The COVID-19 vaccine experience part two

David Eckstein-Schoemann, Reporter

It’s been one month since I received my first injection of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine on February 15th. This week I’ve recently received my second dose and am about to go into detail about my experience.

My family and I went back to Advent Health Orlando, the very place where we received our first doses. We parked on the roof of the parking garage, which is connected to the main hospital building via skybridge on the third floor. When we arrived at the entrance, we had to show proof of our appointment so that they could give us our name badges.

Courtesy of David Eckstein-Schoemann.

Once we made it past the skybridge, we descended down a three-story escalator where I could see the line of about a dozen people waiting for their shot. Once we were on the ground floor, security made my family and I sign papers confirming our basic information and appointments for our second shot. I felt at ease throughout the whole process, though it was primarily due to the fact that I’ve been through this routine before the first time I was there. 

The line seemed to end at a double doorway where a guard directed us to go to stations where hospital staff entered our information in the computer. There we were given a vaccine card and were asked to put our name and birth date on the card. We were then directed to a large room where multiple tables, each manned by a person certified to give the vaccine, took our information, printed out a label, and placed it on our vaccination card. 

Courtesy of David Eckstein-Schoemann.

Once we got home we started displaying mild symptoms. My brother and I started showing reactions from the vaccine. We spent the next two days with aching bodies and large migraines. We didn’t get much sleep the first night and found ourselves restless the following day. Thankfully, on the second day the reactions started to wear down and we felt like our normal selves again.

Overall, the experience was clean, and efficient and the staff was warm and knowledgeable. The whole process from start to finish took us all 30 minutes. Now all we have to do is wait two weeks until we’re completely immunized.

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