We Got Our Vaccine!!

By Jen.

Dates: 4/9/2021

I thought I would slip in an important current event. Jonathan and I became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines in Oklahoma on 3/26/2021, which was super exciting! It happened to correspond to when we were in the area, so that was also helpful. We are big proponents of vaccinations, and had already been discussing our plan of attack. We really wanted to do the Janssen (aka Johnson & Johnson) vaccine, as it has the highest efficacy (85.4% against severe disease and hospitalization) for a single dose. Plan B would be to get a single dose of Pfizer and try to get the 2nd elsewhere. (Current studies show that Pfizer and Moderna single doses have an 80% efficacy.) And, when we started looking at appointments, we could either drive 4 hours across the state for the Janssen, schedule a few days later for a Pfizer vaccine, or wait until the next week’s appointments were generated in a few days more. We decided to hold out, do a few maintenance items.

It was worth the wait! We scheduled appointments for 10:15 am on 4/6/2020 at the James O Goodwin Tulsa Health Department. It was a well-oiled machine! We never waited more than 2 minutes, with traffic mostly flowing in 1 direction. Would highly recommend for those in the area! We entered at 10:10, and left at 10:48.

The shot hurt quite a bit more than the flu shot. Not sure if it was the result of an unsteady hand or simply the volume of fluid they squeeze in your arm. (It still hurts 3 days later.) We felt fine during the 10-minute wait period, but I did start to experience neck and shoulder soreness in about 30 minutes. We both felt pretty good the rest of the day, but about 10 pm, we started to feel pretty achy all over, which escalated pretty quickly. Jonathan felt a very brief wave of nausea that passed quickly. As we got into bed, we started feeling a little feverish as well. But that is the worst of the side effects that we experienced. It lasted all night, but as the sun rose, we started feeling better and, by the 24-hour mark after the vaccine, we were feeling pretty close to normal and ready to hit the road.

We got the orange sticker.

This experience matches what we have discovered about side effects for receiving vaccines. If you have had COVID-19, then you will likely have side effects on the first dose. Otherwise, if you won’t likely have a reaction until the 2nd dose, because then your body knows what to do. That means the vaccine is working! (If you don’t have reactions for either dose, it does not mean it isn’t working. [Yikes, double negatives!])

@hotvickkrishna

How the mRNA Vaccine 💉 works #fyp #comedy #skit #covid19 #mrna #coronavirus #vaccine #howitworks

♬ original sound - hotvickkrishna

We assumed we had COVID-19 at the beginning of the year, and although all my tests (Rapid--before most symptoms--and Antibody--right at 90 days) had shown negative, in our minds, the vaccine response proved we had COVID. Others in our family that had not had COVID did not have any reaction to either vaccine. After having gone through both COVID and a reaction to the vaccine, we would both much rather have the vaccine than COVID. Despite being fully vaccinated, we will continue to wear our masks in accordance with the CDC guidelines. If you haven’t had COVID yet, please get the vaccine ASAP so that we can reach herd immunity, preventing more deaths and virus mutations.