I received my first two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in January and February 2021. While I took the first shot relatively well, the second shot left me down for the count for a few days – and this is coming from someone who went through chemo. 

When the boosters were first announced, I wasn’t sure if I was eligible or not. Since I left the school system in June 2021, I was no longer in a “high risk” workplace or whatever they call it. Unless my cats can transmit COVID, my co-workers all live in my computer, so I don’t think I would catch it from them. 

Eventually, I think everyone was allowed to get the booster, but again, the messaging hasn’t been super clear, but that’s just how 2020-2022 has been. 

Anyways, getting the booster kept getting pushed down on my priorities. 

Then Mr. Omicron came to town and I thought more critically about getting it or not. I wanted to wait a few weeks to see if an “Omicron-specific” booster came out. To be transparent, I also just didn’t want to go through a few days of feeling bad like I did for the second shot. I know that’s a bad explanation, but that was one of the main reasons I put it off, along with the aforementioned not working in an environment where I come into contact with many people. 

However, once cases started spiking and I read about how the booster did make things better if I were to contract COVID, I decided that feeling bad for a few days would outweigh being on a ventilator or dying.

I scheduled an appointment at CVS this time, instead of one of the state health clinics. 

There was no real reason for this; CVS is just closer to my house and seemed easier to schedule. I did have to reschedule a few times thanks to the Great Snow of January 2022, but eventually my day was locked in. One other thing I did differently was to drink a lot of water the day before and day of. My mom swore by it so I figured it was worth a shot. 

I got there in the evening, waited a bit, and got the shot. In my brilliance, I forgot my vaccine card so I didn’t get that signed off, but I probably will go get it retroactively filled out at some point. I was told to wait 15 minutes after and asked if I really had to do that. The pharmacist said they couldn’t force me to stay there, so like a badass, I just walked out. 

That night, there was a school board meeting. 

Since school board meetings have become more entertaining than Netflix, I always make sure to tune in. This one did not disappoint. The new board majority of crazy people decided to fire the superintendent (who had already resigned, effective at the end of the school year). Basically, they just wanted to make a power move. 

The main reason I’m including this stuff about school boards (besides encouraging you to watch school board meetings and hold elected officials accountable) is to help establish a timeline for everything. The board meeting finished around midnight, and I was still feeling fine. 

Since there was to be a mass “sick out” of teachers the next day, I volunteered to go in to help cover classes. I woke up and felt fine, so I was already on the track to doing better than the second shot. In went Mr. B to the school, to the cheers of children everywhere. 

Around lunchtime, I realized I wasn’t feeling very hungry. 

This isn’t normal for me, as I feel hungry most of the time. However, I didn’t think much of it. I did gradually feel more achy and tired as the day went on, and more than would have been typical for a day at school. 

When I got home, I slept for a few hours. I woke up, ate a little soup, and went back to sleep. I woke up the next day and no longer felt achy. So all in all, I had about 12 hours of feeling achy. I guess my mom’s water tip worked?

However, I didn’t have an appetite again. 

This was one thing that was a little baffling to me. I just didn’t have a desire to eat for about a week after the shot. I ate very little for that time and when I did eat, it took me forever and I felt like I was forcing myself to eat. 

Eventually my appetite returned to normal about a week and a half later. Sometimes it still ebbs and flows, but I also found out I have low Vitamin D (again) and that is sometimes a symptom of that. It’s hard to point at which one was the culprit here – the shot or the low Vitamin D.

Should you get the COVID-19 booster shot?

As I’ve said in the past two posts, that’s a personal call, but it went fine for me. I do think if we would like for 2020 to end at some point, we do need to reach a much higher percentage than the 65% we’re rocking as a nation right now. 

However, I’m just a guy who writes about ball jokes on the internet, so if you’re not sure about vaccines from all the actual scientists who recommend them, I’m not sure I will change your mind. 

Also, I realized I got through this whole post without making a superhero/government tracking chip/WiFi joke, so I should close by saying that the booster definitely gave me Wifi-enabled superhero powers to track anyone who works for the government.