Our Vaccine Journey, Part 1

Where do I begin? Well, this is likely going to be a 2 or 3 part series of posts. I have a lot of information and thoughts I'd like to convey.

Team Moderna, baby!

      March is here! We are finally eligible to get a vaccine. Given our genetic blood disorder, we thought we’d be one of the first to get it... But hey, that's the public health system for you, right? No matter; we can finally get this show on the road! It was a nerve racking drive to the pharmacy to receive our vaccine, because of the possible transmission of the virus before we even get vaccinated.

      We would rather have gone to our doctor's office, but they were all left out of the equation. We had to make our own appointment at a pharmacy. Making this trip after being at home for a whole year was stressful; constantly worrying we might catch this crap, end up in the hospital or worse, die.

      After we received our first vaccine, we sat in the waiting room for half an hour, just in case a reaction occurred. Afterwards I had some dizziness, my heart raced a little more than it should have, but after half an hour we were good to go! Off we went back to the car, wiping our phones and hands off with alcohol wipes. Sprayed our clothes with sanitizer when we arrived at our house, and took off our shoes before entering. It was finally over, we had our first vaccine!

      Good thing we were both already on an antihistamine, because I finally had a reaction 5 days later. My shot area developed the 'coved arm'; a bright splotchy round rash over the vaccine shot site. Other than that, all good! Harmony had no reactions at all, but that was to be expected if you were younger. I treated it by applying cold Aloe Vera and ice packs to it, and the 'Covid arm' rash went away within a week.

      My biggest gripe is that the government left doctors out of the vaccination process. Especially when some patients may be at such a high risk that walking through a store to receive a vaccine at the pharmacy isn’t an option. It more than pissed me off. We went in with goggles, K-N95s, rubber gloves and hoodies that covered our hair. We probably looked crazy, but I didn't care.

Part 2: Coming next, our second vaccine shot journey and reactions we had. Oh yes, there's more, but honestly, it was all worth it!