this week of all weeks

When I posted on January 9th, and said I was stressed and had updates, I--never got back to that. So her we go.

Back in December, a few things happened. The first is my grandmother, my mom's mom, died. IT wasn't expected, but it wasn't entirely a surprise. Right on top of that--and probably related--Child went and got a puppy. And six days after we got him, the Saturday before Christmas, he was diagnosed with parvo.

So with a kit from Austin Pet's Alive, we treated Parsnip (yes, like the vegetable; no, I really don't know why Child picked that name) at home with an IV in the back of the shoulder/neck and three shots daily. It was very dramatic; it also ended with us still having a very living, very into inappropriate pooping puppy, so that ended well. Then a week and change later--six days before I posted in January--I was six days into home quarantine for COVID exposure and not taking it well.

Yeah, up until inauguration, I was really doubting like--everything.

Now to update to today:
1.) I start college again next Monday. This is going to be interesting.
2.) Me and my mom got vaccinated with the first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Saturday.

I posted a thread on twitter, but I'm going to reproduce it here for those who are worried about the vaccine or want some reassurance on how it went, etc.

Spoiler: for what I think we can consider a pretty fucking epic personal event--Vaccination in a Time of Pandemic COVID: An Autobiography--it was about as exciting as changing socks. Not even wet socks for dry or plain for fancy: just standard sock change.

In other words: awesomely, wonderfully, gorgeously mundane and unexceptional.



Twitter: thread

So I wasn't going to post about this, but as there's fairly constant vaccine misinformation going around, I figured I'd add to the public record: on Saturday, me and my mother received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine.

Side Effects

Not particularly notable, tbh.

Saturday
a.) I didn't feel the shot at all--and seriously doubted it had happened even though I could see the injection site.
b.) Faint--very very faint--soreness about three hour later.
c.) Took a nap but it was a Saturday so that's pretty much normal.

Sunday
a.) About 4 AM Sunday night, I woke up hot and turned my AC down to 50 (with my phone, bless Nest so hard) and only when I woke again around 5ish in a sweat and chilled did I realize I might have had a fever, then went back to sleep.
b.) Sore at the injection site but not unless I held up my left arm perpendicular to my body with my forearm hanging down. Yes, I had to experiment to find the soreness.**
c.) Slightly firm and raised at a half inch radius around injection site

** I'm being literal, it took me some time to work out how to find the soreness.

Monday
a.) My arm is only sore when I make a concerted effort to find a way to make it happen
b.) The firm raised area is not as raised.
c.) There may be something going on with lymph nodes under my arm but I did a lot of weird ass arm movements to fine the soreness.

Conclusion
I may be more tired, but I am a weekend napper. Maybe it was slightly easier to nap??? Today I haven't noticed anything unusual.

Medications
I take Advair inhaler twice a day, levothyroxide 0.15 MG and Ritalin 20 MG tablets. I forgot to worry about taking those until late yesterday so I'm guessing not a problem.

So involving NSAIDS like aspirin, ibuprofen, etc: I googled then called my insurance's patient advisory nurse since I use baby aspirin when I have headaches. She said--and I quote--maybe stay away from aspirin for now but Tylenol is fine but really not to worry. You may get different advice, so please don't take that last part as anything but anecdata; she wasn't sure either and was clear it was more 'well, if you have tylenol, maybe stick with that rn'.

The Vaccination Process

It was goddamn ideal; they used a kids activity center/gym, and it was so well organized, it was a dream from driving into the parking lot to when you left.

Arrival

When we drove in the parking lot, you drove straight to the first volunteer, who asked your time, then directed us to the indicated parking area (distinct from the one for the elderly/disabled) and told what time to get in line.

Outside was a sheltered area with wheelchairs--a lot of wheelchairs--for those who may need them as well as drop off areas for those who needed it.

Standing in Line

It started outside, where the sidewalk was pre-marked with standing points six feet apart. When you got in line, there was very little standing still though; we maybe stood in one area for thirty seconds at most. We got in line at 11:45. By 11:49 we reached the area near the wheelchair area where a volunteer scanned our phones for the code that came with our appointment email or got our names and looked us up (me and mom had the email).

We got a clipboard with one two-sided sheet to fill out with pretty much only necessary info and teh moderna fact sheet. We made our way through the very carefully delineated line by about 12:01; they kept everyone moving very well.

In the Gym

When we go to the gym area--which was around 11:55--there were several sections:
1.) the major area (about half) was about nine to sixteen tables each with one to two nurses doing vaccinations
2.) one quarter was chairs six feet apart.
3.) about a quarter was for those in wheelchairs. Two and three were for the fifteen minute waiting period after the vaccine was given for potential allergic reactions.

I noticed when I first got in that up in the bleachers were a ton of boxes covering eight to twelve rows; when we got closer, they were a lot lot lot of empty boxes for new wheelchairs, I'm assuming the ones they had outside and inside

Vaccination

At 12:05, my mom and I were called to the middle table, since they group family members. Mom sat down, the nurse asked some questions, gave her the shot, then filled out the card. She went to the sitting area. Repeat 1 with me.

After Vaccination

We waited for about fifteen minutes and talked, then left about 12:30. End to end, it was forty-five minutes from when we got out of the car, and honestly, it felt like maybe ten. The longest was the sitting part.

