I work in healthcare. To my practice, I am considered essential personnel. As far as the pandemic goes, in my opinion, I do not qualify as essential. The frontline workers doing the heavy lifting are essential. But to my patients with infertility, I guess I am pretty essential. Given my status as a healthcare worker, I was offered the covid vaccine as part of Tier 1A, the first people allowed to get it. I was anxious about getting the vaccine, given how obviously new the vaccine is, but I also understand the importance behind vaccinations and knew I wanted to get it at some point. My husband, the ever rational thinker, convinced me to pull the trigger and get it done.
I want to take a minute to pause here. I am (clearly) pro vaccine. That being said, I support and love people who are not pro vaccine. It is not a stance I understand but it is not one that will make or break a friendship for me. It is a topic on which I will, respectfully, agree to disagree. You will not change my mind and I will not change yours. It's that simple. Everyone feels they are making the best decision for themselves and their families. Life and motherhood are hard enough without bickering about this stance.
Moving right along...
I am lucky to work on a team with three amazing women who also happen to be my friends. One of these rockstars is a nervous nelly like me and we opted to go together for our vaccine. If this is a possibility for you, I highly recommend it. Something about being with a trusted friend makes the hard stuff seem less hard.
After the first dose, I was ok. My arm became super sore in the evening but by morning I was fine. First dose was a piece of cake.
Before my second dose, we had a clinical meeting where we were warned about some tough side effects of the second dose: fever, body aches, flu like symptoms. This put my anxiety on high alert. I seriously considered canceling my appointment; however, it had been so hard to get the appointment for my second dose that I was scared to miss it and have to start all over again. So we went and got our second dose.
After my appointment, I sent B the below selfie with a text "oh you know, just waiting for impending doom". Sups mature, I know.
That night my arm started to feel sore around the kids bedtime, just as it had before. I took one motrin to help that subside. That night I slept like crap. Not because I was symptomatic but because I woke up constantly, almost like I was checking to see if I had any symptoms. They never came. I woke up a bit achy. But was that from the vaccine or was that from the 9 inches of snow I shoveled just a couple days ago? I never had a fever, low grade or high. I won't comment on being tired because I am a mom with kids who haven't been sleeping through the night, tired is my baseline. I had some chills but I also work from home at a desk set up in our basement and feel cold all the time so not an easy one to assess. I did feel in a fog the first few hours I was awake but was that the vaccine or was that the week catching up with me? Only Ahtohallan knows.
I feel pretty lucky that I experienced only very mild side effects. I know others who have had a tough experience, both with covid and with the vaccine. I encourage everyone to do their research and make the decision that feels best for you and your families.
Happy vaxxing, friends, or not vaxxing, if that's what you're into :)
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