![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Adventures in Vaccinationland
Apr. 13th, 2021 12:48 pmThings have moved quickly lately on the vaccination front. Dianora and I had both signed up on the Ontario website as soon as it opened up to our age group and managed to get actual appointments at the Nepean Sportsplex for the (probably) Pfizer vaccine, though the slots available were not at very convenient times. Our previous registrations a couple of weeks earlier via the Shoppers Drug Mart site to get the AstraZeneca vaccine at a pharmacy had only yielded "confirmation numbers" (not actual appointments) informing us that we qualified for the vaccine and would be offered an appointment time (I assumed via e-mail) when it was available and would then have 24 hours to accept or reject the proposed time. Then silence.
Until Saturday, when someone actually PHONED me (the display read "Private Caller") and offered me an appointment at the pharmacy in our local Independent Grocer for 12:20 PM on Monday. Since the location and time were far more convenient than the Sportsplex ones, I said yes.
Dianora still hadn't heard anything but drove me to the Monday appointment. There at the grocery store entrance were tables and a sign indicating "COVID-19 vaccination registration". I informed them I had an appointment and Dianora indicated she didn't but was interested in signing up - she was offered an appointment for 1:55 the same day.
We had to fill out 2-page consent forms but it went pretty smoothly.
Today my arm is still sore, bruised and swollen and I'm feeling quite out of it... but then, I didn't sleep very well last night. She's looking less swollen but reports soreness and some fatigue. Not a bad tradeoff for getting vaccinated, although I've heard the side effects of the second dose can be more pronounced. We'll see.
So I phoned a 1-800 number this morning to cancel our Sportsplex appointments, as per the instructions in our e-mails. Frankly I can now understand why some people fail to cancel, resulting in a lot of no-shows. They simply get fed up listening to all the blather before the system even gives you the option of pressing a digit to cancel or re-schedule your appointment... moreover, the first time I pressed the number it didn't actually "take" so I had to listen to a substantial portion of the blather again! But I persisted, good upstanding Ontario citizen that I am... I mean, gimme a break - I know health care workers' time is incredibly valuable but OUR time is worth something too! Remember the good old days of flying "student standby"? How about a Seniors' Standby or a Priority Vaccinatee Standby?
The funny thing was that when the agent submitted the information into the cyber-yonder, the system found MY Sportsplex appointments right away and duly cancelled them; but with Dianora's info, the system somehow already "knew" she'd gotten her first dose yesterday and had already removed the Sportsplex appointments from the system! It's quite bizarre, since we BOTH received Ontario e-mail certificates from the pharmacy right after getting vaccinated and I had in ADDITION to that been handed a paper certificate after waiting my requisite time after the shot.
Methinks there are still a few glitches in the whole process...
Until Saturday, when someone actually PHONED me (the display read "Private Caller") and offered me an appointment at the pharmacy in our local Independent Grocer for 12:20 PM on Monday. Since the location and time were far more convenient than the Sportsplex ones, I said yes.
Dianora still hadn't heard anything but drove me to the Monday appointment. There at the grocery store entrance were tables and a sign indicating "COVID-19 vaccination registration". I informed them I had an appointment and Dianora indicated she didn't but was interested in signing up - she was offered an appointment for 1:55 the same day.
We had to fill out 2-page consent forms but it went pretty smoothly.
Today my arm is still sore, bruised and swollen and I'm feeling quite out of it... but then, I didn't sleep very well last night. She's looking less swollen but reports soreness and some fatigue. Not a bad tradeoff for getting vaccinated, although I've heard the side effects of the second dose can be more pronounced. We'll see.
So I phoned a 1-800 number this morning to cancel our Sportsplex appointments, as per the instructions in our e-mails. Frankly I can now understand why some people fail to cancel, resulting in a lot of no-shows. They simply get fed up listening to all the blather before the system even gives you the option of pressing a digit to cancel or re-schedule your appointment... moreover, the first time I pressed the number it didn't actually "take" so I had to listen to a substantial portion of the blather again! But I persisted, good upstanding Ontario citizen that I am... I mean, gimme a break - I know health care workers' time is incredibly valuable but OUR time is worth something too! Remember the good old days of flying "student standby"? How about a Seniors' Standby or a Priority Vaccinatee Standby?
The funny thing was that when the agent submitted the information into the cyber-yonder, the system found MY Sportsplex appointments right away and duly cancelled them; but with Dianora's info, the system somehow already "knew" she'd gotten her first dose yesterday and had already removed the Sportsplex appointments from the system! It's quite bizarre, since we BOTH received Ontario e-mail certificates from the pharmacy right after getting vaccinated and I had in ADDITION to that been handed a paper certificate after waiting my requisite time after the shot.
Methinks there are still a few glitches in the whole process...
