So of course, the day after we chose to get out of line and wait because they switched the vaccine being offered at the pop up clinic last week, we start seeing the health officials and doctors talking about it being ok to switch mRNA types for your 2nd dose. Too bad we didn’t have that information when we were there (where I left off from last week’s update). I think it was the first day they were starting the mixing of them, but we just didn’t know at the time and didn’t feel comfortable. So on the hunt again.
I know they’re saying that mixing is ok to do, but personally, I’m feeling most comfortable with getting the same brand over mixing – so I signed up on a couple waiting lists for different pharmacies and also kept my eye on the pop up clinics happening for my postal code. I found some that were only Moderna, I found some that were saying a mRNA and not specifying which, I found some that said both Moderna and Pfizer and then eureka! I found one that said only Pfizer and it was for just a small handful of postal codes and mine was one of them. This place was about 25 minutes drive from my house though, so not convenient walking distance like the other ones were. I’m grateful that my dad was willing to come pick us up at 6am and then come back to pick us up when we were done.
This clinic was starting at 9am. When we got there, there was about 150 people in line – this is the closest we’ve been to the front of the line on arrival. Just after 8, they started checking IDs to make sure we were in an accepted postal code and gave us a card with a time on it for when we could come get our vaccine. We ended up with a 9:45 time slot. There were a few benches under an awning, so we went there to sit and wait our time and knew we could keep dry if it started raining (did I mention that it was 80% chance of rain this morning?! What a time to go wait in line – thankfully, it didn’t rain even a drop while we were there). I loved how it was set up with the time slot ticket system. It was super organized inside too, better than the first time. They had rows of chairs set up. Someone comes by and does your intake and the Dr. has a cart they push up the aisle and administer the dose once checked in. My only complaint was the Dr. sticking me without my having a chance to turn my head away, even though I said I wanted to look away. We sat in place for the 15 minutes to make sure everything is ok and then someone came by to check us out and email the immunization record. Fun side note, the lady that checked me out complimented my eyelashes and was excited when I said I sell them and she wrote my site down in her phone to check out later! It’s such a relieving feeling knowing that in a few weeks I’ll be fully protected, especially if my work may be reopening.
So far, my only side effects have been a sore arm and tiredness. But surprisingly both not as bad as the first dose. I thought the side effects for dose 2 were supposed to be worse than the 1st one, but I’m not finding that the case for me so far, as I’m getting ready for bed soon at the end of day 2.
This was a therapy week. What a difference from last time to this time. I didn’t have a whole lot of things that felt pressing last time but I sure did this time. As always, I make notes to myself of all kinds of things that cross my mind to bring up and work through and there were tons this last month since the last appointment. We only got through a small part of what I had, so I chose to make my next appointment for 2 weeks instead of the 4 weeks we’ve been doing the last while. With how lousy my sleep has been, she wants me to track more closely what’s going on with that – my thoughts and what I’m feeling and doing and I’m trying to go to bed.
Speaking of sleep, the beginning of the week started with me being so super exhausted and sleeping 14 hours straight on Monday, into only 3 hours Tuesday. 10 hours Wednesday then 6 Thursday. It’s really been all over the place. I can’t wait for a schedule again for a reason to wake and get it back to more normal.
Overall, I’m just feeling a lot of stress around uncertainties around here. The unknown really causes my anxiety to soar and makes me feel frozen in place. I hate how overwhelming it gets. This whole pandemic I’ve had varying levels of it and it’s back to the high range again for me. Hopefully these feeling tame back down to a lower level in the coming weeks.
Until next time, xoxo