I have received my first dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
NHS Scotland has been continuing with vaccinations around 40k per day, lately. From the end of May till the beginning of June, NHS Scotland called for people in the ages 18-29 to register for the vaccination. I took that opportunity along with few of my friends. Some, as NHS may have suspected, have not registered at all! This gave them opportunity to either update or register with a GP. Thankfully, I got the notification stating they matched my details quite swiftly.
Just after a week or so, I received an email and a SMS message with my appointment detail. Luckily, the appointment was at the local hospital in a week and a half or so, but for some people, it was about a month away or the location was far away. The email provided information needed to re-schedule, which was helpful for those cases.
On the day, I arrived at the hospital about 10 min ahead of schedule. The process at the reception was smooth, followed by clear signages leading to the waiting space. Without waiting for too long, I was taken to the bench and the quick Q&A session started. I happened to have a WHO International Certificate of Vaccination booklet, recording most of the vaccinations (except for a few flu ones I forgot to record). The doctor immediately recognised them and offered to fill the entry on ‘other vaccinations’ page. As I have anticipated, it was Pfizer/BioNTech Comirnaty.
The process was very smooth, the needle went in, felt very similar to flu vaccine, and it was done. I was asked to wait for 10 min, which I just ran a timer on my watch, then left. I had a water bottle so I took few sips.
After 4-5 hours in, my arm started to feel a bit sore. By the time I went to bed, it was a little annoying to fall asleep, but that did not stop me from sleeping. Same continued the next morning but as I had to do a spring cleaning of the flat, I took one dose of paracetamol in the morning, and another in the afternoon. That seemed to have worked quite well. Other than that, it’s been quite uneventful.
According to the staff, currently they are aiming for 8 weeks interval between the first and the second dose. Hopefully around week 6, I may receive the invitation to the next one.
So far, I’m happy to feel that things are moving forward towards the end of the pandemic. I’m looking forward to receive my second dose.
