The First Dose

A little over a week ago, I received my first COVID-19 vaccine. 

Idaho teachers were moved up as a priority group a couple of weeks ago and deservedly so. Have you seen the Petri dish in which we work?

 

Was I scared? Goodness no! (Cue the Pete the Cat reference for my elementary school teacher friends.) 

 

I scheduled my appointment the night it opened up to educators.

 

For anyone wondering if they should get their vaccine when it becomes available, let me share my experience so far. (Spoiler alert: You should get vaccinated.) 

 

One of my music teacher friends said she had to stand in line for an hour when she arrived for her appointment. And after seeing the long lines on the national news and hearing about vaccine distribution problems here in Idaho, I showed up to my appointment with a book.

 

I also followed the rules laid out on my appointment app and brought my employee badge, medical insurance card, and driver's license. I didn't need any of them. (I'm guessing, since I had been a previous patient in this particular healthcare network, that my information was in the system.)

 

I did need the QR code from the appointment app, however, and I had it pulled up on my phone when I drove into the parking lot. It disappeared by the time I walked through the clinic door.

 

I still don't know what that was all about.

 

"You have a lot in your hands," the healthcare worker at front desk said as she was trying to sanitize me. 

"I thought I might be in line for a while," I said. 

But I wasn't. It ran like a well-oiled machine.

She gave me a surgical mask to wear over my face covering. I started wearing two masks when we returned to school in-person, so now I was wearing three masks. I was triple protected.

 

The clinic employee at the kiosk helped me check in manually. Did I mention the QR code had disappeared off my phone?

"Are you excited?" she asked.

"I don't think I've been so excited for a shot in my life."

 

"That's how I felt when I got mine." 

We talked about my music classroom and the movie, Soul, while people jumped in front of me in line.

We said goodbye, and I got in line, following the socially distanced stickers down the hall until a room freed up. I didn't feel anything, barely a poke from the needle. For a split second, I wondered if I had even received the vaccine.

 

I made my appointment for my booster and sat in waiting area for the 15-minute monitoring period.

 

I didn't read my book at that time either. Instead, I took vaccination card selfies for Facebook.

 

 

 

I know it sounds weird, but I am trying to remember every part of my COVID vaccine journey. I feel as though I am a part of history, like the stories of the kids who lined up to get their polio vaccines back in the 1950's.

 

Not Throwin' Away My Shot!

For the first dose, I had an achy arm and a little swelling at the injection site for a few days. The next day, I even felt good enough to go running.

 

Stay tuned for my second dose update in a few weeks!

 

I heard the side effects might be worse the second time around.

My brother put it like this:

 

"In my 12-person scientific experiment, it seems like if you have side effects after the first shot, you don't as much after the second. But if you have no side effects after the first, the second shot seems to have pretty bad side effects." 

Who knows? 

But still worth it!

 

This heron we saw on the Greenbelt the next morning was happy I got my shot. He thinks you should get vaccinated too.

 

 

Check out Part Two of my vaccine experience: The Second Dose

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