And I had asked her before I scheduled the appointment so that I would be sure that if she was going to do it that it was on a day that would be convenient for her and she said yeah no problem I'll be happy to
Then she scheduled her appointment for Thursday and I was like oh okay well if she has a problem then I don't have a ride
And to be honest with you I was a little bit upset because it just felt like the continuation of a pattern you know so then I was like okay well I have to drive myself so that's why I took the car to get it checked over and whatever I also looked into renting a car even though I really did not want to do that but I just examined it to see if it was a possibility cuz you know I was thinking well maybe you know she'll probably be fine and maybe I could just reserve a car and then if she turns out not to be okay I have a car and if she turns out to be okay maybe I can cancel it or whatever but there were no cars available so I was thinking I was going to be driving myself
But she turned out to be okay and so she drove me out there
And I don't know if you've already been vaccinated or if you have yet to be vaccinated so I don't know how much of this story will be interesting or new information
But here they're doing it drive-thru at stadiums and things mostly I think they have some places where you go in but they're largely doing them and I guess they were doing testing this way too
so I had a QR code I had to bring for them to scan to check me in and so you go up and they scan your QR code and they ask you questions and then they say okay follow the you know they have it like combed off or roped off or a combination of the two and you drive around and then somebody else gets your information and gives you a card and tells you you know bring the card with you when you come for your second shot and they're going to contact you closer to time about scheduling it and I got Moderna so it's going to be 28 days before I can get my second shot
So then you drive around and get into another line and they're really weren't that many people there and I went early because word on the street was that if you go early it's not a problem and I just wanted to kind of get it over with but also my mother is like okay well it's you know 30 miles away so it'll take us 30 minutes to get there and I'm like no no no this is right out by where I used to work when I worked at the Baybrook store and the only time it ever took 35 minutes to drive out there was if I went at like 5:30 in the morning when there was no traffic otherwise God knows how long it's going to take you to get out there
So when we were going down San Felipe and we were going to turn to get on to 6:10 on the feeder there was like a parking lot and on the freeway you could see was also a parking lot so we ended up getting stuck in the parking lot on the feeder and I'm like I don't think we should get on the freeway there so we detoured and we went on surface streets down to another point of entry that was passed several exchanges and so by the time we got onto the freeway it was 40 minutes after we left my house so her 30-minute thing just would not have worked
And initially my appointment was at 2:00 and so she's like okay I'll pick you up at noon and I'm like no I'm not agreeing to noon because noon might mean one because she's really bad about being on time and I'm like you know please pick me up at 11:00 and you know if we get there early then it's not a problem I can go ahead and get my shot early and then we can be done but if we're you know running with just enough time and then I am stressed out about it that's going to be really really unpleasant for me and I imagine if I got there late it wouldn't have been a problem either but you know who could say right so she's like okay and I thought you know that if she said she was going to be there at 11:00 she'd probably get there at 11:45 cuz she's sort of like clockwork she leaves her house 15 minutes after she's supposed to be wherever she is but you know in what I took to be a sign that she really loves me she got there at 11:10 which is remarkable absolutely remarkable
So then after we got on to the freeway there was you know some traffic but it wasn't terrible and so we got there about 12:30 I think maybe a little later than that and when I went when we went through the line we pulled up and everybody was so nice really really nice and the ladies like which arm do you want to get your shot in and I'm like my left arm and you know I had my I was wearing a tank top and I had my jacket pulled down so my arm was you know exposed and I'm like do you want me to open the door or you want me to get out or anything and she's like no I can get you right here and I really didn't think she was going to be able to because my mom has an SUV and it's kind of high up but she reached me just fine and she put the needle in
and it's been a while since I've had a shot to be honest with you but I seem to recall every shot I've ever had kind of hurting or at least you know pinching right but this was more like an acupuncture needle it was really small really well not small but really thin and she just you know I relaxed my arm and she just stuck it into my shoulder and well not my shoulder my what do you call that My deltoid it's my deltoid no I don't know The arm part below the shoulder where people traditionally get those you know tattoos
And then she scanned my QR code again and then I had to go wait in the waiting parking lot you know and they're like you know time yourself and wait 15 minutes and then you're good to go and there's like you know a person in the parking lot so if you have any kind of a problem I guess you'd have help but I don't know it's kind of iffy but I didn't have a problem and when I finished getting my shot and we got to the parking lot it was five minutes to one and so I had to wait until 10 after 1:00 and then we left and came back to my house and we didn't stop anywhere on the way and we got back to my house at 10 minutes after 2:00 so I really don't know what the hell she's talking about with her 30 minutes thing but she's she's really bad at gauging how long anything is going to take she basically uses some sort of magic time
