As I'm lucky enough to have reached the grand old age of 50, I was offered the Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine a few weeks ago. I actually felt quite nervous when the day finally came around for my appointment but mainly, I was excited. It was impressive how clean and efficiently set up the centre I went to was. The nurse said I was her 65th patient that day - I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat at her kindness and dedication - like so many other brave souls during this whole lockdown process. She told me that I might get the shivers and flu like symptoms in 12 hours time and to take paracetamol if I did.
I woke up at 2.30am on the dot, shivering under the covers. I was freezing cold and felt really weird - like I was stuck and couldn't bring myself to get out of bed for half an hour, just huddling up and shaking. I eventually prised myself out of bed and took a paracetamol, put on my thermals, socks and a dressing gown and drifted back to sleep. Two hours later, I was woken up again but this time with a throbbing headache and felt so wide awake that I took another paracetamol and read for an hour before sleep kicked in again.
By the time my alarm went off, I was groggy with a pounding, woolly head and all over body aches. I dosed up on paracetamol and gave myself the day off, climbing back into bed where I read, had my daughters visit me for chats and my husband brought me drinks between cat naps - it was like a sick-spa day. After a good night's sleep, I woke up feeling myself again and so thankful to have been vaccinated.
Keep safe everyone - not long to go now until safe freedom...
Well done Clare. Good to here you have had your 1st jab.