I’m finally a part of that lucky statistic-I got the first shot of my COVID vaccine two days ago! However, before getting the shot, the experience was a complete mystery to me, and all kinds of confused questions clouded my mind: When I wait in line, do I have to stand outside for hours or can I just zoom in and out? Does the needle feel like a poisonous wasp sting or a mosquito bite? And will I be completely fine, or will I faint as soon as the needle enters my arm? If your own vaccine is coming up, you are probably worrying about many of these questions as well. So, I decided to document the whole process of getting my first shot from start to finish, in the hope of offering some certainty about the vaccination experience.
Heading to the Vaccine Clinic
As soon as my brother and I woke up, we headed downtown to get vaccinated. It was a wet, snowy day, and I dreaded the possibility of standing and shivering in line.
Despite my dread of the wet snow and the cold weather, we didn’t have to queue up outside. In order to minimize physical contact, the clinic made us queue up in cars, using signs directing us to a single lane on the road. We inched forward warmly and safely along this lane for a few minutes until we reached the convention centre with the clinic.
When we reached the convention centre, we didn’t have to wait outside either. The lane led straight into an underground parking lot! The parking lot was heated, so when we got off the car, it actually felt really warm.
Inside The Vaccine Clinic
After paying our parking fees inside, we headed up a few flights of stairs and escalators, and there it was… the doorway to the vaccine clinic I saw on so many newspapers, Twitter feeds, and Instagram posts! Now I was going to be a part of the great big “return to normal” I was hoping for. I went into the clinic through the open door in the picture below.
After this point, I wasn’t allowed to take any more photos, so I’ve attempted to re-create my experience as best as I could in drawings. Behind the doorway, there were a lot of airport line dividers for us to queue up in. Since I got my vaccine on a Thursday, the queue moved surprisingly fast, and I was ready to get vaccinated in a few minutes. I highly recommend you book your vaccines for weekdays! It’s efficient and not crowded, so you feel more safe.
Before we entered the room where everyone was getting vaccinated, we had to take a survey. We answered a few questions about our likelihood to be COVID positive, including:
- Do you have any COVID symptoms?
- Are you a close contact of a COVID-positive person?
- Have you visited an outbreak site recently?
After we answered no to all of these questions, we moved on.
Getting the Vaccine!
When we entered the big vaccination room, we confirmed our appointments with an AHS staff member. About a minute later, my brother and I sat down to get vaccinated. All the vaccines were administered by AHS registered nurses, and these nurses wore their certification on their name tags.
Before giving me the shot, the nurse showed me what type of vaccine I was getting (I got Pfizer). She also let me take a look at the vial that the vaccine came in. The vial was tiny! Although pictures from the news made it look big, it was actually the size of my thumb.
My classmate, who got the vaccine before me, told me that “it hurt quite a bit at the injection site, and [he] didn’t expect it to hurt so much” (those are his exact words). However, that was definitely not the case for me! The needle entering my arm felt like a small pinch or an angry mosquito bite. Immediately after this pinching feeling, the muscles around the injection site became a bit sore, like I had been flexing them for too long. Overall, it felt similar to, if not less painful than the flu shot. That was also how most other people felt, given that the COVID vaccine needle was also used to vaccinate newborns, according to the nurse.
After my brother and I got our shots, we waited for 15 minutes in a seating area. This was pretty chill, since we didn’t feel a lot of soreness and we were just sitting around.
Conclusion
I thought my first shot would be terrifying. I dreaded the possibility of waiting in line, getting stabbed by the needle, and feeling terrible side effects. However, my experience with my first shot actually went great! It was a lot less painful and arduous than I had anticipated. When I got the shot, the nurse told me that second shots should happen in around five weeks, and I can’t wait to be fully immunized!
All other sources are my own.