So the whole thing from start to finish was 3 hours and I was actually home by 10 minutes after the time I was supposed to have my appointment and I got an email and a text some point on the way home saying you know you got a covered vaccine and will contact you closer to time to schedule your second dose appointment and if you have any problems or complications or anything call this number
And within a few hours well actually no I guess by the time I got home my arm didn't hurt injection site didn't hurt but I had this awareness of my arm you know that I don't normally have I mean normally when you're walking around or sitting down or doing whatever you're doing or I don't know about you but I normally don't have any particular awareness of any of my body parts they're just you know they're doing whatever they're doing if I'm walking I might have an awareness of a bunch of my body parts if I was exercising or dancing or you know whatever I might but if I'm just like hanging out I'm not normally noticing my arms specifically so it didn't hurt but it was noticeable
And then after a while you know when I went into the kitchen I was aware that the space felt different like you know there was a little just like a little sousciont of tunnel vision
And my general perceptions of the world were different like if you had taken ecstasy for example you might be focused in on some particular thing and it's color or texture or whatever or you might be focused kind of out like one with universe or something and colors tend to be brighter and things like that or at least that's been my experience although it's not recent experience so I don't remember every little bit of it but that was my immediate impression was it was kind of like the opposite of ecstasy so like rather than being focused in or out it was this kind of tonally linear focus and rather than things being extra bright or extra beautiful things were kind of just dulled down and you know didn't have an edge
And I was like not dizzy but my equilibrium was like just not quite aligned so that I was like maybe I just want to be a little more careful or whatever you know My head hurt and my muscles were not fatigued but just kind of maybe more relaxed a little heavy
And then I was sitting down and well no I guess when it started I wasn't sitting down I had this cramp in my thigh not like a full-on cramp not like a charley horse or something like that it was more like short muscle twitch cramping from when you work out really hard but like real localized and it was weird and not like the way I usually experience cramping if I get cramps of any kind and I thought well you know that's strange but maybe I was you know maybe I was pushing something against my leg or ran into something and just forgot or whatever you know so I didn't initially associate it although it was a sensation that I hadn't really ever had and quite that way before I was like well but then I got one in my bicep on the same arm as the shot and then I got one in my calf and then I got one in my I don't know what you call the muscle in the lower part of my arm and you know I just was like moving around this kind of weird localized short muscle twitching
And I just feel kind of weird weird is the best way to describe it I don't feel sick I don't feel bad I just feel weird and my arm was a little stiff I could raise it but it didn't feel good now my arm I wouldn't say the injection site hurts
But the muscle is kind of tight and the whole arm is kind of like it's like maybe stiff a little it's it's got a little bit of you know if you work out too hard and your muscle kind of hurts and it's kind of heavy it's kind of like that but there's like a little bit of you know if I move it around there's a little bit of pain at the injection site so it may hurt more tomorrow I don't know or it may just be like this
I took some ibuprofen though maybe as a little bit of prophylactic for the arm but mostly because I've got a headache but I mean a headache is like my body's fall back position
I feel like I must have told you this
but maybe I didn't or maybe you don't remember I don't know so I'll tell you again
But when I was a kid I had headaches all the time I mean I don't know exactly when they started for sure by the time I was in like say third grade I had headaches a lot and I was probably 14 before I realized that that was not a normal thing that like most people didn't have headaches all the time
Oh yeah and I forgot something I also had this weird like sensation on the back of my right leg like it really felt like you know those big I think they're called mayflies they're like they got long spindly legs and then they're kind of like a light bug like colored bug and it's got little wings maybe it's not called a mayfly maybe it's called a mosquito hawk I don't know do you know what I'm talking about
well it felt like I had one of those on the back of my leg and I went to brush it off and there was nothing there and it just kept coming back just on the back of my right calf and I'm itchy not all over just my legs from my knees to my ankles and then the area around my collarbone and my upper shoulders
and I might have dry skin I'm pretty sure I do have dry skin but you know it's not limited to those areas
But I was really shocked the shot I mean I could feel it it's not like oh I don't think they gave it to me I could feel or put it in my arm but it just didn't hurt it just didn't hurt at all it just like I said it felt like a acupuncture needle going in
Anyway I'm pretty tired now
I haven't gotten more than like four hours of sleep for several days in a row
I hope you're doing all right
Sleep well sweetheart
I love you very much 💋
