In-Person Gatherings

[ photo by cottonbro]

The beauty of in-person gatherings.

I know I have written various posts about COVID-19, even touching on how it has personally affected my family. I wanted to take the time to use this week’s post to again celebrate the COVID vaccine. As you may or may not have read in a previous post, because I am a healthcare provider, I was fortunate to have been able to receive my series of vaccinations in late December and early January. It was such a great feeling, but I didn’t feel I could fully enjoy it because other than the few other healthcare providers in my family, no one else was vaccinated.

(Related blog post: COVID-19 Vaccine)

The family gatherings still had to be on hold. I just did not feel comfortable encouraging everyone else to get together just because I was “safe.” My parents and my grandma were all still high risk, and they had not yet qualified for the vaccine. As soon as the vaccine was made available to my grandma, I helped to get her signed up to receive it at a nearby vaccination site.

Her assisted living facility was scheduled to have it a week later, but she just wanted to get hers as soon as she possibly could! She received her two doses. She did not have any adverse reaction with the first dose and then just had some mild muscle aches and fatigue with the second dose. A few weeks later, the vaccine opened up to my parents’ age group. I called my mom who immediately got online to sign herself up, and while she was working on getting herself signed up, I got my dad’s appointment. There was some frustration initially about the difficulty in getting open spots, but I also reminded myself to celebrate that because it meant others were signing up too!

More vaccinate people, less risk for all.

As time continued to move forward, the vaccine continued to open up for younger age groups. More of my family members were able to sign up for their vaccinations. Now some of my siblings have been vaccinated, and it’s even becoming available to my nieces and nephews. It is not yet available to my kids’ age group, but they have all said they want to get the vaccine as soon as they are able. They have been troopers about wearing their masks, but they are all excited to be done with them as soon as they can!

In the past 6 weeks, I have been able to gather twice with my entire family, Grandma Sue included. Our first gathering was a late Easter celebration, and then we just recently got together for Memorial Day. How nice it was to be able to all be together, no masks required. It was so nice to be able to be together without nagging fear or guilt in the back of my mind, wondering if I or one of my other family members might be unknowingly passing COVID-19 onto one of the people we love most in the world. It gave my kids so much excitement when they asked if they could actually give their grandparents a hug and were told they could! 

So why am I revisiting COVID-19 yet again? I am sure all of you are quite sick of reading about it. I am tired of dealing with it, that is for sure. I do still have patients in my rehabilitation hospital who are there for rehab following complications from their COVID-19 infections. So yes, the numbers are down, but it certainly has not gone away. Yes, there is now room in the hospital for those that require inpatient treatment for a COVID-19 infection, but wouldn’t you just prefer to avoid the infection altogether? 

(Related blog post: What To Expect When Visiting A Nursing Home During COVID-19)

There is still much division in our society on who will/will not get the vaccination. I think some people’s minds are made up on whether they will get vaccinated. I would love to convince each and everyone of you to get the vaccine if I could, but I know that is not likely. I do know there are some who might read this who are on the fence. You are certainly fearful of what might happen to you if you get COVID-19 infection or what might happen to a loved one if you unknowingly pass it onto them. This is the group I am targeting in writing this post.

(Related blog post: Should I Gather With Family For Thanksgiving?)

For yourself. For others.

I understand there is a fear of the vaccine because of the speed in which it was rolled out. Let me tell you this, though, I have not yet had a single patient in rehabilitation who was there for complications from having had their COVID-19 vaccination, but I have had many, many patients receiving inpatient rehabilitation because of the many complications they had from having had an infection from COVID-19.

(Related blog posts: COVID Recovery, COVID Recovery. How I Helped Bob, COVID Recovery, June’s Journey, COVID Recovery. Guiding Tony’s Recovery)

So, let me make this final push to those that are on the fence. It did not dawn on me until our family gathering was nearly over on Memorial Day, just how special the day was. It felt like any normal pre-pandemic gathering. I did not have the unease in my stomach about passing the infection onto Grandma, Dad, or Mom--yes, I am aware there is still a small risk of infection even with the vaccination, but the risk is GREATLY decreased due to the fact that nearly all of the adults were vaccinated.

In full disclosure, I do still have a couple of adult members of my family who have not been vaccinated. I will continue to gently encourage them to do so. As I urge them, let me also encourage those of you who are still undecided on what you will do. Let this summer and the future gatherings in the seasons to come be a time back with family and friends without worry of the health consequences. 

Have you had the opportunity to gather in-person with family or friends? Share in the Comments section. Or reach out to me directly.

© 2021 Jessica Kluetz, DO