I'm immunocompromised and got a COVID-19 booster shot: How I felt afterward

In late November, I walked into an emergency room, tears rolling down my face.

This was a Saturday afternoon and that morning resembled a lot of my Saturdays in the pandemic: I’d met a friend for socially distant coffee at our favorite outdoor coffee truck, where we ate banana bread baked in the shape of dinosaurs and lamented about the last year of our 20s spent in lockdown.

A few hours after returning home, a pressure in my chest, straining my ability to breathe, had grown to an alarming degree. I got in my car and drove thirty minutes to the hospital, growing more panicked as the pressure — and pain — grew. I started crying.