Anticipating the side-effects of the vaccine, I nervously glided through the long corridoors of the Covid-19 vaccination centre nearest to our house in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
I finally reached the cabin, went inside and sat down on the only chair. The room was all empty except a trolley which housed some first-aid items like cotton balls, a few pair of scissors, syringes and band-aids.
The nurse soon came holding the syringe in his hand. I rolled up my left hand’s shirt sleeve, nodded in approval, took a deep breath, and looked the other side. Then it happened. I felt a slight prick but then it was gone.
The nurse swiftly placed a band-aid on the place where the injection had earlier pricked my skin. I thanked him and went outside to where my parents were waiting.
I kept expecting post-vaccine symptoms; fever, head-ache, fatigue but surprisingly nothing happened. By the end of the day, when I went to sleep, I was convinced that all these were just rumours. However, the next morning, I woke up feeling slightly feverish.
I thought it was just a matter of some time but the fever just mounted through-out the day until I could hardly bear it.
Though I soon recovered from the post-vaccine fever.
28 days flew by and soon it was the day I would get my 2nd jab.
However, this time it was slightly different. I was not nervous at all when I got the jab and as I had expected I was feverish again when my eyes opened the next day. I was down on my bed the whole day due to high temperature and fatigue.
Finally, I also recovered from that. Being vaccinated was an exhausting experience. Now I am preparing myself to get my booster dose in a couple of weeks before physically joining my school’s campus (Chandbagh) hopefully.
By: Mohammad Omar Malik
The Doon School