MADISON (WKOW) -- For the past year, Alison Blythe has only left home to go to the grocery store, the bank and the pharmacy. When she does go out, she wears a mask and latex gloves. Now, she's finally breathing a sigh of relief, knowing she will soon be eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Blythe has asthma, COPD and high blood pressure, which means she's one of more thantwo million Wisconsinites eligible to get vaccinated starting March 29.
She said with her medical conditions, if she were to get COVID-19, she could easily need to be on a ventilator. But her own health isn't her only worry. Blythe lives with her 71-year-old mother, too.
"She's a stroke and cancer survivor," Blythe said. "If I were to get the virus, [it] could potentially kill her if it were to pass on to her. So it's literally a life and death kind of situation for us to not be exposed to anyone, whether they know they have it or not."
She said it's been difficult to see state guidelines not include people with underlying medical conditions in previous vaccination phases.
"You see so many other people getting vaccinated that you just sit and wonder when is it my turn?" she said. "I started to feel like I was just going to be vaccinated like anyone else who's perfectly healthy."
But Blythe will be able to get her shot before the rest of the general public.
"My first reaction was 'It's about time,'" she said. "It took longer than it should have, but, at the same time, it's a relief that now there's a date in the future for me to start the vaccination process."
Blythe said she's not yet sure when or how she'll get her shot, but she's looking forward to eventually being able to return to doing the things she loves: reading at the library, going out to eat with her mom and attending school in person at Blackhawk Technical College.
"To be able to have people to talk to, whether it's teachers or classmates, and meeting new people at school ... that's what I'm used to," she said. "That's what I'm familiar with, and that's something that I really have missed over the past year."
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