The CDC has a page on their site dedicated to what you should and shouldn't do before, during and after a vaccine appt. Let's do over that right quick.
What you should do:
- educate yourself on all the approved vaccines, what they are and how they work
- continue taking any medication you normally take and don't discontinue use for fear of interaction the day of your shot
- at appt, both you and the healthcare workers need to wear masks
- after you get the shot, keep your vaccine card for your records (it tells you which shot you got, when, etc)
- after your shot make sure and stay for the recommended monitoring time (your healthcare worker will inform you)
- ask about v-safe and the app (its free and gives personalized health check ins and reminds you to get a 2nd shot)
- keep your 2nd shot appt even if you had side effects UNLESS the doctors says otherwise
- get your 2nd shot if needed on the recommended time frame (Moderna 28 days at your first one, Pfizer 21 days)
What you shouldn't do:
- take over-the-counter meds to counteract symptoms, so don't take ibuprofen, aspirin or acetaminophen beforehand unless you already take those on a regular basis; basically don't take anything for the sole purpose of staving off symptoms as they are not 100% sure how these meds effect the vaccine effectiveness
- same goes for allergy meds like antihistamines, don't take anything you don't already take regularly
- don't get any other vaccine shot for 14 days after receiving this one, not even a flu or shingles shot
- same goes for other vaccines, wait 14 days until you get the virus shot if you already got another kind of vaccination shot
There's a little more on the site and they go into more detail but thought this checklist would help those preparing for their first and second shot appointments.