If you've ever had to dig through the instruction manuals for an appliance when something was going wrong, you might have run across a flow chart.

They're the diagrams that tend to be stocked with a lot of yes/no or if/than options to move you from an initial question to a final resolution (or at least get you to the point where you throw the instruction manual back in your kitchen junk drawer and call in an expert).

It's starting to feel like somewhere in the midst of this pandemic, we all read the same flow chart on how to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine.

I'm assuming it began with a simple question: Hey, did you get your vaccine yet?

If the answer is no or some variation on that, this particular conversation won't apply, and you fall right off the chart.

If the answer is yes, you're bound to ask if they've had the second dose yet.

Again, if the answer is no, you may just fall off the chart. Then again a bit more of the rest of this may apply, so stick around.

If they say yes, or if they say no, but that's because I had the one-shot J&J, you're bound to ask the question of the hour: How did you feel after it?

This is where you get your final resolution: All the tips you're trying to suss out on how to properly prepare for the 24 to 36 hours immediately succeeding the final vaccine.

The answers will vary. Some lucky ducklings will say they got through with nothing more than a minor headache, maybe a slight malaise. One woman admitted to feeling nothing at all, but put it down to the cocktail of medicines she's already on to manage an autoimmune disorder.

I put myself in the next tier: the couldn't get a good night's sleep, felt like every muscle in her body was aching, absolutely exhausted tier.

There are other stories from those who had COVID at some point in the past year who felt as though they were reliving the experience, albeit in a significantly shortened form and without several of the scarier symptoms.

There are the fainters out there too and the “I felt like I got hit by a Mack truck.”

But this flow chart isn't quite done. You may not have gotten a simple yes or no, but you'll notice something if you ask just one more question.

“Are you glad you got it?”

Without fail, the answer I've gotten every single time, has been a very resounding “Yes.”