Boostered

Booster shots are required for different reasons. First, there is the legal requirement for the dog to get boosters of her rabies vaccine at various intervals during her lifetime. When we adopted her a year ago, since there was no history on her as far as vaccinations went, she got one of everything, minutes before I took her home. (I guess they weren't going to spend the money/effort until she was paid for?)

Getting the shot translated into a license renewal was interesting. They - like seemingly everybody these days - want you to do it online. They also require you to mail in a hard copy of the paperwork you get from your vet proving your dog actually got the vaccine.  After fighting with their website for a couple minutes - my patience wears thin easily these days - I just filled out the form they'd mailed me, added my check for $10, along with the proof of vaccination, then popped it in the mail, aka put it on the clip near the mail slot in our door. We'll see what they need next year, since her rabies shot this time is good for 3 years. 

The vet did try to inspire me to fork over the dough for a whole list of other vaccinations, but they couldn't quite get there. After all, she is an indoor dog except for toileting, and that happens inside a fenced yard where no other dogs enter. How would she get exposed to anything? The monsoon dried up in this area just as we got here, and I have yet to see/feel a mosquito in the area. Any extra vet budget was whirled away down the sucking siphon of oven replacement expenses.

Every year Steve and I get our influenza boosters. Not only do they wear off - like we're hearing with covid -  but varieties of what's circulating change each year. They're kind of hit-and-miss, but we always hope that they have the psychic ability to choose ahead of time which versions will be prevalent several months in the future. One can hope that perhaps the technology which enabled rapid manufacture of the covid vaccines can be adapted for influenza and we can get more targeted shots, since I don't really trust anybody's claim of psychic powers. Anyway, we spend our flu season months well away from all those adorable little germ-wagons we delight in visiting and hugging in the summers.

Of course, we now know that our Pfizer needs boostering, being past 7 months since the second shot. We qualify by age and comorbidities, as well as desire to stay as well as possible. I asked my pharmacist how long we needed to wait between covid and flu shots, and was told they could be done simultaneously. Since I also had my annual physical this week, I asked the doc as well. He recommended two weeks between. So this morning I proceeded to get my covid booster. Mid month I'll go back for the flu shot. I'm still masking in public, just because.

Previously when I've gotten shots there has been a chair for sitting in while you wait the  suggested 15 minutes to be sure it doesn't kill you. Or just make you light headed, perhaps. Today there were 5 chairs and they were filled. Three more people were standing, waiting. In the time it took to fill out two sheets of forms, two of the chairs cleared up, unexpected since the standing people were still standing. I sat long enough to become sufficiently bored to notice that under the nearby shelves there were several bottles which had fallen onto the floor and rolled underneath the shelves. Apparently their brooms don't reach that far.

Or they just need to train more diligent employees.

During my shot the pharmacist giving it wasn't nearly as adept at getting a needle in and out painlessly as the crews at State Farm Stadium during the initial January/February rush to vaccinate. She did, however, attempt to reassure me that most of the feedback they'd gotten from folks getting their booster had said the side effects from the booster were much milder than their 2nd shots last winter. I wonder what that feels like when there were zero side effects back then. What's less bad than zero? Do I feel immediately better than normal? How do you simply match that high from last winter of having any kind of hope of not getting covid, and of finally getting back to whatever resembles normal these days?

Steve was planning to get his booster this morning as well, but his knees have been kicking up such a storm that he's planning on staying in bed as much as possible instead. Just as well he didn't head up on his scooter this morning (his pharmacy is much closer than mine so we go separately) since he'd given me his vaccination card for safekeeping. I needed to hand mine over temporarily before getting my shot. I presume his would have been required as well. When he's ready, I'll happily drive him up. His pharmacy is in the local grocery store, and I'm out of ice cream!