Vaccination.

In  March 2021 it was announced that henceforward seniors of 60 and 60 + would be vaccinated .I had this tiny teeny weeny bit of hesitation.The pandemic was over wasn't it ?The cases had fallen.Why should i go for vaccination?

I had very early decided to take the vaccination as it was my only ray of hope to regain my normal life so i was not going to back off..I had everything that the wretched Corona liked to make my life hell as per experts ,that is age and co -morbidities .If i had to escape severe disease, hospitilisation paying huge fees denting my savings i had to take it. I also had to take it be free from this abnormal fear gripping me and to become mobile and normal .I had to take it.

I remember taking some pox vaccination maybe small pox at school in my early teens.Doctors would come and inject the line of students in our hands .Then I would get fever and the two points of the jab festering into two huge boils disabling the use of that hand[owing to pain] for several days.I remember taking it twice with a gap of a year.

So getting vaccinated is nothing new to me . I had no fear or doubt because i was not innundated by flood of conflicting information from all parts of the world viz our experts would say it is good tho' quick every procedure was duly followed,then caution on adverse reaction,some would say foreign vaccination like pifzer, Moderna Sputnik, is good don't take our home made ones [tho'pifzer etc also did it quickly]beware of blood clots and so on , the way it is now.I was too young.The teachers told us to take it and we did .

Before taking the vaccine i had gone over a lot of information from tv and papers and processed it .thus--By the time our turn came several lakhs had taken it .There was news of 20 or so dying  a day or two  after  vaccination of heart attack etc. Was the vaccine triggering the heart attacks .Maybe.And it could be that they those persons were not aware of thier morbities and were not on medication .But I am on medication .so the risk my being one of those 20 is  very very low.

Next about adverse reaction-I read that only people with allergies get such reactions within half an hour .I have no allergies.

Should  I wait for 10 years when all every one is 100 % sure that these vaccines have no side effects.The manner in which many educated  people were willing to wait it out.For that i would have to lead a hermit like life with fear contracting the virus one day or the other.So spend 10 hellish years .There were many who feared the vaccine for its side effects more that continuing with this hermit like  lockdown life .

 

So i made my mind thus .If by freakish chance I get hit then either Vaikuntum or i ll be back soon in a younger and maybe a  better body.The other option was to wait it out and tie myself to my house for years  ,get obssessiviley clean, wearing  and tiring myself out .with fear ,suspicion and boredom and spend loads of money if hospitalised.

I decided that first option is best . My fear of the virus was more than the fear of the vaccine.And i am going to take the vaccine offered  here since it was said they were best suited for our hot conditions than pfizer etc .I preffered Covaxin not because , 'I am Bharatiya ' etc and all the other patriotic stuff but because I read that it was very effective against its Mutant in a study in Brazil.At that time that mutant didn't come home but what if it did in future so why not fortify myself now?

 

On 28 th Feb my hub went to a nearby private hospital and gave our names .I was surprised  on seeing his enthusiasm, since he never liked taking medicines or visiting hospitals unlike me.Times change .People change.Whilst I was sure that my turn of jab would come only next year he was confident of getting it on the first week itself!I thought he was joking .It turned out that he wasn't.

Next day March 1 st we waited for the phone call from the hospital as promised by them to inform us about the date of vaccination.It never came.

Having read papers and seen info on TV i told him that to get a jab regn on Cowin was a must .So he started the process on his smart phone to a portal forwarded by a relative from abroad.

He couldn't register and kept trying the whole day .He said the form filling was lengthy and it was not confirming.Evening I lost my patience and switched on my PC .I remembered having read that many couldn't register on 28 th midnight because they were using a portal for front line workers and ours was different one.

Chaffing at the Govt for making this process so complicated, that to for seniors who are not computer savy i found the website for seniors quite easily.

I was immediately asked to type my Aadhar card number and phone number .Got a OTP on my cell within seconds.I was asked to type it I did.It was very easy and quick.I waited for confirmation .It didnt come .So went through the process 4-5 times.No confirmation .So dropped it .

