Bradshaw

ENTERPRISE — I must admit, when my boss suggested I write an account of what it’s like to get the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, I almost sluffed it off, thinking there wouldn’t be much to say. After all, I may be no spring chicken, but I’m generally pretty healthy and didn’t expect I’d experience much of a reaction. At 67, I rarely get sick, have no immune system issues and thought I might get off scot free.

How wrong I was.

To begin with, this in no way is to attempt to impart medical knowledge or advice; I’m a journalist, not a medical professional. It’s just the experience of one person who got the vaccine.

The first shot wasn’t worth more than a paragraph. I walked into the Cloverleaf Hall on March 16, they had me fill out a minimal amount of paperwork and gave me the shot. Then I waited along with about 20 others for the required 15 minutes to make sure I didn’t pass out or have other adverse reactions. That was it. No soreness in the arm; I didn’t even bleed at the injection site.

But Tuesday, April 13, was a little different.

That was the day our daughter, Amber, who is a registered nurse in Twin Falls, texted us about her hospital ordering a halt to administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. My wife, Margaret, had taken it the same day I got my first Moderna shot. Amber knew this and wanted to make sure her mom was OK. Margaret hasn’t noticed any ill side effects of the vaccine — she even said she felt energized after receiving it.

Not so for me. Again, receiving the second Moderna shot and the wait time were inconsequential. I went in at 7 a.m. because Tuesday is our big production day for the week’s paper and I didn’t want to be away for that. In fact, I’d even worked late Monday to get a story done I otherwise might have done Tuesday morning. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of that.

But I was fine most of Tuesday. Oh, I was a little tired, but that could’ve been as easily from having worked late the previous night as any of the warned fatigue from the second Moderna shot.

We got the paper put to bed by about 2 p.m. and after making plans for the next week, I took the rest of the afternoon off, as much because of working a long Monday as to make sure I wasn’t feeling the vaccine-related fatigue. I did feel a little tired, but I’m still not sure what the cause was.

Then came Tuesday night. I usually sleep like a log. I’ll go to sleep in one position and rarely move all night — just ask Margaret.

But that night, I woke in the middle of the night shivering, shaking and a bit feverish. I got up and put on a T-shirt and was able to get back to sleep.

I had planned to go to the usual Wednesday-morning Bible study I attend at 6:30 a.m. But when I got up, I was stumbling around and Margaret sent me back to bed.

“You won’t go to hell for missing one Bible study,” she said.

I usually make my own breakfast — I’m just picky about how everything has to be cooked, but that day, Margaret did it for me, which I greatly appreciated. Oh, the bacon was a bit crisp, but it was generally great.

Then, she wouldn’t even let me go to work on time and insisted I get an extra couple of hours of sleep since I was still stumbling around.

I did manage to get up and to work by 9:30 a.m. It’s not that my job is physically stressful, so I managed, though all day Wednesday I still was a bit tired and unsteady. We had another event at church that evening, at which I managed alright.

By Thursday, I could still feel a little of the fatigue, but not much. There was no pain in the shoulder where I got the shot. There were no headaches, muscle pain or nausea. They say it’s another couple or three weeks before it’s fully effective, but that should do the trick.

But I still have questions:

• Will I need an annual booster?

• What about this so-called “herd immunity” we’ve heard about?

• When can I stop wearing a face mask?

But I guess I’ve survived — both COVID and the vaccine meant to cure it.