January 29, 2021
I had my first shot on Thursday, January 28, 2021. It was Moderna.
Getting the appointment wasn’t easy. As a senior, 65 and older, I thought the vaccine was simply mine if I asked. But not so due to the current shortage. In any event, my daughter was able to keep refreshing her screen until she bumped into a site that apparently may have just been opened. My appointment was at Sayreville Fire Academy-6, 1001 Fire Academy Drive, Sayreville, NJ 08872 on January 28, 2021 with a start time of 12:15 pm EST.
I gave myself enough time, but by the time I was making exit 125 on the Garden State Parkway at about 11:30am, the traffic from the vaccination site had almost backed up onto the Parkway. It was slow moving and it took over half an hour to get into the venue which was just about half a mile from the exit ramp.
There was a uniformed armed policeman directing traffic. I was directed to Parking lot 3.
“Good afternoon officer,” I saluted. “What’s going on?” not hiding my confusion at what looked like a sea of cars and people.
“The NJ vaccine computer system broke down and we’re backed up,” the officer explained and continued. “Just go to lot 3 and stay in your car, when it is your turn we will come get you.”
“Wow,” I exclaimed in apparent astonishment.
“Don’t worry sir,” the officer tried to calm me. “There’s enough vaccine for everybody. Just stay in your car and be patient.”
“Thank you officer,” I said, driving off towards where I was directed to.
By the time I engaged the parking gear in my car, it was about 12:15pm. Other cars behind me were also directed to the same lot.
After about fifteen minutes with no one talking to us, people were becoming anxious and unsure if everything was okay. Some courageous ones ventured out of their cars to find out what was going on. I followed behind them at a respectable social distance.
We hadn’t taken about thirty steps when a policeman commanded us to return to our cars. But the white elderly man leading our group insisted that he wanted to understand what was going on. It was at this point that the policeman explained further the algorithm they were using.
“As I told many of you, we’re having problems with the NJ vaccine computer system, but we’re doing our best to handle the situation,” the policeman explained, and continued. “There’s a group already in line entering the building,” he added pointing to a long line that snaked around the firehouse where the vaccines were being administered. “Once that group is done,” he continued, “I will ask everybody in lot 2 to join the line. After lot 2, it’ll be your turn. I will come get all of you. So we ask for everybody’s patience. There’s enough vaccines and everybody with an appointment will get one.”
That was refreshing. The crowd was overflowing. The whole place looked like an orderly zoo. They had it well under control. It was also helpful that most people there were 65 and above.
With the policeman’s explanation and assurance, everybody went back to his or her vehicle. After about a 90-minute wait, the policeman came to our lot at about 1:40pm and asked us to go and join the line.
It was a very cold day in Sayreville, or actually in all of New Jersey. As I drove in, I had noticed the outside temperature was about 30 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. With the wind which had a gust of up to 30 mph, I would guess the wind-chill made the temperature feel as if it was in the single digit.
I may not have bundled up as well as I should, but in any event, I was okay. There were some people who could have also dressed a bit warmer, but I guess everybody took it in stride.
Everybody was properly masked up. Like many, I was doubly masked as per the latest directives from Dr. Fauci. Decent physical distancing was maintained in the line. The white lady behind me may have overdone it giving me what looked more like a 15 feet distance. But it was okay as we moved at snail speed around the building.
Always conscious of my surroundings, I had casually checked everybody on the line. Except for a few people who looked like black Indians I was pretty much in my own company. I was also conscious of the fact that I looked among the healthiest in that line. The lady in front of me was also in the same good health category. It turned out she’s a doctor who just moved to New Jersey from Florida. This made sense giving the way she was constantly moving as if she was a tap dancer. She was probably struggling to keep warm. The lady in front of the doctor was a volunteer social worker in the Sayreville school district. She wasn’t walking with a cane, but one would probably have been handy. Another woman in a designer fur coat appropriate for the cold weather looked more as if she was in her late forties, though I had overheard her giving out her age as 69. She still had that elegance and beauty that she must have acquired in her early twenties when she probably was the queen in her college homecoming event. There was nothing striking about the men, except of course, one didn’t need to be told that most of them were seniors. However, there was this particular man who walked or carried himself with conspicuous difficulty apparently constantly gasping for breath. For the short time we were in the line, he excused himself a few times to catch his breath on a bench in what looked like a small park close to the building.
Be that as it may, everybody soldiered on, and after about 15 minutes or so in the windy cold line, I was at the door whose steps led into the building. A young policeman stood at the other side of the door checking client temperature before anyone ushered in was allowed to continue to the next stall.
Once the policeman ushered me in, I concurrently removed my baseball cap and my eye glasses. As I always did, I wiped off non-existent sweat on my forehead.
“Good afternoon sir,” he saluted. “May I take your temperature, sir.”
“No problems,” I responded.
It worked as it almost always does.
Removing the baseball cap exposes my semi-baldness and grey hair. This assured the policeman that I actually belonged. My glasses have progressive lenses and darken to provide shade in the sunlight. Given a past experience which due to lack of space I won’t narrate here, I always remove my glasses when I step into an office or building so people could see my eyes and not mistake me as a secret service agent.
