One shot down, one to go.

That’s right, I am 50% of the way to being fully vaccinated against Covid 19!

Indiana dropped the age limit to 45 yesterday. A friend, who also turns 50 this June, told me Monday night he heard rumors the state would be dropping the requirement below 50 Tuesday morning. He got up early, checked the state health department’s website, and just before 8:00 it updated to say Hoosiers 45 and up were now eligible. He and his wife signed up, then texted me the news.

While most of the vaccine sites on our side of town are booked out for weeks, the big facility on the IU-Methodist medical campus downtown had plenty of times that day. I immediately grabbed one at the same time they were headed down. Seconds after I booked my time I got a notification from the Indy Star saying the age limit had dropped. About an hour later the health system S works in sent me a text saying I could sign up. I felt like I had gotten one over on the world!

M had not left for school yet, and when I told her she got super excited, which was nice.

I texted S, telling her that I had an appointment and her response was “Today?” You might wonder if she had given me some inside dope on when the age limit would drop, but being in the pediatric world she has no idea what’s going on in adult medicine. She, too, was happy when I confirmed that I indeed had an appointment later in the day.

Around noon I headed downtown, got in line, waited about 20 minutes to get checked in, got my shot, then waited with my friends in the auditorium until our 15 minute buffer period had passed to make sure we didn’t have reactions.

My arm was sore last night, and again this morning. More sore than from any recent flu shot, to be honest. Worth it, though.

S had no issues after her first shot in December, but the second knocked her out for a day. I scheduled my second shot for a Friday just in case I have issues, too. I’d rather waste a weekend day on the couch than have to navigate a day filled with pickups and drop-offs while feeling like shit.

The lady who was checking my insurance information asked if I was excited. I told her that I was. In fact I was a little surprised at how excited I was. The past year has had its struggles, but no one in our immediate family has been sick. I like to read and watch movies and hang out in our home/yard, so being home hasn’t been a huge burden on me.

I have, though, been worried about catching Covid. Odds are high that I would be fine, or maybe suffer for a few days and then bounce right back. I know it’s not just a “strong flu,” though, and was not interested in putting myself or my family through a situation where my body could not fight the infection and it became a problem. Our family, like most of you, have done some things that probably aren’t super safe. We’ve flown to Florida once and are about to do it again, for example. We’ve let our girls go to small sleepovers and birthday parties or just hang out with friends. But we have generally done a very good job of minimizing situations where we put ourselves at risk. A lot of that has been my insistence.

What has bothered me has been our inability to eat out, our lack of face-to-face socialization with friends, and not being able to go to the gym. Especially the gym. I’ve worked out at home but it’s not the same, especially on the cardio side of things. I can’t run much anymore, so not being able to use an elliptical machine has taken away my one way to really burn some calories. Throw in vertigo, which has prevented me doing from much cardio at all the past four months, and I’m pushing the most I’ve ever weighed. It’s nice to be tall and be able to hide it a bit, but I’m not sure I’ll go shirtless on the beach much next week.

The first thing I thought of when I scheduled my second shot was that I can start going back to the gym the following week. Hopefully my vertigo will continue to get better over that span. That, combined with three weeks of vaccine in me, will make me feel comfortable enough to un-pause my Y membership. I have several friends who have continued to work out, and they say the Y does a really good job of keeping equipment clean and the people inside safe. That just seemed like too much risk to me, though, so I’ve not been inside the gym in 53 weeks.

I’m excited that after another three weeks I can end that streak.

Also, hooray science!