Adventures in Vaccinations

I got my 5th COVID shot yesterday, this time, the bivalent version that protects against the Omicron variants.  On the face of it, that's not a remarkable sentence.  But I had a significantly different experience this time than I've had recently, so it seems worthy of a blog post.

My reaction to the vaccine wasn't noticeably different, although this time, I haven't (so far) gotten much in the way of side effects except for a sore arm.  I got my last booster on March 31, and by the time I went as a student to my online class, I was feeling headachy chills.  I could watch my condition changing as I was on Zoom for 3 hours.  I woke up the next morning feeling better.

I know that some people have increasingly more difficult side effects with each booster, so I wanted to have the booster at a time when I could take it easy for a day or two if necessary.  This week-end was perfect, since I have no travel planned, no face to face visits, and a light load of homework/long term work for classes I take and classes I teach.

In South Florida, there's so little demand for the vaccine that one doesn't have to make an appointment.  My spouse had a similar experience earlier this week in North Carolina--the local grocery store pharmacy had no customers, so my spouse inquired and was able to get his COVID booster and a flu shot.  I decided to try to go to a grocery store too.

I could never find the Safeway.  I had looked it up on Google Maps, and it looked fairly straight forward; I did not use my magical phone.  I knew it wouldn't be a suburban grocery store with a huge parking lot, but I hoped to find street parking or a parking garage.  When I couldn't, I kept going in the hopes of a Trader Joe's--not to get a vaccine, but to do some shopping.  I knew that there were 2 locations on Wisconsin, but I couldn't find the one closest to me.  The one further away had no parking anywhere close that I could find.

I got a bit lost as I tried to head home, and I finally pulled over into an elementary school parking lot to get directions.  Feeling gratitude for this technology, I let the phone guide me home.  

I didn't want to give up on getting a vaccine, so I tried making an appointment at various drug stores.  There weren't any appointments available until late next week or October.  I thought about how much driving I had done in the morning.  I widened my search.  Finally I found a same day appointment for a drugstore in Frederick, Maryland.  At the time, I though Frederick was only about 15 miles away, so that seemed doable.

It's a bit further, but it's an easy trip on the Interstate--although there was slow traffic in places I didn't expect. But happily, I was able to find the CVS and get my shots.  With a flu shot in one arm and a booster shot in the other, I headed home and only had a bit of early rush hour slow down.

I don't drive the car very much, so it was good to give it a drive. I probably won't drive it again this week. There's a lack of parking in the city, so I tend to go to nearby grocery stores and buy what I need and can carry. So far, it's working. When I go to visit people like my sister or my parents, I stock up on heavier things like bags of flour or cans. 

Last night I waited for symptoms to start, but they didn't.  This morning, still no side effects aside from the sore arm--hurrah!  I have said before that I would get the COVID vaccine, even if I knew I would have a day or two of significant side effects; I really want to avoid COVID and boosters seem like a powerful tool.  

I have never gotten a flu shot.  Since 1998 we've lived in South Florida where there's not much flu.  But this year, I'm in DC, where there's flu and strangers and soon we'll be spending more time indoors.

I'm becoming the opposite of an anti-vaxxer.  I want all the vaccines, even if there's not much risk of the disease.  I'll start, though, with the diseases that pose the most risk to me.  Next up, I need a tetanus shot; I had my last one  in 2013.

Today after my quilting zoom group, I'll walk to a nearby farmer's market.  I feel lucky that I have so few side effects from my immunization adventures that I can do this.