My Experience Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine

February 6, 2021

As hard as it is to believe, considering what I do for a living, I have apparently made it through the entire pandemic to this point without contracting COVID-19. I'm among the lucky ones since a large percentage of my coworkers have already had it long before a vaccine was available.

I did think I had it in late August/early September, but it was a false alarm (or possibly a false negative). However, I didn't really feel sick at that time; I just didn't feel normal, and I had several symptoms that could have been COVID-related. They were all very mild, and when I think about it, all of them could probably be chalked up to extremely high stress levels. To be honest, some of it might have even been psychosomatic, because I was secretly wishing I'd get sick so I could have some time off work. Don't judge me. I was very burned out.

The other possibility is that I have had it, but was entirely asymptomatic, which would also not be surprising. The hospital hasn't been testing employees unless they develop symptoms, so there would have been no way of knowing. I just pray that if that was the case, I didn't pass it on to anyone who didn't easily recover.

Actually having gone this long without contracting it, despite being exposed to it every day that I worked, for months, is the most difficult to believe. But hey, stranger things have happened.

What I do know is that getting the vaccination has always been in the plan for me. There was never a time when I didn't expect to get it someday.

Originally, I was excited to get the vaccine because I assumed (I'm no epidemiologist, so forgive me for being wrong about this) that it would prevent me from spreading the virus to others. That's been my main concern throughout all of this. I don't want to get anyone sick, especially someone whose immune system can't recover from it. I thought that if I were vaccinated, I'd be less likely to spread the virus to anyone else, and therefore able to socialize a bit more again. I was excited to be able to see my friends.

But at some point since then, I learned this might not be the case. That, while the vaccine protects you from getting sick, it may not prevent you from still spreading it to others. Well, that defeats one of the major purposes of getting it. But not every purpose. I know that to reach herd immunity, each of us has to do our part; so of course I was still going to get it.

And because so many people have expressed apprehension about getting it, I figured I would go first. Even some of my coworkers said they would wait and see how it affected other people before getting it themselves. So I took it upon myself to be the 'guinea pig.' (Although, technically, the guinea pigs were the people who took part in the studies that helped it become approved for use in the first place. Thank you, everyone who took part.)

Being a frontline healthcare worker, I was in group 1A.1, the very first group allowed to get the vaccine. After filling out a questionnaire through the county's website, and being determined to be in the highest-risk group, I was assigned a location where I could make an appointment. Unfortunately I had to get it at my assigned location, which was the one 30 miles from my house rather than the one right down the street from me. That was the worst part of the whole experience.

I did have to wait longer than I'd wanted to -- about two weeks after they began vaccinating people. It was coordinated through the hospital system I work for, and the email came out on my day off, so by the time I returned to work to check my email, a lot of the appointments had been taken already. The earliest appointment I was able to make at my assigned location was on New Year's Eve. Longer than I'd wanted to wait, but at the same time, what a fitting way to say goodbye to 2020.

My friend drove me because the logistics of the vaccination site made it impossible to take public transportation like I normally do. To be as safe as possible, we of course both wore masks, plus I sat in the backseat as far from him as I could, and we drove with the windows down, which was terrible because it was December and I was freezing, but it was worth it if it helped keep my friend safe. The process was very easy and ran smoothly, the line was relatively short since it was only first-time appointments at that time -- it hadn't been long enough for anyone to return for their second shot -- and we were in and out pretty quickly. I was monitored on-site for 15 minutes after the shot was given to me to make sure I didn't develop anaphylaxis or any severe reaction, then released to go. Including those 15 minutes, we were probably only there for about 30 minutes total. Once we'd been cleared to leave, my friend drove me home. My second appointment was made on-site. It was all very simple and everybody seemed to work together to make it that way. Great teamwork from the medical staff, registration, etc. The National Guard was also there, but we didn't interact with them that much; I think they were just there for security.

I was told that mild side effects might last up to a day and a half after getting the shot. I was prepared for that, almost hoping for it so I could get out of work the next day (I really needed a vacation, okay?), but I had no side effects at all with the first shot. That doesn't mean my vaccine was ineffective; some people have side effects and others don't, and both are normal, as long as they aren't severe or long-lasting. The only thing that made me feel any different than normal was the soreness in my left arm, the muscle where I'd been given the shot. I had anticipated this because I get my flu shot every year. This is a normal thing to feel at the injection site, and happens to me with flu shots as well.

That night, because it was New Year's Eve, I made a playlist of some appropriate year-ending songs, and danced by myself in my apartment until I was sweaty and panting; but no weakness, dizziness, nausea or fatigue caused by the movement. I felt the way you would expect to feel after dancing for a couple of hours, but was no more tired than I would have been on a normal night.

