Vaccination Blues

[danb]

Yes, I want a vaccination for the Corona.  When can I get it?  I don't know. They ( my state) don't really give real good answers.  I have been eligible for a shot for about 3 weeks.  Eligible, but can't find an opening.  I have been looking for at least 5 or 6 times a day for an opening. No luck.  The websites are not that user friendly.  The availiblity is even less freindly.  Last week I went to the main site for vaccination for my state.  Got up early.  Found a slot , requested that slot. Thought, that  I was all set. Wrong, they said the slot was full. darn!!  tried 4 or 5 more times.  yes, got it, wrong. "slot is full". Darns were turning into dams! And then CRASH!! The site went down, down,down.  Today, I got up earlier.  Heard the site was goning to be updated and refreshed at 8 in the morning. I thought I would be sneaky and got logged to the site before 7:30.  They were sneakier.  I asked about getting a slot. They put me in to a que.  They told that  I had to wait but if I wanted to they would email when they could process my request for a slot.  It seemed like they had things set up and had fixed their problems from the previous week.  Wrong,  I was told that the wait would be over an hour.  Great!  They said that they would post updates on the wait times.  Great.  The first update:  there were 4,500 slots availible and I was 69,562 th  in the que.  Great!  Not!!  The blues are turn red.  Anyone else having better luck?

[danb]

I stayed on the waiting que page for 5 hours.  Did stuff around the house.   Came back to the page to check my status thru out the day.   About  12:53 pm I got to the top of the que.  Great I thought I was getting somewhere.   I was transfered to a different page. There I was told that there were  no open slots.  Just great!!  The page said that the feds were only shipping a certain amount of vaccines each time/week.  I think that our state's allotment is only 60-70 k each week.  The site advised that we check back during the week to see if any slots freed up.

[eseum]

This is the start of the second week where my age group is now able to get a vaccination. I have yet to try to get into one of the sites, as I have read where it is not easy to do at this point. Also, I am leaning heavily towards getting the one shot vaccine from J&J since it has now been approved. I really only want to have to go through line once and not wait weeks to get a second shot. From what I have read, it seems that there are less reactions to the one shot as well. Whether that holds true once it hits a larger group of people remains to be seen. Hopefully I will be able to get this done by the end of the month.

[Back Again]

The VA sent an email to me months ago asking if I wanted to sign up to receive the vaccination. If so, they would schedule an appointment for me when they received the vaccine. I checked the "Yes" box and sent it back. Someone from the VA called me at the end of January and left a message and phone number to call so they could schedule my appointment. I called the number and without even asking for my name the lady said I could come to an open vaccination session and she gave me the date. I told her no thank you. I am not driving 70 miles just to stand around in a crowd and hope I get vaccinated before they run out of the vaccine.

The next day, on Feb 1, I received a text message from Methodist Hospital not far from our home. Your name and info are in our system and you are eligible to receive the vaccine. Use your phone and select a date and time and also electronically sign the consent documents. About 5 minutes later I had an appointment scheduled for Feb 7, which they confirmed back to me. They sent reminder texts with instructions on how to park. They were incredibly well organized and Ping and I walked from one station to the next and never had to wait. I got the shot, and had no side effects, but they sent a text the next day asking if I was feeling well, and asking if I wanted to speak with a Nurse about any problems.

When we were there they scheduled my next shot for Feb 28, three weeks later. We returned to the same organized system, and they were doing only 2d shots that day. I didn't even feel the needle when the nurse gave me the shot. Again no side effects, but a follow up text inquiring if I was having any problems.

I have always felt it is better to be lucky than good, and maybe this helps prove that belief.

This is also why I use Medicare and not the VA for my health problems, even though I am 100% covered for everything at the VA. I would rather have the higher quality of care, and Methodist Hospital consistently ranks as the best.

If you guys are in the system at a hospital it may be easier to schedule an appointment with that hospital to receive the vaccine. Good luck with it.

