My boyfriend and I went to get our Covid-19 vaccination yesterday. At noon of the day before yesterday, the Quebec government announced that it would be possible to vaccinate AstraZeneca vaccines for those aged 45 and over from the next day.
When I listened to the news I couldn’t remember if I was over 45 years old, so it sounded to me something that had nothing to do with me, but my boyfriend said, “So, we can go, then.”
I said, “Can we?”
“Yeah, you are over 45 years old, aren’t you?”
— Yes, I am. I remember now.
We got vaccinated in Quebec, Canada
The side effects of AstraZeneca’s vaccine have been discussed recently and I heard that some older people hesitate to get the AstraZeneca’s injection. That is probably the reason why the government decided to let younger people get vaccinated earlier than planned.
Am I worried about blood clots as a side effect of AstraZeneca’s vaccine? I don’t feel completely safe with the risk, but any kind of medication could have a risk of side effects and more importantly, we just wanted to move forward. In the near future, two doses of the vaccine will be a new passport to travel. We imagine that it will be an obligation if you want to travel abroad no matter whether you are happy with vaccines or not.
The details of the vaccination were not clear at the time of the announcement, but the next day my boyfriend found the information about the vaccination place where we could just walk in without an appointment, though their website didn’t work very well.
Because the information was not clear we decided to just go to and see what would happen. In Quebec, where we live, Spring seemed to have come earlier this year than usual, but it was snowing yesterday. It seems like we are going back to winter, as it is snowing as I am writing this diary.
Our vaccination went more smoothly than we’d thought
Because of the cold weather we guessed that there would not be many people at the ice hockey arena which is the local vaccination centre. We were lucky because the whole thing was very smooth and we even received appointments for the second doses too.
We were stopped at the entrance gate to the parking area and explained that we came for the vaccination. We were given pieces of paper that had an approximate time of our vaccination on and they just let us in.
Every section had hand sanitisers and at the entrance, we were given new medical masks to wear instead of the ones we were wearing. There were many people working and all of them were smiley and friendly. We had to register with our health insurance cards and we were questioned about basic health conditions and then we got the needles in our arms. I felt as if we were on the assembly line in a factory where the ones who flow are patients.
After the injections, we had to rest for 15 minutes there to see if there would be any immediate reactions. I felt my arm was tired, but besides that, everything was fine. We left the arena. The whole process took only about 40 minutes.
On the way to the arena, we had stopped at our post box which is located 6 km away from our house and there was a slip of paper for a package from Japan. After leaving the arena we went to the post office to collect the package.
Our package from Japan
My parents sent it 7 weeks ago from Japan. Initially, they wanted to send it by air, but they were told there were no flights to Canada when they went to the post office. So they had to send it by ship. They said that it would take 4 weeks before the package arrives, but I didn’t get anything after 4 weeks.
My dad was worried and went to the post office to check where the package was. The people in the post office checked the tracking information and told him the package had arrived in Vancouver on the 13th of April. The arrival date to our house on the slip of paper in our post box was 19th, so it must have travelled on land after crossing the Pacific Ocean — It’s a long journey.
I was super happy with the package which included lots of food products and also lots of Japanese snacks which my boyfriend loves too.
When will the vaccination roll out happen in Japan?
I called my mum in the evening telling her the package had arrived and we had been vaccinated. She was surprised that our vaccination had been done. In Japan, the vaccination roll out is very slow and the situation is getting worse, especially in the Kansai region where my family lives. My dad is in his 70’s and has a bad lung condition. My mum is also over 65 years old. However, they didn’t get any information about the vaccine. My mum said that even their family doctor didn’t get vaccinated yet. It’s frustrating that the people who need to get vaccinated more than me cannot get vaccinated, whilst I did. How you are treated really depends on where you live. This world is not fair at all. All I can do is just hope that they can get vaccinated as soon as possible. The Japanese politicians have to take it seriously that the vaccination roll out should be prioritized over the Olympics.
The vaccine reaction
There was an explanation about the reactions that may happen after the vaccination on the paper which they gave us at the entrance to the arena.
In my case, the arm which I got injected with has been dull and a bit sore. Perhaps my body is fighting the vaccine. Last night, I had a headache and more pain in my arm. I might have even had a slight fever because I felt cold even though I had my electric blanket on.
My boyfriend and I don’t get sick very often and cannot even recall when we were last sick. That’s why the reaction was a bit difficult for us. I think we should just take it easy today, and enjoy Japanese snacks.
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