My Experience Getting the Coronavirus Vaccine

Hi, my name is Annabelle, I’m seventeen, and I got the covid vaccine.

 I work in an Orthodontic office where patients have no masks on while they are being treated so the people at my office are really exposed to covid if a patient were to have it. So my boss made it mandatory for us to get the vaccine. 

I was on a waiting list for about two weeks or so. The process of getting a spot to get the vaccine is you first have to go on a waiting list, for me, I did it through the county that I live in. Then, once you’re on that list you get a confirmation that you are on the list, and then private companies can email you if they have spots. 

So I got it through Ascension Michigan and basically what they did is they sent me an email with the portal to get a spot, you had to fill out your information to save your spot. It was really hard to get into the portal at the right time to get a spot because everything got filled up once those emails got sent out because it’s just a mass email. The first time I wasn’t able to get a spot when I was sent the email. But the second time, when I got the big list of all the times that were open I scrolled to the very bottom and signed up for the one at the very bottom because I knew people would be trying for the ones at the top. 

I was able to get it mid-January and I’m going to be getting my second one mid-February. The day I got the vaccine I had to drive an hour away from where I live because that’s the only place they were administering it for people who live in the county that I live in. It was a community college and then basically there were three steps prior to your vaccine that you had to do when you got there. 

When I got there, there was a tent and there were two women working it, that had a big list of names of everyone who signed up and what times they had signed up for. 

Once I got there I had to show my pay stubs to prove that I was actually a medical worker and once I did that I filled out a long thing of paperwork basically consenting to getting the vaccine and knowing the risks and having all of my information stored, like the proper information, that I was who I said I was, and that my mom who had to come with me because I’m underage, was who she said she was. 

I also had to sign a form that basically said that it was okay for medical students to practice on me, if need be. But that didn’t end up happening, I had a really nice nurse who administered my shots. 

After that you can either take a shuttle or walk to the main building because a lot of older people are currently getting their vaccine, they had a shuttle for the longer walk. Once I got there, there was another portion of checking who I was. So they took my ID, matched it with the information that I put on the forms that I had filled out earlier. Checked to see that I had signed up for the specific time that I was at and then just checked my mothers stuff as well. 

Then I was shown to the next station by a nurse and at this station you were basically proving that you had insurance, proving that you were yourself and again putting more information into a computer. So I was sitting across from this woman and she was getting all of my information and all of the mothers information. As well as making a copy of my insurance card, my ID, and my mothers ID. 

Once we did that she put up a little red flag by her computer that showed that I was ready to go get my vaccine. So once she did that someone came and picked me up, took me about a room or two down the hallway. I got to the table where they were going to administer my vaccine. So I’m going to input a video of me getting my vaccine. 

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I was paired with a very kind nurse, she let me record the interaction and it didn’t hurt at all. The needle wasn’t very long which I’ve seen in a few tik toks, it wasn’t painful.

Once I got the vaccine actually administered I got a sticker and my card which basically marks the date that I got the first dose of my vaccine and would mark the date when I get the second dose of my vaccine. Another nurse then moved me to the station where they watch you. 

There were a lot of people there. The spots were numbered, everything was distanced. I had my mom sit next to me because, again, I’m a minor. But I sat there for fifteen minutes, they didn’t need to hold me for thirty minutes because the allergies I have are not present in the vaccine. So just for context I’m allergic to nuts. But those aren’t present in the vaccine. 

However, if you are allergic to other medicines or other vaccines, if you’ve ever had a reaction to anything like that. They have to watch you for thirty minutes. And in the case that something were to happen they’d just give you some epinephrine and hold you for a little bit longer to see how everything turns out. 

After all of that I waited in another line and scheduled another appointment and then I was out of there. So, I didn’t have to see anything once I scheduled that second appointment and I was able to go home. 

On the way home, the weather was really gross so I don’t know if that’s the reason I had a headache or if it was the vaccine. But, I had a bit of a headache, nothing too bad, I’ve definitely felt worse getting other vaccinations. The very next day my arm was very sore. And that was the only negative effect that I’ve had with the covid vaccine so far. 

I am expecting the second vaccine to be worse because people usually have more of an adverse reaction to the second vaccine. 

Thank you for listening. I really advise that you get the covid vaccine. That is the only outlook that will return us back to normalcy. If you have any questions, be sure to let me know. Have a great day!

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