Hurrah! I lucked out and logged onto the booking app just as new vaccine slots came available for low priority people! Ten minutes later they would all have been gone. It's even close to home.
First shot 28 May.
That's such good news. My daughter still doesn't qualify. Apparently the age limit is above 36 as of tonight. We were predicting that it's going to be interesting to take her along as it's going to be complicated. I know what questions I have been asked and I'm easy, she's not. There's probably going to be a certain amount of horror they haven't seen her yet.
Mr Dragon is getting jabbed on Friday, when we will also be venturing to the cricket. I doubt day two of a county championship match will be heaving, and it's open air. If the health secretary is to be believed, I will be able to book by the end of this week. We are going to see the Dragon in laws for tea on Sunday, which the Dragonlets are very excited about.
My parents are having a meet-up with mum's siblings tomorrow. Apparently the star attraction will be the turkey they didn't have at Christmas. (They removed a small piece for their needs and froze it.)
It'll be interesting to see what happens with all the test events. I know someone who was very happy to have gone to the FA Cup final at the weekend, and judging by the comments on his social media photo, not everyone was wearing a mask properly.
On the other side of the coin though, a bubble burst at school last week, and numbers around here are still fluctuating.
From what I've seen of the daily rates of infection, I don't think the Indian variant is as transmissible as first thought. I think the original modelling didn't take into account enough the interconnected living within South Asian culture, multigenerational households and attitudes towards personal space, and it overpredicted transmission rates. Just my opinion, and we should know more in coming weeks.
Crossing fingers a and toes that the EU will let us in, if so we’ll be going two weeks tomorrow.
Our Enkelin has changed from a baby to an active, cheeky toddler since we were last there. I’m trying not to get too excited - everything changes so quickly. Lufthansa have been amazing, changing our flights again and again with no charge.
I don't want to rain on your parade, Boogie, but it looks as though you shouldn't get your hopes up.
Yup.
Looks like we may have to all meet in Greece! 🙄
In better news, they are now vaccinating all 18 year olds and above in our town.
From our council website -
“If you are aged 18 and above and haven’t had your first vaccine please drop into one of the following extra vaccine clinics for the Pfizer jab. You do not need an appointment.”
Maybe I should visit Boogieville. The Canterbury District Hospital Board have really dropped the ball on this one. Vaccinations for those over 65 (me) were scheduled for May, then it was the end of May, now it's the end of July and I'm not holding my breath on that one.
I don't mind that much as we don't appear to have active cases in the community ( although some traces show up in the sewerage), but I would like to have have had at least one jab before I visit my brother who is in care in August for his 70th birthday.
In England the age limit is down to 32, not that there's much publicity about it.
Enough publicity, in our experience anyway, to make getting an appointment pretty difficult. Nenlet1 is 32 and lives in Bath. The nearest centre to be offered at the moment is in Salisbury.
Our son is thirty-two but I'm not at all sure he is registered with a GP. I'll be gently reminding him to chase up a vaccination when I talk to him later today. Being a mother doesn't stop when they leave home does it?
The centres were disappearing as we booked yesterday morning - which is when it went live, but the only way of finding out was to keep checking the site. I suspect there are enough people wanting a vaccine that they keep checking. My daughter is booked into two different sites, first a hospital, second, the only place still available.
When my husband booked (age 47) he had to keep checking back over a couple of days for availability. I suspect it depends how keen and computer literate local areas are - Cambridge was quite competitive. With lower age groups there will be more people booking online as well. Places will come available as they open up slots.
My granddaughter (15 y. o.) had her first Pfizer shot this weekend. (I did breathe a sigh of relief when the vaccines opened up for 12 years and up here.)
If all goes well, D-U, her hubby and I will get to see Granddaughter in June! I haven't seen her since August of 2019.
I am going for a dental check up today. It has been over a year since I have wanted to sit in a dental chair with my mouth open without a mask. Thankfully I have good teeth with never any problems. Still, it is good to finally get things checked out.
It is a sign of the strangeness of life when dental work becomes something you look forward too, even as just something different. The novelty of having roots extracted (in my case).
We went out to visit a very local (and very beautiful) garden, with Roman temple and deer. The weather was fabulous and there were lots of people out enjoying the roddies and azaleas. Sadly they weren't able to partake of the wonderful CAKE normally provided as the owners couldn't have managed if the weather had been bad (as it had, pretty much, till today).
And tomorrow - oh, frabjous day - we get to take TIG#2 to a local little railway, playground etc. I think I might explode with excitement
We have our second jabs on Sunday and are taking advantage of the relaxed regulations to stay over with Nenlet1 and son in law the night before. It must be about a year since we last did such a thing. Nenlet1 has now been able to book her jabs at her local centre as well - one date in June, one in September.