 Then hub rang up the hospital who said that they were vaccinating seniors and asked us to be there by 8AM the next day! 

I couldn't believe my ears .Weren't crores already registered and waiting ti be vaccinated.We haven't even registered.I had assumed that seniors were ready to pounce on the vaccination the way we did when it was announced .Not all are alike.

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Nexy day reached the hospital by 7.30 We were the first The staff came later and a nicely dressed woman staff kept striding up and down.

we explained to those at the counter that we couldn't register at Cowin and would they kindly do it for us?One chap fed my Aadhar no: and said 'madame you have registered".So i did register the day before.

I stopped carrying my simple mobile long while back, after the ruckus in 2014.But that day i slipped it into my handbag when i left the house .And my hub forgot his .It was good thing that i took it as it was needed for further formalities and for the regn of my husbandThe amount was Rs 250 each.Paid it.

Two more people joined us at the desk , when that woman staffer shooed me away saying 'Don't crowd' in a stern manner.'Ironical .After a lapse of an hour that area around the desk was swarming with seniors and thier helpers and she couldnt say a word against them who were crowding and  jostling.

Soon more and more people came and there was all round confusion.The staff kept struggling with the computer and Net and Cowin .People pushed each other to reach the desk.seeing this melee i thought What guarentee is there that I won't catch the virus from one of these people?

Amid the teeming crowds of confused seniors and staff i got my BP checked .It was high as  I didn't take the tablet.The young thin dark girl checking my BP assured me that my high BP didn't matter! I had my doubts  neverthless I didnt want to miss the oppurtunity of taking the vaccination at the earliest.So i went to the room It was quiet and free of that milling crowd .A young nurse injected me from a small vial.It was pain less .I forgot to tel her my preference.She smilingly bade me bye.

When i came out waiting in the passage for my hub to have his shot I felt a tremendous relief.        Good bye to Corona .Goodbye to fear. It was so tremendous that i sent a sms to my son .

 

Nobody asked us to wait for 1/2 hour,we ourselves pushed through the crowd and found a empty waiting room and sat there.Then left for home.On coming out of the building saw a long queue of seniors winding upto the gate .Seeing such long q's on tv i felt that we seniors are much wiser than  the current lot .

 I felt great ! I felt that I achieved the impossible on the second day itself! All my calculations and assumptions were wrong .Thank God!

In the noon got sms from govt that we had taken first dose of and our next dose was due on 30 th March.

Evening the half dead virus or whatever was injected started to show its handiwork .I got slight twisting pain in my leg and also got fever .Took a combiflam and proceeded to cook the dinner .But felt heavy discomfort making me chide myself  for letting a virus that was some where outside forcibly into myself.and suffer thus.If this light viral fever was just a trailer what would the real one be like? Thus thinking i endured the fever and pain. Hub as healthy and jolly as ever. No reactions at all.

 

The pain and fever continued next day It was like viral fever ..On the 3 rd day it vanished and I was back to normal.

Then the wait for the second dose started .There was talk of extending the gap for the second dose by the Govt.I hoped that it would be after I took it .As per experts it was the booster doe that made the vaccine effective and 28 days gap was ideal.Plus I didn't want to spend some more months immobile and skeptical.

March 30 th came and we were off to that hospital.This time the arrangements were good .seating , , desk and vacination had lot of social distancing.

There were only a handful of seniors waiting  We were not checked for BP.Got the vaccine straight away after paying for it .

I asked the nurse what vaccine was she injecting .she said Covishield .I said I would have preffered Covaxin at the outset itself..She said there is  no choice, we have only covishield.and added that since Covaxin was introduced the second wave set in ! I was aghast at her lack of knowledge or was it pre judise?How can a vaccine trigger a second wave?

We got our certs in no time at the  vaccination centre.

This time I had no side effects .

So vaccination was over.Waited for 15 days for it to take full effect at the end of which we planned to go to Bangalore by train and not car .Wanted to rub shoulders with people happily .When the advised period got over and we were raring to take off lockdown was imposed first in Bangalore  soon followed by Tamilnadu due to the second wave..Shutters came down on us once more.So back to hermit life.