Every day a new adventure. Events that occur through the course of a day that are mostly gladly accepted, and others, far less frequently, that can disturb the cadence of life. When you awake in the morning you can either think it's another routine day, or leaven it with the unspoken thought that this new day may bring something unusual to your experience.

Yesterday did both; positive and negative. It was a day when we had to work around a 2:00 p.m. appointment at the group medical practise our general practitioner is part of. Not to see him, but to keep an appointment with the nurse who dispenses vaccines. She had called several weeks back to schedule a new bone density test for me. The last one had indicated my bone density fell into 'average' for my age, but our doctor prescribed a special calcium drug to build up my bone density.

When I read the details of the drug performance and its potential side effects which elaborated on what our doctor had told me, I decided to forgo the drug figuring I take enough medication deemed essential to maintain the balance of my health and wasn't interested in taking another drug. I explained to the nurse there was no need for a follow-up test to determine how effective the drug had been since I hadn't accepted the protocol.

She listened, and I could imagine her nodding her head through the telephone line. Then she suggested that at my age a vaccine against pneumonia might be a good idea. It's a vaccine my husband took after his open-heart surgery. At the same time she recommended a routine upgrading of vaccine for pertussis, tetanus and diphtheria for both of us, and so the appointment was made.

Consequently, to fit everything neatly into the day, we embarked on a later morning romp in the ravine. We weren't certain what the conditions would be like, given a snowstorm the night before when about 8 cm of snow had come down. But we discovered that enough other hikers had been out before us to tamp down a narrow trail through the snow and that enabled our progress with no difficulty. A mild day just hovering on freezing with no wind, the landscape was a shimmering white oasis of loveliness.

We all, including our little dogs Jackie and Jillie took our time loping along the trails. The loftier depth of the snow on either side of the trails didn't deter our little dogs from occasional forays onto the forest floor to satisfy their curiosity and sense of adventure. And because it was early in the day we weren't concerned over the possible appearance of coyotes, more likely to emerge with the dawn or the entry of dusk.

Afterward.we were just in time for our appointment. And when that was done with, we went off to do our weekly grocery shopping. On our return home loaded up with groceries, Jackie and Jillie anxiously hopeful, we doled out slices of broccoli stems to our vegetable-ravenous poppies, and a few doggy cookies. My husband went out to clear the snow off the porch and the walkways at the front of the house which he had already done earlier in the day in the backyard.

And then, the left arm which had received the pneumonia vaccine began to throb. Soon it went beyond a mere throb; it became outright painful; it was obvious that arm had begun to swell. The right arm where the mixed vaccine was delivered was also declaring itself uncomfortable but nothing near the agony of the left, despite the nurse had said it would be that vaccine that might cause some discomfort.

Around bedtime I had a low-grade fever and chills as my arm throbbed painfully and my stomach churned. I took an Ibuprofen, something I rarely succumb to, having no need to. My husband found himself in some discomfort but nothing like to the extent that I was straining with. Leading us to wonder whether after all, it was worth it, to have those vaccines administered. A doubt that will disappear in the coming days as we return to normal.