I've now had two failed attempts to have the vaccine despite CBT and exposure therapy. GP has now prescribed me a sedative. I envy people who can face having a sharp piece of metal forced into them without terror.
I've now had two failed attempts to have the vaccine despite CBT and exposure therapy. GP has now prescribed me a sedative. I envy people who can face having a sharp piece of metal forced into them without terror.
I think ‘forced’ is the wrong word. The needle is so fine you don’t feel it at all.
I've now had two failed attempts to have the vaccine despite CBT and exposure therapy. GP has now prescribed me a sedative. I envy people who can face having a sharp piece of metal forced into them without terror.
I think ‘forced’ is the wrong word. The needle is so fine you don’t feel it at all.
So acupuncture wouldn’t be for you then?
I had it yesterday for my neck - it’s relaxing!
God no. I've never understood how people can even contemplate acupuncture.
I've heard the "don't feel it at all line" before. Usually just before experiencing exactly the sort of pain I'd expect from having a lump of metal stuck into me.
I think ‘forced’ is the wrong word. The needle is so fine you don’t feel it at all.
Speak for your own lack of nerve endings.
I don't have the difficulty that Karl says he has with needles, although I have to resolutely look away - I can't look at the needle, or know exactly when it's coming. But I've had quite a number of shots, and I've felt every single one. Some have been worse than others, but there has never been one that I "don't feel at all".
Blood draws for a blood test are a continuous sensation. Fortunately, nobody wants my blood, so I don't have to consider whether to try and overcome my challenges in order to fullfil a moral obligation to give blood.
I've now had two failed attempts to have the vaccine despite CBT and exposure therapy. GP has now prescribed me a sedative. I envy people who can face having a sharp piece of metal forced into them without terror.
I think ‘forced’ is the wrong word. The needle is so fine you don’t feel it at all.
So acupuncture wouldn’t be for you then?
I had it yesterday for my neck - it’s relaxing!
God no. I've never understood how people can even contemplate acupuncture.
I've heard the "don't feel it at all line" before. Usually just before experiencing exactly the sort of pain I'd expect from having a lump of metal stuck into me.
I can feel the needles, both taking blood samples and injections, and I'm another one who has to look the other way for both.
I don't have that great veins for giving blood, we can only find two, ever, so that one can be seriously unfunny, particularly if I have to have blood tests more than a couple of times in a short period of time. Short time = time taken for the vein to heal after the last one.
I don't like needles: vaccinations, blood draws, and have never managed to give blood. But. I really was excited to get that Covid vaccine, so I resolutely turned my head on the first jab. I literally felt nothing. What? I was amazed! My second one wasn't so perfectly painless but it really wasn't bad. And then I started counting down my two weeks- yay!
Does anyone actually like needles? I find them quite a pain (literally), but can cope if I don't watch as it goes in. The jag wasn't too bad, I've got another one t come probably in the second half of June. I give blood regularly, I reckon I'm a bit over 50 donations now ... and without a doubt the initial finger prick is the worst as a quick jab in the finger whereas the actual donation is inserted more gradually.
God no. I've never understood how people can even contemplate acupuncture.
At one time - to relieve chronic sinus pain - I self-administered acupuncture. The needles are the fineness of a thread, and the prick trivial.
I don't like injections, but on the scale of Things That Hurt, they are pretty low. If you offered me one in exchange for the current aches in my joints (a morning gardening) I'd gladly swap.
I’m terrified of needles too and back in the autumn even said I couldn’t have the anti Covid jab. Thankfully I realised the error of this and put my big girl pants on.
Injections always hurt , and I feel them way after they’ve been given, but my two Astra Zeneca jabs were the exception. I felt nothing at all, nothing. @KarlLB I hope you can overcome your phobia.
I had the same experience as Lyda - the first jag I really, literally didn't feel a thing; the second, just the merest prick. I looked away when they were doing them - doesn’t everyone?
I wonder if the relative painlessness of the Covid vaccines is a combination of the ultra fine needles and the fact that those who are administering them have done literally hundreds (thousands?) before and have it totally down pat.
I don't have a fear of needles but any attempt to remove blood from me gets an autonomic "nope, nope, nope" and I go white, pass out and/or throw up. After the second time they wouldn't let me give blood, and I have to lie down to have samples taken.
My first was utterly painless, and with no sensation at all. My second wasn't. The person with the needle said it was my fault for not being relaxed enough. I think, thinking back to school experiments to show how far apart the nerves were, the first hit one of the areas between them, and the second happened to land exactly on one.
My friend still hasn't had one. We have followed instructions and emailed the surgery. They haven't got back yet.
