Lyrics: “Peggy Sang The Blues” ~ Frank Turner, 2011
Still in a funk in general. Because of too much to worry about at work. Because of the ineptitude of German goverment on any level. Because I’m sure it will get much worse here, before it will get better. And that’s scary. But I also have some good news….
I’ve gotten my first jab of vaccine against COVID! Which is such a relief! I have to say I wasn’t too worried about getting it yet, because I’m really taking care of mostly isolating and wearing a mask etc etc. My precondition – Multiple Sclerosis and the meds I’m taking – might make me a bigger risk for severe case, if I’d ever catch it. Possibly. There is so much we still don’t know how COVID affects people in general and with preconditions in particular.
Anyway… Our German vaccination policy / regulation puts MS patients in priority group 3. After the really old people, and staff in health services and teachers and cancer patients and medium old people and so forth. The way the vaccination is rolled out here, for the longest time it wasn’t clear what that meant scheduling and organizing wise. Vaccination started here in January with doctors and nurses going into care homes and after that the first group (80+ etc) were asked to book appointments and designated vaccination centres. One in each county and you can only register and get vaccinatetd in the county where you reside. And hope your county got a fair share of vaccine doses. But that is a whole other thing, I’m not going into at the moment.
In early March our vaccination centre put on a website where people with preconditions could register easily, which was a good first step, because at least they could get an overview of how many people there might be in group 2 and 3. I don’t know how many actually registered, I definitely. And was informed via email, that I needed to wait and they’d get in touch. In late March that registration page was taken offline, because from April 6th onwards, GPs were supposed to vaccinate their patients with preconditions and any eldery patient who hasn’t registered with a centre and so forth. All the while it was clear that the GPs wouldn’t be getting many doses to start with. I hadn’t heard anything back from the vaccinations centre by that point and the latest press release had stated that they had been working through the 1.700 cases of registered people with the additional Biontec / Pfizer they had gotten a few days before and that everyone else with preconditions need to get in touch with their GP. Ok, I thought and expected to get a call from my GP at some point in May or later.
Two days ago I got a call from the vaccination centre, offering me a vaccination for this afternoon. Woooohooo. Of course I accepted and that’s where I went this afternoon. And got jabbed! The anxious mess that I am, was still worried that something might go wrong, so I hadn’t mentioned it publicly yet. Maybe I wrote the date down wrong? Maybe they messed it up on their part? Maybe it was all a big mix up? Maybe they wouldn’t find any note of my name in their scheduling, because I didn’t have anything in writing? All that kind of stuff.
I got there with a big bunch of nerves, not helped by the traffic jam, caused by a construction site nearby. When I entered the centre, the guy who checked off the names and times on a list… of course didn’t have my name on it! Oh no! But it turned out that another guy had another updated list with a dozen or so names on. Obviously those who have been on the registered for medical reason list and not the regular – eligible because of age / job – list. Phew!
The rest was kind of a blur, I got a few files to read and fill out (thankfully I knew what they said, because I had seen those when my mum got her jabs weeks ago) and before I could fill out the first one, I was already called to proceed. It was all done very efficiently and ran smoothly. Waiting for 15 minutes to see if there were immediate side effects, get the date for the 2nd jab (end of May), sign out and done. Less than 30 minutes all in all.
I had planned to make a few jokes now about the microchip and all that, but I can’t be bothered right now. I’m just so glad and relieved I’m one step closer to putting this whole mess behind me. Selfish thought, maybe, but I don’t care. Real side effects so far, 3.5 hours in? The injection site feels a bit sore. I am also kind of tired and I’m not sure if that’s the regular end of the week fatigue or the vaccine. Right now I tend to think it’s the vaccine 🙂 I’ll definitely be off to be soon. Sleeping tight, I hope.
