Second Dose: The COVID-19 Vaccine (Pfizer)
Early Thursday morning we “hopped out the car at Inova, with our masks and our cards again, welcomed to the land of getting vaxxed, woo, I’m gonna get pricked again”…
The three of us, Liz, Victoria, and LJ, were the first group to be vaccinated at the center, and now the first group to get our second dose of the Pfizer-Biontec COVID-19 vaccine.
We planned ahead, hearing that most people had about 8-10 hours from their prick until any “the vaccine is working” symptoms started, so we all agreed that we’d rather go to bed not feeling well, after a morning vaccination, vs. waiting until the afternoon and waking up the next morning not feeling well.
Again - Inova knocked it out of the park with the logistics of everything! We waited only a very short time outside, but once we were inside, we walked right up to get our shots.
One change between the first shot and the second is that we only had to wait on site for 10 minutes.
Symptoms:
Immediately we were all feeling great. It was about 4 hours later that all three of us started to notice that we were feeling some fatigue that continued to build throughout the end of the day.
Victoria reported that she had chills that night after work and then was achy and warm the next day. Spiking a fever of 101 on Friday evening.
LJ reported some aches and fatigue, but it didn’t stop her from running 4 miles the evening of the shot.
Liz reported feeling heavy and exhausted on Thursday evening and into Friday morning.
Strangely, all three noted that the arm pain and headache was worse with the first dose.
Sounds boring, right?
Yep.
After all the reports we were hearing that people were feeling really crummy after the second dose (and yes, Victoria got the worst of it), we were all pretty worried, but all in all, it really hasn’t been that bad!
Common Ground Impact Update:
As we have mentioned in several places, the Honeybees teachers and Miss Mimi will be getting their second doses on Friday February 12th and thus, that room will be closed this Friday.
We are still waiting for the County to open up our scheduling for the rest of our staff for their second doses, but we anticipate getting them in on February 18th or 19th, thus necessitating a closure of the rest of our classrooms on Friday, February 19th. We will update you as soon as those plans are confirmed!
Thanks for reading our update!
Common Ground Vaccination Update
We are so happy to announce that at this moment 100% of our staff had had their first dose of the COVID-19 Vaccine!
We feel beyond privileged that childcare providers were included in both the priority group 1b and the vaccine roll out through INOVA, which has their process down to a T!
With this update, here are the impacts to the center:
OWLS - Feb 4th, no impact: Liz, LJ, and Victoria are going to get their second shots before the center opens on the 4th, we don’t expect any impact on the Owls classroom that day, as vaccine side effects are reported to begin 8-10 hours after the second dose.
OWLS - Feb 5th, CLOSED: The Owls classroom will be closed on Friday to give Miss Victoria and Miss Liz a day to recover from any possible side effects from their second dose of the vaccine.
HONEYBEES - Feb 12, CLOSED: Miss Mimi, Miss Adella, and Mr. Josh will all be out getting their second dose of the vaccine this day. The honeybees classroom will be closed because the appointments interfere with the schedule of the day.
STARS, MONKEYS, PANDAS, and BABIES - (hopefully) Feb 18 early pick up, Feb 19, CLOSED: We are hoping to get the second dose in the afternoon on February 18th. We will do our best to try to have the smallest impact on the center that we can, but we just don’t know what appointment times will be available.
If you are curious about the process that we went through for our first doses, you can see our post here about it.
If you are interested in learning more about the vaccine and how to know if you qualify and where to sign up, visit the Fairfax County Health Department site here.
Covid-19 Vaccine: First Two Days
Hurray! It’s Vaccine Day!
What to Expect — Vaccine Reactions
That’s what we (Ms. Liz and Ms. LJ) have been cheering all day!
When we saw that Preschool Teachers would be eligible for the vaccine starting this week, we decided we wanted to be leading the pack and documenting our journey all the way. We talk a lot about this in our live video right after our first vaccination, but here is a quick overview.
We hope that by getting the vaccine as soon as we could, being open and honest about our experiences, providing peer reviewed research, and encouraging everyone to talk to their PERSONAL physician, we can help alleviate any fears and dispel any misinformation relating to the Covid-19 vaccine.
