The second dose is sneaky.

I took the kids to our appointment for the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine this week. Again, didn’t even have to get out of the car. Drove right up to the check-in station and we all had our shots within 10 minutes. The kids were a little more worried about it this time as they still remembered the sore arms from last time, plus “everyone” told them the second shot was worse. But, they all said that the actual injection was less painful this time. They kept everyone on-site for 15 minutes afterwards for observation and then they let us go.

Most of us felt fine the rest of the day. Arms weren’t quite as sore, but I noticed that my oldest daughter and my son seemed unusually tired and a little out of it. They slept it off most of the afternoon. I had to work so I just went into my home office and didn’t notice much that afternoon except being a little more tired. My youngest didn’t seem to be affected at all.

By evening time, things were different for me. I was having trouble focusing and felt extremely drained of energy. Tried laying down for a while but the feeling persisted. Eventually got to sleep and was in deep REM when I heard a loud knocking on the bedroom door. My youngest had woken up in the middle of the night feeling sick to her stomach and ended up throwing up all over herself and the bed. That jolted me awake and I helped her get everything all cleaned up. I got her back to bed and she slept for quite a while. I was still tired enough that it was easy to get back to sleep (which is rare these days).

The next day, everyone seemed fine. My arm was a little sore, but not as bad as the first shot. After 24 hours, everyone seemed to be OK.

I had never planned to get the vaccine. I just did it because my kids wanted to get it and I had to take it. If I’d had to get on a waiting list or jump through a bunch of hoops to get an appointment I’m sure I wouldn’t have done it. I’m still on the fence as to whether it was a good idea. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t “necessary”. I think it’s better for us all to develop immunity on our own. The human body is pretty good at coming up with ways to fight off disease. This “one-size-fits-all” approach denies our communities of the other unique methods of fighting this virus that our bodies might have come up with.

But, it’s done now. I hear on the news yesterday that our governor has graciously decided that she will restore our freedoms and lift the restrictions she’s put in place on businesses and customers in our state. That is, of course, assuming the state meets whatever vaccination percentage she’s decided is required for that to happen. I will not be surprised if that goal post slides again right before the deadline. This state’s government has been controlled by a single party for far too long. They’re drunk on the new power they’ve found as a result of this pandemic. They won’t be willing to give it up that easy. And the people of this state (well, mostly just the people of 2 major metropolitan areas) keep voting them back into office.