For children you can get anaesthetic patches that you stick on their arm a couple of hours in advance so that they don't feel the needle. There's no reason why you couldn't also use them for adults. You can get them in pharmacies here.
There are also anaesthetic creams used for taking blood from children and those with learning disabilities, and your GP should have these. You wouldn’t feel a thing.
Quite. I was thinking about you only this morning and thinking that, while needles are ok for me as long as I don't look, if they told me they were going to put a big spider on my arm and I didn't have to look and it wouldn't hurt I would still be running screaming.
@KarlLB I really feel for you. Phobias are miserable - the fact that they are illogical I find makes them worse. But they are real. I hope your GP is supportive.
Comments
That's such good news. My daughter still doesn't qualify. Apparently the age limit is above 36 as of tonight. We were predicting that it's going to be interesting to take her along as it's going to be complicated. I know what questions I have been asked and I'm easy, she's not. There's probably going to be a certain amount of horror they haven't seen her yet.
My parents are having a meet-up with mum's siblings tomorrow. Apparently the star attraction will be the turkey they didn't have at Christmas. (They removed a small piece for their needs and froze it.)
It'll be interesting to see what happens with all the test events. I know someone who was very happy to have gone to the FA Cup final at the weekend, and judging by the comments on his social media photo, not everyone was wearing a mask properly.
On the other side of the coin though, a bubble burst at school last week, and numbers around here are still fluctuating.
Crossing fingers a and toes that the EU will let us in, if so we’ll be going two weeks tomorrow.
Our Enkelin has changed from a baby to an active, cheeky toddler since we were last there. I’m trying not to get too excited - everything changes so quickly. Lufthansa have been amazing, changing our flights again and again with no charge.
Yup.
Looks like we may have to all meet in Greece! 🙄
In better news, they are now vaccinating all 18 year olds and above in our town.
From our council website -
“If you are aged 18 and above and haven’t had your first vaccine please drop into one of the following extra vaccine clinics for the Pfizer jab. You do not need an appointment.”
I don't mind that much as we don't appear to have active cases in the community ( although some traces show up in the sewerage), but I would like to have have had at least one jab before I visit my brother who is in care in August for his 70th birthday.
If all goes well, D-U, her hubby and I will get to see Granddaughter in June! I haven't seen her since August of 2019.
And tomorrow - oh, frabjous day - we get to take TIG#2 to a local little railway, playground etc. I think I might explode with excitement
I think ‘forced’ is the wrong word. The needle is so fine you don’t feel it at all.
So acupuncture wouldn’t be for you then?
I had it yesterday for my neck - it’s relaxing!
God no. I've never understood how people can even contemplate acupuncture.
I've heard the "don't feel it at all line" before. Usually just before experiencing exactly the sort of pain I'd expect from having a lump of metal stuck into me.
Speak for your own lack of nerve endings.
I don't have the difficulty that Karl says he has with needles, although I have to resolutely look away - I can't look at the needle, or know exactly when it's coming. But I've had quite a number of shots, and I've felt every single one. Some have been worse than others, but there has never been one that I "don't feel at all".
Blood draws for a blood test are a continuous sensation. Fortunately, nobody wants my blood, so I don't have to consider whether to try and overcome my challenges in order to fullfil a moral obligation to give blood.
You could try to get enrolled in this clinical trial or it’s successors https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-03-25-university-oxford-study-nasal-administration-covid-19-vaccine
https://www.jenner.ac.uk/volunteer/recruiting-trials/covid-19-vaccine-intranasal-study-cov008
They are trying to see if the vaccine is effective delivered as a nasal spray.
I don't have that great veins for giving blood, we can only find two, ever, so that one can be seriously unfunny, particularly if I have to have blood tests more than a couple of times in a short period of time. Short time = time taken for the vein to heal after the last one.
At one time - to relieve chronic sinus pain - I self-administered acupuncture. The needles are the fineness of a thread, and the prick trivial.
I don't like injections, but on the scale of Things That Hurt, they are pretty low. If you offered me one in exchange for the current aches in my joints (a morning gardening) I'd gladly swap.
Injections always hurt , and I feel them way after they’ve been given, but my two Astra Zeneca jabs were the exception. I felt nothing at all, nothing. @KarlLB I hope you can overcome your phobia.
A bit cruel that, considering.
I do because I've been told that looking away makes things easier on the jab-er. I don't at all mind being the jab-ee.
It is one of the classes of problem for which hypnosis is said to be fairly effective.
My friend still hasn't had one. We have followed instructions and emailed the surgery. They haven't got back yet.
I don't really regret it, though. It would have taken me forever to get another appointment.