Vaccine 1

I rode my bike into Belfast this morning, caught the train to Ballymena, and walked about 15 minutes to a leisure centre, which was providing vaccines on a massive scale. It all moved pretty smoothly. I sat down across from an NHS nurse and my anxiety started to rise.

I have vasovagal syncope, which means my body sets off alarms when I get a shot, my blood pressure (already low) drops, and I pass out. If' it's a quick shot, I'm OK. If it's slow and painful, not OK. I learned the hard way that I cannot give blood (the last time I did, the nurse said NEVER do this again). Once, I got a steroid injection near my elbow (for painful tendonitis). It was a thick jelly and was being pushed  into muscle. I lost consciousness and ended up being taken by ambulance to a hospital emergency room and put on a drip for an hour until my blood pressure reached the normal zone.

I knew the vaccine wasn't meant to be terribly painful. But my past experiences meant I was getting very anxious as the nurse asked me questions about my medical history. I'd say the shot was more than a little sting. It was a big sting, and it was more than a second of pain. 10 or 20 seconds? But I was OK. I sat for 15 minutes and made sure I was OK.

I had the Pfizer vaccine. Which was created by Turkish scientists in Germany. My jab was delivered by an Indian nurse in Ballymena. Like they say in Hamilton, it's the immigrants who get things done! I'm an immigrant to the UK. I went home and finished designing a Climate Action 100+ newsletter, which I sent to 1,200 people around the world. I also sent my Steering Committee agenda to a dozen people who need to get papers to me within a week. So that was me, an immigrant, getting things done too.

March 31