[Back Again]

Another encouraging note is that Ping was able to make an appointment today to get her first shot tomorrow. She is just 50 years old, so things are opening up more and more for everyone.

[lhp]

It's a craps shoot. Here in Washington the mass vax sites outside of Seattle seem to regularly come up with wide availability. It's just a huge pain to go to all the different websites and refresh to see if anything's opened up. I was able to get my 85 year old father an appointment at the beginning of February by spending most of a week refreshing various appointment pages. Now in mid-March it seems like there are many more spots coming available.

My wife's 8 months pregnant and has decided to get the shot – we looked last night and got an appt for Tuesday morning.

Good luck and stay safe. We're almost to the tipping point!

[dannyboy21]

Over here It is still a bit erratic.  Also  the websites do not always work smoothly.   Better than before but still not smoothly.  Some of the states around here are rolling out some new appointment making and checking sites.  The availiblity of appointment slots are still a bit scarce.  Also I think some of the states are accelarating the date that the new  people who will be available/ able to request to look for an vaccination shot date.  It feels like that they are just going to open the appointment date gate.  Sorta like a flood.  I hope the system doesn't become overan.  You know what I mean?  But we are heading in the right direction.

[Back Again]

In Texas they opened a Phase 1C, which is open for ages 50 and over. A few counties had extra doses and opened their counties for all adults until the extra doses were used.

Ping and I both had Pfizer and neither of us had any side effects.

 

 

[Randy W]

A word about the second dose from ZDoggMD

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2557555311216137

Quote

 

What's up with the side effects from the second COVID vaccine dose? And should you get antibody testing to "prove" you're immune? Here's what's going on.

Want to support our educational efforts with a 1-time donation and get a personal thank you email from me? paypal.me/zdoggmd

 

 

 

 

[eseum]

A friend of mine and his wife, that lives in San Diego, both received the Moderna vaccine. He said that both of them had a hard reaction on the second shot, and that it took a while to get over it. They are both in their mid 70's.

I am still delaying on the vaccine. I saw where J&J is supposed to ship 11 million doses next week. I am hoping that NV gets a significant portion so that I can possibly just go with the one shot. Regardless, I will look at getting an appointment for the first full week of April. Time to quit procrastinating and just get it done.

[danb]

I am getting my second shot ( Moderna) this Thursday.  I hope it goes smoothly.  I have heard that some people have problems with the their vaccine shots and some have not.  In the small circle of people that I have heard from , most have not a big problem.  I did have one freind that just had the JJ vaccine shot and he felt poorly for several days.  But he is doing okay now.  I am looking forward to getting this over with.  I have been keeping myself fairly isolated.  I will probably still try to keep mostly to myself but i will try to go out once in a while to a restauarnt or two that is not packed with people.  I think I still practice some caution.  Danb

[Back Again]

Texas opened eligibility to everyone over age 16 on Monday, so our daughter got her first dose of Moderna on Saturday. Her boyfriend was also able to get an appointment and got his shot on Saturday. Also Moderna.

[eseum]

I received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday. Sore shoulder from the shot was the only side effect. I got tired of waiting for J&J to get here again so went on line Tuesday to schedule an appointment. Took me 5 tries to get through the website to get the appointment scheduled. For some reason when I reached the last page some of the text questions did not appear so I couldn't hit the schedule button. Fifth try and everything worked fine.

There were a lot of openings so it wasn't a problem to pick a date and time. I went ahead and scheduled my second appointment for 4/22, this morning. No website problems this time around.

[eseum]

I take my wife in tomorrow morning to get the first shot of the Pfizer vaccine. She is a little reticent, but also wanted me to make sure that she could get the Pfizer vaccine instead of one of the others.

My son got the second shot yesterday. He texted me this morning saying that it has really made him tired, along with feeling kind of achy. I'm going over a little later this morning to watch my five month old granddaughter while he tries to rest.

[eseum]

My wife had no problem with the 1st shot other than a sore shoulder.