Vaccinated

 How are vaccines going in your neck of the woods?

In New York they have been slow with an onerous procedure to try to get an appointment.

My oldest daughter was the first in our family to be eligible as she works in a hospital emergency room and a school.  Her hospital coordinated the appointments and has finished the 2 shot protocol.  She had some mild side effects following each dose which kept her in bed for a day.

Martha was in the next eligible group, working in a school.  Again, the school reserved a window of appointments at a local hospital and most of the staff received their doses on the same day.  Of course, the school forgot about the side effects so after each round of shots, a majority of teachers called in sick the following two days with body aches, fatigue and other symptoms.  Lack of staff caused in-school closures. Poor planning.

I was eligible in the 3rd group - the people older than dirt category.  But with no agency sponsoring me, I was on my own to try to get an appointment.  There was a website setup which listed the available sites and whether appointments were available.  But as soon as some were available, they were snatched up.  The trick seemed to be to get on the site after midnight and keep hitting ‘refresh’ until something opened and then be able to sign up in a nanosecond or it was gone.  I finally got an appointment for the end of March at a local university.  Many people were getting appointments for their parents, but had to drive 4 hours away for a site with available vaccines.  

But then last week Beaner called me to say that a friend of hers who works in a sister hospital said that because of the impending snow storm, they had a number of cancellations and if I could get there within the hour I could get the shot.  I drove thru the snow got the Moderna shot on a Monday afternoon and felt well enough to do the snow blowing a few times on Tuesday.  But Wednesday morning I woke up feeling like someone had poured concrete into all my joints and I slept most of the day.   And then I was fine again.  

I get my second dose on March 1st and have made no plans for the following days as I’ve heard that the side effects could be worse.  But then I hope, taking all other precautions, to be able to  go visit my daughter in Florida.  I will have to quarantine upon my return but that’s not a problem.  Oh wait, and that rule seems to have changed too.  It’s hard to stay current on all the protocols.  I am now reading that the appointment procedure has now also changed and it should be much easier to get scheduled.  I hope so.

I have not been out and about much due to the pandemic.  Having the vaccine has made me feel a little more confident about exposure to other people.  Having an adult as President has made me feel much more confident about the future health of our country.  Now if we could just get a vaccine against hate and stupidity . . .

Hope springs eternal.