Covid Booster, 2024

Over lunch, Liz and I trekked to Northwestern to get our Covid boosters.

Liz has worked out a pretty meticulous schedule, ensuring that she got her Flu shot several weeks back. Which also factored time between the shot and now, to where she could get her Covid shot. All of this, to immunize herself against sickness, before hitting up the marathon she’ll be running in a few weeks.

For my part, I joined her – partly out of laziness, partly out of expediency. For all the effort she’s undertaken to avoid sickness, I figured I needed to also safeguard myself and not be a potential source of sickness.

It’s odd to carve out time in the day, to do this kind of thing. I know it’s necessary, I know it’s important. But there’s a lot of pull with the responsibilities at work, that makes a medical errand like this feel… selfish.

Over the last few months, there’s definitely been a push/pull, between work life and personal life. I like to think I was able to prioritize my running over work (though I haven’t always been successful with this). But I’ve been practicing trying to place my own tasks and health, over work.

Liz and I had a terrible experience at this particular Northwestern Immediate Care, some years back. But we decided to roll the dice and go in for our shots here. I’m happy to report that we didn’t wait overly long, and were in/out in a fairly reasonable amount of time.

It’s difficult to fathom and remember that only a few years ago, just three years ago, many of us were hoping for a vaccine. Hoping for some kind of shot.

It feels far away, but I can still sense the fear and hope that permeated my days, back then. And how excited I was, at the prospect of a shot/vaccine that could bring us back to some sense of normalcy.

Today was incredibly routine. Sign in, sit in a chair, wait for your name to be called. A shot, a band-aid, and a thanks. Normal, everyday stuff. Nothing out of the ordinary.

It wasn’t always like this. But I’m glad it’s how things are now.

Related:
Covid Vaccine, 2023
Covid Vaccine: Bivalent Booster
Covid Vaccine: Booster
Covid Vaccine: Shot #2
Covid Vaccine: Shot #1