osodecanela | When it rains, it pours...

My husband and I are now vaccinated, well at least the first one.

I’ve been watching all the listings for vaccine clinics in our county & in counties nearby, without success until this week. Though the state had said age 65 on up are vaccine eligible, our county was still working on 70 on up. Two weeks ago, I registered my husband and I with the local pharmacy I use, on their list to call if someone no showed for a vaccine appointment. Once a dose is defrosted, it either goes into an arm or the trash. They have only a few hours leeway if they have a no show, to get that dose into someone else.

Monday, I got an email from my PCP’s medical group with a link to register for the vaccine this week. I did not let this lead go cold. A friend of mine got an emailed link from his job last week which he shared with me & when I logged onto it a couple of hours later, all appointments were gone. I have Gmail set up to alert me to incoming mail, so I was on the website minutes later & snagged an appointment for this afternoon. Yes!!

There’s a well organized vaccine clinic at the county fairgrounds, that my medical group directed me to. I was in and out in 45 minutes. To my surprise, I was Pfizer'ed. Apparently the site has access to the uber cold freezers required to hold the vaccine.

On the way home, I decided to be a good egg & stop at my pharmacy, tell them to take me off the no show list. When I walked thru the door, the pharmacy tech looked surprised. "You're here already? Damn, that was fast!" Turns out she'd called me 5 minutes earlier. They had a shot for me. I laughed. I said I'd just come from being vaccinated to tell them to take me off their call list, and I'd call the next guy for them. She looked confused. I told her I had given them two names for their list and I was calling the other older person from my house to get his butt down there right now. With that I dialed LJ. He was there in 10 minutes. I had barely finished his paperwork when he got there.

So, the upshot is we are not both covered AND we both have appointments for the next vaccine. Mine is March 15th back at the Fairgrounds. His is at the pharmacy on 3-17.

I'm more relieved than I can say right now. It's almost 24 hours since I had my jab, and I'm feeling it. Nothing a couple of tylenol won't handle mind you, but I am achy, not just where I had the jab but all over. Not the end of the world. It's surely better than getting the infection. We oddly each had a different vaccine, I, Pfizer and he, Moderna. He's feeling perfectly fine. We both are feeling the same sense of relief, that there's a light at the end of this tunnel we're in, and it's not an oncoming train. We're among the 14 million people who've been fortunate enough to get a vaccine. Now just 317 million to go..... At least the authorities say we're up to 1.7 million doses being given a day. I'm so looking forward to seeing people again and to going to the gym.