and things went downhill from there

Flu shots have been hard to come by this year (in these parts, anyway). It's not a shortage, per se, but issues with the distribution. After a couple of failed attempts to get them at our regular pharmacy, we finally booked an appointment and a small, independent one that had the vaccines in stock. We stopped in this morning just before lunchtime to get our shots.

The nurse took me in first for my shot when atara warned her that I am not good with needles. I'm not - though repetition is enured me to them a bit. In the past few years I've had more metal shoved into my body than I had in the 45+ years prior. When I was undergoing physiotherapy for the torn tendons in my ankle, I even indulged the therapist to use me as a test subject to practise her acupuncture.

Anyway, the shot was unpleasant, and I'm sure my arm is going to hurt tomorrow, but it's over with.

When I got home, I made the mistake of mentioning it on Facebook.

Got my annual stab in the upper arm today. Not a fan, but at least it's out of the way.

The first two responses I got were basically one-upping me.

One person bragged about how needles don't bother him in the least. "I left wondering if there was actually a needle attached to the 💉."

The second brushed it off as well. "The flu 💉 was no issue, but the one to prevent shingles hurt for a week."

...

I am aware of how much the shingles shots hurt because I got mine months ago. And I mentioned it on Facebook, where I had different people one-up me. "The shingles shots were nothing. If you want a painful shot you should get the one for hep."

I don't get the whole, "your experience is nothing compared to mine" attitude I see on Facebook. I don't get it on any other the other platforms I follow, so it may be age-related. The folks who came back with those responses are definitely in the advanced boomer age group.

Speaking of COVID (which I wasn't), one of atara's co-workers just tested positive with it. Wishing her well, since she ticks all of the boxes in the high-risk category. They contacted her the day after her positive test to begin tracing her contacts.

This just reinforces my relief that atara has been working from home since March. I am also glad that we started keeping a contact journal back in June. While neither of us are planning to catch the virus, we are keeping logs of all contacts just in case. We have the dates and times logged in the event that we need to provide contacts, or so that we can see if we were potentially exposed at one of the places we went.

Google's Timeline feature really helps with that too. There are some benefits to having a phone that spies on you.

I got shot in the arm yesterday, and I had a bandage to prove it at the time, but it apparently fell off during the night. They said I was very brave about it, and told me that if I walked down to the end of the hall, there was a room full of other people who had been shot, and I could sit around with them and enjoy some free coffee.

They lied; there was no coffee.

Normally I wait until they are offering flu shots in my office, but I have a hunch they might not be doing it this year. The past couple of years they have made noises about not offering them any more, and when they finally did offer them, it was very late into the start of flu season. The reason I suspect they might not be doing them this year is because there are far more places available to get free shots than there were when they first started offering them in the office.

At one point, you had to book an appointment and pay a nominal fee to get a shot, but when the province offered free public flu shot clinics during the H1N1 scare a couple of years ago, they were surprised by the public response, and had trouble keeping up with demand. Ever since then, they have set up public clinics around the province for three days after the vaccine becomes available, offering free shots to anyone who shows up. After those three days, they make them available to many of the pharmacies in town under the same "show up and roll up your sleeve" policy.

I knew that the clinics were happening sometime soon, and I had been toying with the idea of just hitting up a public clinic rather than throwing the dice over whether or not they would make them available at work. I took a vacation day yesterday with a short list of chores I wanted to finish, one of which was to fill the tank in the Volkswagen. I had the CBC tuned in on the radio as I was driving up there, and they mentioned that it was the final day for the free flu clinics.

I hate needles. I don't think I can stress enough how much I hate them. Still, I knew it was either now or later to get the shot. My thinking was that if I was going to get stabbed anyway, I should go to one of the public clinics staffed by nurses who have a lot of experience in giving painless injections. I cursed berated myself all the way to the clinic, and somehow managed to coax myself through the door and into the waiting area. My thinking was that once I was given a number and seated, it was too late to chicken out.

As much as I hate needles, I also hate being a public spectacle. Running out, flapping my arms and screaming would probably be a spectacle, so I steeled my resolve and went through with it.

And now my arm hurts today, but I have nobody to blame but myself. And the nurse. And the needle.

One down. I showed up the H1N1 clinic right as they were opening. There was a decent line, so part of me was hoping it would be a 2-3 hour wait so that I would have an excuse to bail. Alas, I stepped into line at 9:30 and was on my way again by 10:15.

And just because I'm a glutton for punishment I am going to put myself through this again next week for the seasonal shot.