Notes

This was very well organized; honestly, this is the ideal of how you run a mass vaccination program in the middle of a pandemic.

I want to add this: the volunteers were very professional and managed--I literally have no idea--to make a once in a lifetime if we're lucky event to stop a deadly pandemic feel...not terrifying. They were cheerful, brisk, matter of fact, answered questions but made every effort to make this feel perfectly normal, and that shit is a skill I'd like to have. My vaccination was done at the Delco Activity Center by Austin Public Health.

Comments

[sara]

That's about what my dad's first dose was like.

[princessofgeeks]

So glad you could get vaccinated!! I am waiting patiently. My parents got both their Pfizer shots already.

[brainwane]

Wonderful to hear about the shot.

I would love to know more about college!!

[seperis]

College! Yeah, this will be try four (ish?) and hopefully the one that works. Though to be fair, try 3 ended because I got an amazing job with a huge raise but a steep learning curve so that was more a time issue.

So my son is going to the local community college ACC that I used to attend and as we're still in COVID, I logged into my old account and noticed 1.) I am seven hours (two classes) from an Associate in General Studies (I don't know what it says about me that I had no idea) and 2.) they also offer an associate in software testing, which as that's my job, looked interesting and I thought I'd take a couple of classes since at work, I'm very bored and want to learn how to test with SOAP and JAWS and some of the ADA-related testing tools and programs.

Then I saw that they're now offering a very competitive Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Programming which I thought huh, cool and went to look.

Now, context:

The BA in Computer Science at Texas State still required another 28 to 32 hours of general on top of what I already had: two lits, Spanish IV, a science, art, philosophy, either western civ II or world history II, and six other hours due to me being super interested in taking courses that were interesting rather than uh--ones needed to graduate.

(Note: this is how I have somehow gotten within seven hours of a Associate in General Studies, ten for Associate in Psychology, and maybe twelvish for Sociology and possibly a semester and change for a History but I'm scared to look. This was by accident; I just really liked learning new things back then.)

The BA was really...complicated. While yes, I do speak some Spanish still, it's not Spanish IV level and while I love to read and analyze I hate literature classes so much setting myself on fire seemed preferable.

The BS in Computer Science was actually almost better--I think for core requirements I maybe needed twelve hours at most--except I'd also need eleven more hours of science and two of Calculus and while I have taken Calculus, that was a long time ago, and to even hope to pass, I'd nee to go back to College Algebra and work my way up through the maths and also scream a lot.


...the Bachelor of Applied Science is nothing like that. Of the roughly 120 hours, only 45 of them are general. The other seventy-five hours are software development, data science, networking fundamentals, cloud computing, and that's not even going into the options for elective--I mean, ti read like a wish list of everything I want to know. I literally want to take every single course, I thought I was hallucinating. And even better, I have thirty of the 45 general requirement hours already; I just need an art, a second semester of science, and statistics. The required philosophy is ethics in computers which sounds like something fun I'd read up on during long weekends.

All the computer science courses were full, but I thought I'd just--you know, inquire--and mentioned the BAS when I called. The registrar sent me to the department head for an advising session, we called to talk, I told her a little of what I wanted and anyway, she asked how many courses I had wanted to take (2 courses, six hours) and then sort of just--got me in them for the 12 week spring semester.

Long story short: I'm in college!

While I can apply for a seat in the BAS program now, I'm probably going to wait until either Spring 2022 or Spring 2023. For one, from what I saw and heard at the information session for the BAS, there's only sixty seats but greater than 500 applicants, and while I just qualify, I'd like to jump my GPA a bit and also have more programming courses completed. For another, I really don't need to apply for a seat yet; while the goal is to try and do nine hours each semester starting in the fall, it's going to be at least eighteen months before I'll be ready to take upper level courses, which you can only do once you're accepted to the program. I'm one hundred percent certain there are people applying who are ready now.

https://www6.austincc.edu/cms/site/www/catalog/programmaps/programmap.php?ap=6102&yr=2021

I spreadsheeted all the course options so I could make my plan, and I want to take everything; I have no idea how I'll manage to pick.

...and that's the story as it stands.

Wooooo!

[jesse_the_k]

Huzzah for Parsnip's Parvo palliation. Dog in icon was in Parvo quarantine at the shelter for 6 weeks before we could bring her home.

Your vaccination experience is lovely.

We got Pfizer jabs #1 on Thursday at our HMO's clinic -- they'd finished the over-75s in previous week and started in on the over 65s. We were both amazed at how tiny the vaccination needles were: neither of us felt it at all, and no after-effects, either.

[timespirt]

You're lucky, I doubt I will see a vaccine maybe at the end of the summer if I'm lucky. I can sign up on the 15th but still not enough to go around.

[archaeologist_d]

Sorry to hear about your grandmother. It's hard to lose someone especially these days with all the quarantining.
Your puppy sounds cute once you got past the bad parts.
Glad to hear you got your vaccine shot. Mine is on Tuesday, the second one, Pfizer's. I thought they were very organized about the whole thing. I just hope they don't cancel mine on Tuesday as it's supposed to snow AGAIN.

[flamingsword]

I hope that the puppy is a sufficient distraction for you and the young one from sad life events. And I am glad to hear that so many people are going back to community college in 2021. It is almost enough to make me wish I were doing so. Good luck!