How Fully Immunized Feels

It’s been an entire week (and one day) since I’ve been fully immunized. Two and Two. (That’s two doses followed by two weeks for maximum protection.) I know that we’re still waiting for a determination as to whether we’ll need a booster shot or if that potential booster shot would be yearly but that’s for Future Me to worry about.

The question for Present Me is: How do I feel?

After the initial bout of second dose side effects that went away after almost three days, I’m fine. No aches, no pains, no fevers; back to my normal.

More importantly, I’m relieved and that relief is palpable. I’m down to regular levels of stress and anxiety and that in itself is a relief.

There’s a lightness in the air that wasn’t there a few weeks ago. It’s like the weight of the world was lifted off of our collective shoulders. I see it wherever I look. More people in the stores, the restaurants, and on the roads. (Honestly, I didn’t miss the traffic. At all.) People are more apt to talk and smile behind their masks rather than be hesitant and step away. At least in the places I’ve been there’s a feeling of we’re all in this together.

My writing group is getting back together – still outdoors, but most of us are now fully vaccinated. My retreat house is doing hybrid retreats with some attending in-house and some over Zoom. I’ve done both, and while I love Zoom and will continue to attend over Zoom, I miss the atmosphere of the retreat house that I really can’t get at home with a house full of people (even when those people are being relatively cooperative). I go to church in person at least once a week and I’m thinking about returning on Sundays.

We’re talking about hugging friends again.

We’re talking about visiting family.

My husband went out Friday night for a work dinner and Sunday morning went for his first dose of the vaccine.

My son is planning on seeing Black Widow in the movie theatre. I’m still a little hesitant, but by July I may feel differently, and in five weeks he’ll be fully vaccinated.

I don’t know, however, how I feel about a return to what was considered “normal”. I don’t know if I want to go back to what was routine a little more than a year ago. While my calendar is filling up again, I’m thinking twice about what I want to spend my time on and I’m starting to say no to some things.

I also noticed that throughout the pandemic, my children’s principal (at the high school) emailed us (all parents) a minimum of once a week to keep us up to date and updated on what was going on at the high school with not only covid-related notices, but regular school information. This would have never happened without the pandemic. At the high school level, you don’t hear from the teachers or principal unless there’s a problem. I found this communication to be a positive and welcome practice, and I respect and appreciate the extra time that it takes for the principal to maintain this level of involvement with parents in addition to their regular duties.

I would never say that this has been a blessing – it hasn’t, and for the majority of the country, it hasn’t in tragic and profound ways – but we’ve been very blessed and I recognize the privilege we have with my husband working from home and my younger children being able to continue school at home with a minimum of change. We’ve spent more time together, watched streaming movies, went on drives, cooked more, and have been well overall.

As a first responder and frontline health care worker respectively, my oldest son and his girlfriend never stopped working and were the first in our family to receive the vaccine. For any parent, their children’s health and safety comes before their own, and I was relieved when they were one of the first in our state to be eligible.

What I want to do now is remember and not dismiss the tragedy of the past year but also take from it the positives that we’ve encountered and move forward with intention.

One Dose Down!

COVID VACCINE THOUGHTS AND REACTION Updated 3/17/21 – see below

This post perfectly aligns with yesterday’s inspire for March: gratitude. I am truly grateful to have received my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Much gratitude to all the doctors, nurses, health care workers, scientists, named and unnamed whose hands guided this moment to fruition. I said all along that I would take the vaccine when and if Dr. Fauci and Ron Klain said it was safe – they have, and I did. And I will also shout out a thanks to President Biden and his Administration for the roll-out!

At the FEMA site I received my vaccine at, it could not have gone smoother. Everything was very organized. There was plenty of parking and a shuttle to bring us to the site. The wait was minimal. I was in and out even before my scheduled time.

Knowing myself I did not eat breakfast. I have a nervous stomach when I’m unfamiliar with a place or what’s coming next. I did bring a bottle of water, although they had bottles of water to take.

A few notes:

Wear short sleeves – it’s easier to get jabbed that way.
It was recommended that I receive the shot in my dominant arm – they said that it hurts less in the long run.
No pictures were allowed in the medical area, but on the way to the exit was a sign for selfies. I am happy to say that I was not the only one taking selfies – there were at least two other dorks.
There’s a fifteen minute wait for observation, all socially distanced. You need to keep track of your own time, but there was a large clock at the front of the seating area.
If you’re getting the Pfizer or Moderna, they will give you a card with your next appointment – same time, same place.
They recommended staying hydrated and provided water bottles to take with you when the observation period was over.

Reaction:

It’s been about two hours, and I have no reaction or side effects. My arm doesn’t hurt at all, and didn’t since the initial poke. Gently touching it also does not hurt at all.

If anything changes or develops, I will update.

