ago, the doctors decided to increase the dose, from 5 mg to 7.5. Then, about a week ago, they decided to increase it again, to 10 mg. Thursday morning was the first time I took the new dosage. With this particular drug, sometimes the bad reactions, if there are any, can come days after the injection. Not so this time; on Thursday night, midway through work on the Friday post, and about 10 hours after the injection, I developed violent chills, and was shaking so badly that I could not type. That lasted about 5 hours, and then transitioned into being burning hot and having a 103-degree fever. That lasted another 5 hours or so, and since then it has been 24 hours of really bad joint pain, particularly in my lower back (which makes it hard to sit in a desk chair). That part is finally fading.

This has happened before, a few times. I am not 100% sure exactly what is going on, but hypoglycemia seems a very good possibility. My blood sugar, when I checked it (about an hour into the chills/shakes phase) was not four-alarm-fire low (say, 20), but it was pretty low (55).

Anyhow, I pass this along for two reasons: (1) to make clear that we do not cancel posts at the last minute unless we absolutely have to, and (2) to avoid any sense of mystery about what's wrong. People might fill in the blanks and think there is something life-threatening in play here, like cancer/chemo, and there isn't.

We will post what should have been the Friday posting tomorrow (Sunday). And next week, I will finish as much of the Friday post as I can before I take the damn shot.

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