Day 289 (Vaccinated.. yayy or nayy!)

 So I got my first dose of vaccination of covishield on 11th May in a government centre of Karnataka. The experience was okay. I got a little lucky in getting past the local influence extremism and getting through vaccination. However, the worst part of it was they didn’t give any instructions on what we can expect post vaccination (1st dose) and just mutely gave me 2 paracetamol and sent me away. They didn’t ask me to wait around too so I also chose it better to get back home immediately. On second thoughts.. is that why govt centres are providing free of cost vaccination? They are like “ok we have vaccinated you so now go to watsapp university or google institution and go nuts on what’s expected and what not OR do a paid consultation with another doctor to get proper guidance?” Smart move though..!

Anyway I got back and relied on friends feedback of their experience of getting vaccinated and found it’s not much of a hype. So while driving back itself I started feeling some pain in the arm I got injected in but nothing else. So I am happy that I am fine. I get back take shower ... get my clothes washed... started feeling a little weak but nothing alarming. So I keep living the routine that I do except taking few precautions with kid in case I brought back any infection with me.

5 hours post vaccination and my body starts heating up with frequent chills. But again that’s expected isn’t it? Then bodyache, headache takes over too. And it starts increasing exponentially along with the weakness. So I take a dolo and hope for things to get better. However it’s 2:30 in the night and still not much change. Maybe fever subsided a little but rest of the things are as worse as they can be and on top of that I am devastatingly nauseous. I take another dolo at 3:30 am but still couldn’t sleep till 6 am due to all the pain and uneasiness. 

Anyway, few hours to the next day and I decide to consult a doctor. He tells me that I am towards 60-70% severe reactions to the vaccination on a scale of mild to severe. He prescribes something for nauseousness and fever+chills+bodyache+headache and assures me that I should be recovered by 3 days max.

So, till then I am unable to eat even if the food is in front of me and not a lot many times I had the opportunity to get food as well because I am in no condition to get up and husband has office and kid to look after as well. 

Speaking of husband’s office, they are such a great firm that it’s very difficult to find one such! They might not be employee friendly but the transparency is just award-worthy! They will tell you straight-away that with post-vaccination you might get a little bodyache but then body will be working so don’t excuse yourself with a sick leave. So just imagine the support if the spouse is unwell.. I mean that’s not even considerable! Some of the other amazing policies or examples of their transparency: during this pandemic most of the times they gave “WFH permission” for the next 1 week or so! Can you imagine how exciting it was to not know what do we have to do next week or how I have to manage if he has to go? Then there was lockdown and they had to shutdown but as you know Covid just got away in January 2021 so the employees were asked to go back to office with 25% strength. And I had to be a super-mom! Now that india has been hit devastatingly by the second wave, they have given the blessing of again a “wfh permission” till 31st May and after that the adventure begins ! When our kid was born parental leave policy was for 1 day! Which makes sense actually. See the kid is born .. fine .. great! Now get back! Wife is adult enough to discharge herself and get back home with the kid! Now it’s 3 or 5 days parental leave which is so much because how long does a wife needs a husband or a new born baby needs a father after being born? I don’t think they have any grievance leave because well if someone is dead , they are not coming back if you don’t work.. right? 

So coming back from these great policies to today... husband had to manage office and kid which could otherwise have been wife and kid had he been working in a firm like mine. So I took the first dose of the doctor’s prescribed medicine in the night and thankfully it got me little better. It broke the fever, reduced little bodyache, headache. Weakness remained the same though. Still since the symptoms couldn’t gang up on me so I gathered myself up today.. trying to take care of me mentally and physically.. was able to cook lunch with short breaks in between. Got myself little snack when I felt I am going to just lie on the ground right now and I feel that I might be able to recover by evening. I have to! 

So if you get vaccinated and you get all these things altogether and they are overwhelming, remember:

1) don’t pay heed to negative people/news.

2) keep yourself hydrated.

3) have less expectations 

4) try to pull yourself together if you can and get yourself some snacks in short intervals. 

5) if possible keep ready to eat snacks for next 3 days before going for vaccination.

Though I hope that you don’t need all this and vaccination is “yayy” for everyone who reads it!

Take care.. stay safe!