After two stops for identification and registration, the nurses administering the vaccines were in sight. It was a single line multi-server queue discipline. The agent at the head of the queue directing clients to an available server (nurse) made sure a client’s coat was taken off before engaging the server. People like me not only took off our coats, we even pulled up our shirt’s sleeve before getting to the server. There was the vaccine in front of us finally. “Don’t mess up anything,” each client would appear to murmur to himself or herself.
I was directed to the first server; a middle-aged woman. I don’t know if she’s white or not. In any event, with my shirt’s sleeve already up, it was quick and she directed me to a man sitting some feet away giving out the vaccine certificate.
As I left the server I felt a sense of unease. I didn’t feel any pinch from the needle. I didn’t feel anything at all.
I collected my card with instruction to wait about 15 minutes in the waiting area before heading out. During this time, an email from the state came into my cell phone with a link to a site to register for the second dose. Contrary to expectation, we weren’t given an appointment for the second shot. The unofficial don’t-say-I-told-you reason was that the state couldn’t guarantee the availability of vaccines in the future. Apparently, the state was using up vaccines as they became available and not putting away reserves for the second shot. So we will be out again in the wild hunting for appointments just as we did before getting the appointment for this first shot. Be that as it may, my plan is to re-engage my daughter who appears to be an expert in refreshing her screen until a site with vaccines shows up.
After about the stipulated 15 minutes, I left the waiting area for my drive home. All the while as I waited in the waiting area, I kept “listening” to myself for any aches, pains or something to confirm that I really had an injection into my muscles. Through the night and even now as I write – more than 24 hours since the injection, I have not felt anything. I talked to a friend who had received a Pfizer vaccine and who apparently has exactly the same experience as I do. He reported feeling nothing. I complained to my wife and daughter, both nurses, and to my son, a physician. They believe that people react to the vaccination differently. I am probably among those who just don’t feel anything. That looks weird to me. I would have liked to have a feeling that something was injected into me. But then I’m asking myself what else could have happened? Did the nurse simply slap my arms and not inject any vaccines? Why would that be? But she didn’t even put a band aid on me. Okay, but why would she just touch me and ask me to move on without administering the injection? It doesn’t make any sense. But it makes me very uncomfortable.
Well right now, one of the best pieces of advice I have received is to be vigilant when I go for the second dose. I will want to see the vial; I will want to see the needle and the syringe and make sure there’s something inside; I will want to see that whatever was in the syringe is injected into my muscles. Talk about phobia. But I don’t want to come out of the second dose with the same confused feeling I have after the first dose.
Friday February 26, 2021
I had my second vaccine shot yesterday, Thursday February 25, 2021. It was all smooth-sailing. It was a 2:04pm appointment. I got to the site at about 1:40pm and by 2:05pm I was already in the post-vaccination 15 minute holding area.
My server was a white middle-aged female nurse. She was very pleasant. I jokingly told her of my first shot experience. I told her I did not feel the needle pinch and any effects at all. She laughed and assured me she has heard that from a few other people. She was really a pleasant nurse. She showed me the needle, joked with me asking if I saw the vaccine in the vial. We both laughed and next she said something like: “okay wait for the needle pinch.” She was really good.
Just to back up a bit. My son, a physician, had recommended that I go for an antibody test before the second shot — just to make sure I have the complete dosage. This was after all the long discussion and implication of prioritizing one shot for everybody instead of two shots for fewer people — a recommendation that Dr. Fauci shot down. So on Wednesday February 24, a day before my second shot, I went for an antibody test. The result came out POSITIVE earlier today, a reassurance that the first shot had the effect expected. Although an antibody test can also be positive for one previously exposed to the virus, this wasn’t the case with me.
Unlike the experience I had after my first shot, I had a mild fever after this second shot. I took one 800mg tablet of ibuprofen before going to bed last night and another before lunch today — that’s all. I feel good now even though I started the day a bit sluggish.
This Covid-19 looks like a race against time. Will it ever be possible to get a very wide spectrum vaccine to cover variants yet to come or will science continue to lag the mutations?
Sunday December 5, 2021
I had my booster shot a week ago on Sunday November 28, 2021. This time it was much easier than the first and second doses. A few days earlier, I had gone online and secured an appointment at the closest CVS pharmacy just about 3 miles away.
It was a 3pm appointment and I got to the facility parking lot at about 2:40pm. CVS has a protocol whereby they send a text message to the client. The text contains a link the client will use to check-in. Incidentally CVS disables this link until it’s about 15 minutes to the appointment time. As a result, I had to wait for about 5 minutes before I could use my link.
Before going for the appointment, I had taken enough water as recommended by CVS and also one tablet of extra strength Tylenol as recommended by my wife. At exactly 2:45pm my check-in link came alive and I checked in.
The server (nurse) was a middle aged black woman and her accent gave her away as someone from one of the nearby islands. She looked over my vaccination card, verified the dates I took my initial doses and we were good to go. Again I wouldn’t allow a repeat of my first shot experience. While I didn’t share that with her I made sure I saw the vaccine in the vial and waited patiently for the pinch. We were done by 3:03pm.
The experience wasn’t as bad as booster stories I have heard. Although I didn’t check my temperature, but I suspect I had a mild fever the following morning. Just a slight discomfort on the left arm where I received the vaccination. But nothing serious. I took another tablet of extra strength Tylenol and I was good.
That’s it for me for now until the new variants force the vaccine manufacturers to tweak the vaccines a bit. I am beginning to have the feeling that this may become a yearly exercise like the flu shots.
