Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

I promised to provide a brief update regarding my journey to become fully vaccinated. My first shot was on January 13th and was the Pfizer vaccine. Registering for my first appointment was relatively simple. I got on the state website, registered, answered their questions and was able to make an appointment at State Farm Stadium. I knew I had a 21 to 28 day window to get my second vaccination.

Not so with an attempt to secure an appointment for my second vaccination. I knew the 28th day was February 8th. So, I started by going to the state website. The first sign that I knew things weren’t going well was that I’d log in and kept getting kicked off the site. When I was finally successful, after many tries, to find a vacant appointment slot between February 2nd and February 8th there were no slots available. Here I was, trying to make an appointment a day or two after my first shot and there were no empty appointment slots available. How could this be? I have no answer.

After trying the online approach for several days with my level of concern rising, I used the hotline number provided on the state website. It took several calls and much dead airtime waiting to talk to someone before I got a live person who promptly told me that there appeared to be no slots available, but she would check and call me back. The following day I received the phone call and the only slot I could get was at 2:45 AM on the last day, the 28th day of my window. I immediately confirmed.

That morning I made my way to State Farm Stadium. I have nothing but praise for the setup used at the Stadium. On both occasions, there was a logical and quick process to confirm my appointment. The longest part of the process is waiting 15 minutes to verify that I had no immediate reaction to the vaccine.

There have been stories of some having had mild flu symptoms, headache, fever, and chills or experiencing tiredness. I am here to tell you that I had no symptoms after my second Pfizer vaccination. Nothing at all.

I had heard that one is more likely to experience side effects after the Moderna vaccination, but I don’t know of anyone personally who received Moderna and experienced symptoms after the second vaccination.

I can report to you that although I had difficulty lining up an appointment for my second vaccination, don’t give up. Be persistent. You can get it done. Your chances of having a reaction are minimal and should not deter you. I urge all those in the 1A and 1B groups to get your vaccination. It’s worth the effort. Even though it offers a certain amount of reassurance and peace of mind, I will continue to mask up and socially distance and you should as well.

© Joyce Clark, 2021       

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