The side effects are supposed to be worse after the second shot because that's when your immune system is really triggered to start working. My second appointment was made for January 22, so I would find out then.

When that day arrived, a friend drove me to the site again, and it was definitely more busy and had longer wait times than the first time I was there. I attribute this to the fact that people, like me, were now returning for their second shot while others were still getting their first; perhaps even partially because people who'd gotten it had been spreading the word to their co-workers that it was safe, encouraging more people to go for it. Still, we were only there for one hour total, including the 15-minute monitoring period. This time around, I was actually on vacation from work -- something I'd waited more than a year for -- so I was really hoping I would not have severe side effects and ruin my day.

(Yes, I finally got my vacation! I switched to a different schedule as well, and will be working fewer days now, so hopefully I'll no longer be so burned-out and desperate as to wish illness on myself.)

The next day, I woke up earlier than I wanted to, either because my doorbell rang for a package delivery, or some other noise or maybe a weird dream woke me up. So later that night, when I felt really worn out, I couldn't tell if it was because of the vaccine, or simply because I hadn't slept enough. I was also cold in my bedroom, and instead of getting up to turn the thermostat up, I just pulled the blankets over me and took a nap. I felt better upon waking up, other than also having a slight headache. But headaches, insomnia, and the fatigue resulting from that insomnia, are things I deal with on a pretty regular basis, so I had no idea if they were at all related to the vaccine.

I eventually noticed I felt pretty hot, and I still hadn't changed the thermostat since that moment earlier when I felt cold. I got up to check it because sometimes it will get warm enough outside during the day that it warms my apartment up, and the actual indoor temp can get higher than what I have the thermostat set for. The temperature hadn't changed, though; and I definitely felt warmer than I usually would at that temp. So I got my thermometer and took my own temperature. When it read 100.7F, I realized that I actually was having mild side effects. Still not sure about the fatigue or the headache, but the vaccine was definitely the cause of the fever.

However, that fever literally lasted somewhere between 1 and 3 hours, and I felt like the worst of it was over after a few minutes. It was really nothing to get worked up over. I'm now two weeks post-vaccination and that was the only time I experienced any side effects at all. It was barely anything, to the point that I almost didn't notice anything out of the ordinary was going on.

Even if the fatigue and headache were also caused by the vaccine, the side effects were still so mild that it barely affected me at all, besides making me want to take a nap on a day when I hadn't gotten enough sleep anyway. It's mind-blowing to me that this is what scares people away from taking the vaccine when the actual symptoms of COVID-19 can be so much worse, up to and including death.

In the end, it was all very worth it to get the vaccine and experience such extremely mild side effects to prevent myself from getting an actual illness that can destroy your internal organs, including but not limited to your lungs. I currently have a Facebook friend who's been hospitalized for 19 days (and counting) with COVID and now has to have his spleen removed because the virus destroyed it. I have coworkers who recovered from it months ago and seem perfectly healthy now, but still can't walk up the stairs without getting out of breath or their heart rate jumping up to the 120's. I'll take a little fatigue, a mild headache, and having a fever for an hour over any of that.

Even if by some chance I had a false-negative test back in late August, my symptoms at that time, being extremely mild compared to most people who've had the virus, were worse than what I had after the vaccination. Having a cold is worse than the side effects I got from the vaccination. Most of my headaches are worse. I've had menstrual cramps that were a hundred times worse. And while the side effects of the vaccine don't seem to vary that much from person to person, getting the actual virus is, as singer/nurse Anette Olzon put it on Facebook recently, like playing Russian Roulette. Basically, my point is, don't stress about side effects, it's worth it to have that immunity.

I try to share my experiences as a front-line caregiver so that others can make informed decisions. Does it always help? Of course not; there are going to be some people out there who do stupid things regardless. There is a disturbingly large percentage of our population who still don't care about keeping others safe, don't wear their masks properly (or at all), or don't even believe COVID is real despite the entire world falling down around them because of it. But if there's anyone out there willing to listen, I hope that the things I've seen and done can have some kind of influence on them to take the pandemic seriously. (If you haven't already, you can read my other blog entry A Front-Line Healthcare Worker's Rant about some of my experience working in the emergency room during this time.)

And now that I've been vaccinated, it's my responsibility to pass the information on to others that the vaccine is perfectly safe and easy. So please, if you have the opportunity (which eventually everybody should), consider getting vaccinated yourself. Of course talk to your doctor and/or the site doing the vaccinations if you have any pre-existing conditions or allergies you're concerned about, but if they say it's not an issue, there's really no reason not to have it done. For yourself, your family, and your community. If you're tired of COVID controlling your life, then let's take away its power to control us, by getting vaccinated to the point of herd immunity.

tags: covid-19, vaccine, medical