UPDATE 3/17/21: About 13 hours after the initial shot, I began to feel a little pain at the injection site – very, very little, minor pain, but more than was there all day. Waking up this morning, about 20 hours after the shot, I was a little stiff, but I rotated my arm and stretched and now all that remains is minor pain from the needle. No swelling, no hotness, no redness.

Yesterday afternoon, I did feel a bit achy and tired, but I can’t tell if that’s a reaction or my normal Tuesday afternoon. I’m inclined to think it’s just me and unrelated to the vaccine.

Quick is a Relative Term

A very quick note about the next two posts. The timing is a bit off. They were both supposed to post late last week or very early this week. Unfortunately, I had my yearly physical on Monday, and it was deemed that I receive a pneumococcal pneumonia (not sure if that’s redundant) vaccine. Which hurt. A lot. But I was fine. On Tuesday, I was tired, but I went to morning mass and then grocery shopping. By the time I came home from grocery shopping, I couldn’t lift my arm higher than my chest. I started feeling very warm, but then I was cold. By dinnertime, I was definitely ill. Fever, aches, ear ringing. I spent two full days in my pajamas drifting from bed to sofa and back again. I’m still not all the way well, but the fever’s been gone for days, the aches are tolerable and going, my ears are still ringing, but that is somewhat “normal” although not usually quite this loud. I was able to lift my arm higher so I was able to shower and that makes me feel more human, so I did get out of the house and do a couple of errands and made some phone calls that I had put off.

I’ve been told by friends who know (medical people) that this is most likely NOT a vaccine reaction. Live vaccines, like this one and the flu one sometimes make us sick. I’ve come to expect it with the flu vaccine. Good news: if all goes well, I won’t need a booster until I’m 65.

It is also precious little sacrifice for the immunity it will give me and those around me because the last thing I want is for them (and me) to receive life-threatening, yet preventable diseases.

I hope to get back on track this week, slowly, but there’s so much to do – Lent to prepare for, St. Patrick’s Day, retreat, interfaith dinner, Captain Marvel, my daughter’s musical, memoir workshops, and art, so it’s probably time to begin.

50-7 – Sick. Bleh.

In Food, posted Monday, I mentioned eating sweet potatoes when I was sick. The truth is I was almost never sick. I had the chicken pox like everyone of my generation and got a week off from school, staring out of the front window of our apartment with my brother who also had them that week. But I was never sick. I didn’t get colds, no ear infections. While my friends were out sick, I was always in school. I did miss senior skip day and I never went to class in college (or work later on) on my birthday and while I always worked Christmas, I never worked New Year’s. I also never called in because of having too much to drink.

So I was completely stunned when in my 20s, working for a child development center for the US Navy, I got an ear infection. Having never had one before I had no idea what it was except that I was certain that I was dying. The pain was unbearable. I tried to lie down to make it stop, not realizing that is pretty much the worst thing you can do for an ear infection. When I finally got diagnosed and on antibiotics, I thanked G-d for science and medicine and medical advances that would remove that pain.

Since then, I have had a few more ear infections, chronic ringing in my ears (thanks Stray Cats) and hearing loss (again, thank SC), but I still never really get sick.

My second pregnancy.

One or two bouts of food poisoning and a couple of flus, all after my kids were born. Kids wear you down. They really do.

I am pro-vaccine. I feel the need to say that in this world of maybe science doesn’t work, but science does work and vaccines save lives. I have the mark on my left shoulder from the small pox vaccine that my kids will never get because we eradicated it and no longer need a small pox vaccine in this country. I went to Jonas E. Salk Middle School, named for the man who discovered the vaccine against polio, a disease that killed our thirty-second president.

On Monday, I had my yearly physical, complete with a tetanus booster. I moaned in that childlike way of no like shots, but I took it and there was no doubt that I would.

It hurt for that split second and I went about my day, getting my hair cut, eating lunch which fit into my new prescribed diet (except for the diet coke which so far is the last one I’ve had). I watched Major Crimes. I slept and got up on Tuesday and went grocery shopping. I felt great.

Then I felt fine.

then I was achey and whiney, and my head was throbbing and I had a fever, but I was so cold that I needed a blanket and then another. I fell asleep in my office chair, which is an overstuffed living room chair.

I barely ate dinner. My eyes hurt (which is why I haven’t been here as often as I had planned), even as I listened to Containment on the television.

Wednesday was slightly better but not by much.

On Thursday, I was able to leave my bed, eat lunch and go to my meeting for the day of service for my church. I’m the secretary.

I will be calling the doctor today, although I should have called on Wednesday morning. I have never had a reaction to a vaccine before. Obviously, this is better than getting any of the things the Tdap prevents, but it was still pretty miserable.

I couldn’t even watch television which is usually very comforting when I ‘m not feeling well. Sweet potatoes and the blue glow of the television used to be the only medicine I needed.

Take your shots kids (and adults) and have some extra water, fruit, Netflix, wifi, and of course, sweet potatoes on hand. Just in case.