When we arrived at INOVA Fairfax at 8:38 AM there was a long, appropriately spaced line! It wound all the way to the parking-lot. But the weather was good and spirits were high!
One of the things LJ was anxious about was not the vaccine at all, but the fact that we had to go to a hospital. We were concerned about being contacts of all of those people, masks or no. But the line moved at an even clip and, in no time at all, we were waiting with our little registration clip boards for a nurse.
Some quick thoughts before THE BIG MOMENT:
Everyone on the staff was excited we were there. They were encouraging and helpful. We had our IDs, proof that we worked at a school and weren’t “jumping the line,” and our appointment confirmation sheets, but they took us at our word. We honestly think that they are just trying to make sure everyone gets it as easily and painlessly as possible, which was encouraging. This is something that should be available to as many people as possible as quickly as possible, and Fairfax County is a medical powerhouse.
There were at least fifty stations with health professionals standing by. Our nurses were friendly, warm, ready to answer any questions.
WE BOTH GOT THE PFIZER VACCINE. Fact Sheet for Pfizer Vaccine
The stick was surprisingly not painful! Giving blood, the TDAP, Flu shots, PNEUMAVAX, there have been far worse shots in our experience. They gave us a card so that we could schedule our second vaccination in within 21 days. We were moved into an area stationed with health professionals where we could sit between 15-30 minutes to see if we had any immediate reactions, either from the vaccine or, more likely, a Vasovagle Syncope reaction from being stuck with a needle.
(What is Vasovagle Syncope? READ MORE HERE)
In the afternoon, Ms. Victoria, our fantastic OWLS teacher, also got her vaccine! Hurray! We felt empowered, like we could finally, FINALLY do something about this pandemic. This was a concrete step in the right direction, a small action to say “we are here to support our health, our families, and our community!” We finished up the day with a Kindergarten Interest Meeting all about our beliefs in play-based curriculums and what our Common Ground Kindergarten would look like this coming September!
Whether it was the excitement, the long day, or the vaccine, all of us went to bed early, feeling quite tired and a little warm.
Ms. LJ felt a bit itchy around the site, and an immediate tightness in the shoulder that lasted until Saturday. It was never any worse than what you would experience with the TDAP shot. She also went to bed early both Thursday and Friday night.
Ms. Liz was dizzy at first, a regular reaction for her to most vaccines, and her shoulder also felt tight as the day went on.
Ms. Victoria had pain in her shoulder, and for the first three days she had fatigue, flu-like symptoms, and occasional hot flashes.
Mr. Josh had the shoulder pain and flu like symptoms the next day, but two days out already feels better.
We are excited to announce that Ms. Adella, Ms. Mimi, Ms. Simi, Ms. Pinky, Ms. Vanessa, Ms. Petty, Ms. Janette, and Ms. Kisha will all be getting their first doses over the next two weeks as well!
Childcare Staff Vaccination Plans
This weekend the state, and more importantly Fairfax County, has opened up vaccination for group 1b! This is exciting news because childcare center workers (and teachers) are included in this priority group. The state has outlined the following priority queue within group 1b:
Police, Fire, and Hazmat
Corrections and homeless shelter workers
Childcare/K-12 Teachers/Staff
Food and Agriculture (including Veterinarians)
Manufacturing
Grocery store workers
Public transit workers
Mail carriers (USPS and private)
Officials needed to maintain continuity of government
Currently, vaccination for groups 1 and 2 are beginning this week, with the coordination for 1b group 3 beginning on January 16th.
Common Ground is still in the tentative planning phase, however our priorities are:
equitable access for all staff members to vaccination
the ability to get staff vaccinated as quickly as possible
the time for staff to work through any vaccine hesitancy with their personal physician prior to our vaccination day(s)
With this in mind, we are hoping to get the entire staff vaccinated on the same day (two - both doses 21-28 days apart depending on the vaccine) which will necessitate closing the center for two “vaccination teacher work days” due to the fact that classroom pods cannot operate if they are missing a staff member.
We do not have dates for this yet, but will communicate as quickly as we can so that you can make arrangements for possible closure days. We thank you for your continued support of Common Ground and our efforts to protect our community.