Saturday, May 22, 2021

Sore Arms

It was sort of amusing.  The pharmacist was a bit overworked and was having trouble remembering left from right, but she wanted to be sure I saw the empty needle after I had been stuck with it.  She said a fair number of patients didn't think they had been vaccinated because they didn't feel much.  My advice is don't worry -- you'll feel it the next day...  I don't have any other symptoms (lethargy, nausea, a rash, arm falling off...), so I feel pretty fortunate.  I expect I'll feel pretty much back to normal tomorrow, but certainly with more peace of mind, though I am aware it takes about 2 weeks for the antibodies to build up.  It looks like this weekend, Canada passed an important milestone with 50% of the total population and 50% of the Ontario population vaccinated with at least one shot.  Yukon  and the other Territories are doing much better in terms of first and second shots, but anyway solid progress.

The pharmacy said they would be in touch to schedule the 2nd dose, so I cancelled the Provincial appointment.  I do hope I can switch to a downtown Shoppers.  Getting to Yorkdale was a drag.  I had to stand on the subway until St. George.  Then I got to Yorkdale and the escalators were out of service and you were squeezing by people on the stairs.  The passage between the TTC and the GO Bus station was out of service so we had to go up and down more stairs.  Then Yorkdale had completely closed off the nearest mall entrance.  I had to walk the long way around to the front of the mall (where all the parking is and where all the curbside pickup is as well) to find the security guard to let you into the mall if you have a good reason.  I haven't been in a situation where transit riders were so clearly treated as third-class citizens in a long time.

Then it was completely mixed up at the Shoppers.  There was some major glitch with the computer system interfacing with the Provincial system, so they had to enter everything by hand.  I guess that wouldn't have been so bad if there was someone there to explain things, but they were inside the store and you lost your place in line when you tried to find anyone to talk to!  On the whole, the communication was pretty appalling.  I would have completely lost my shit if they had sent me home to come back tomorrow.  As it was, I got my shot an hour late, but I did get it, so mission accomplished.

In a few days we can sign the kids up, and we have a pretty good lead on a pop-up clinic* that will be running next Sat., so that is the next goal.  And after that, we wait for 2nd shots --and to see how quickly the Province opens up.  Quite gradually, from the looks of it.  


* It's about 50-50 with the new pop-up clinics whether they are taking kids that are 12-17.  On Sunday, Nathan Phillips Square had a pop-up that included kids, and then today there was one near the Victoria Park TTC station.  My son biked over and got his shot.  We're still planning on going next Sat. with my daughter.  Just hoping the line isn't too long as/or that they run out of vaccines before her turn, but she's get her shot sooner or later. 

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