After “Then what” now what, when and how soon?
After reasonably expecting I wouldn’t get offered the Covid vaccination before April at the earliest and the end of April at that and wondering if it would be worth the bother, I turned my phone on on Thursday morning to find a text from my GP telling me to follow a link to book my jab. I actually thought it was a phishing SMS and pressing the link would result in god knows what. So after googling the link to check it was genuine I logged on and found appointments for the next day. No choice of venue though, our town doesn’t have a centre, so we have to go to an industrial estate outside the next town, which is a pain to get to, they assume everyone has a car. It was 2 buses and a walk for me.
The whole process was amazingly well organized and painless, well apart from the “sharp scratch” moment, fill in the form, take a number, called forward in 5 minutes, consultation with the Nurse, needle in arm, go. Well not quite go, with my anaphylactic history they made me sit for 15 minutes in case I reacted. I left with a sore arm and became one of the 452,777 people vaccinated in England on 26 February 2021.
The reaction came about 6 hours later, with a splitting headache, nausea and my arm no longer sore, but aching and I couldn’t bear to lift it high enough to shut the bathroom window. Having spoken to other Pfizer vaccine people and a medical friend who was good enough to call, warning me I may get a reaction later, it seems to be pretty common reaction in “younger” people and especially those who have actually had Covid 19, which I haven’t.
So what happens now? The world is still in a shit state. Emotionally and mentally I’m still struggling, home alone without any family, I’m still anxious about what the state of things will be, even after everyone has had a needle or two stuck in their arm. I’m noticing stores in my town have been cleared and “To Let” signs stuck on the windows, will my part time job come back, yes the money is handy, but for me it’s the people I work with, the laughs and conversations over tea and a biscuit (cookie if you’re an American reading this), when will the shala open, it would be nice to go somewhere, anywhere, further than I’ve been in nearly 18 months now, since I came back from New York in September 2019, the two trips to hospital in that time don’t count.
Jab 2 in 10-12 weeks, Bill Gates now probably knows I drink tea, love Battenburg and support Ipswich Town