Day after vaccine report

[rachelmanija]

This is just for science and curiosity; I would be totally OK with WAY worse side effects.

The day after my first dose of Moderna, my arm hurt so much that I couldn't move my shoulder (luckily I was OK just moving my hand, so I could still type), and by late afternoon I felt generally like I had the flu.

The day after that (today), my arm still hurts but I have much more range of motion, the flu-like symptoms are gone, and I just feel a bit tired and like I'm recovering from some incredibly intense whole-body workout.

I feel good about my probable level of protection.

Comments

[yhlee]

Huzzah jab!

[mildred_of_midgard]

Glad to hear it!

My wife's had a much less sore arm (but sore enough that she had to ask me to stop patting her in that spot, where it only took me five tries to break several years of muscle memory habit *lolsob*), and chills that may not be related but are more frequent than usual, so might be.

[eglantiere]

man, i'm so happy for you. congratulations on the vaccine! such a relief.

[wpadmirer]

Moderna made my arm really, really sore, but I didn't have any other effects. The second shot gave me a mild headache.

I hope that you feel better!

[pauraque]

Yay! With everybody's vaccine side-effect reports, I keep thinking of that old shampoo commercial. "The tingling means it's working!"

[rachelmanija]

Hahahaha!

[illariy]

That is good to know. Please keep updating us! So glad you could still type. It would be a sad time otherwise.

Here, AstraZeneca was reinstated on Friday after being paused due to the deep vein thrombosis cases in the brain with some fatalities. I am still sceptical about this particular vaccine as 12 of the 13 cases here occured in women and apparently women under 55 are the most at risk. I fit into that group so I am unsure whether I would want to be vaccinated with it. But I am beginning to think now that I would chance it because the chances of that severe side effects are still slim and I now know the precise symptoms and so would be able to get medical help soon.

Does your area in the US have any different rules for vaccinated people? Do you plan on changing your routine now personally? No judgement either way, I am just curious. :-)

[rachelmanija]

The only official guidance on being vaccinated is you can get together in small groups without a mask with other fully vaccinated people, which I definitely intend to do.

For me personally, I absolutely intend to change my routine personally. I've basically been lurking at home, avoiding people, and not going inside anywhere. Once I'm fully protected, I plan to do way more stuff, still with mask on of course: get new glasses (I'm now two years overdue and my prescriptions are clearly outdated), get my hair cut and colored, go to grocery stores, go to farmer's markets, etc.

[rydra_wong]

FWIW, current data on AZ seems to be that the rate of thrombosis isn't any higher than it is in the general unvaccinated population (and may even be lower).

The concern is that there do seem to be cases with this very unusual pattern, particularly CVST and reduction in platelet counts, which suggests that something weird might possibly be going on, even if the risk is incredibly small. So I think they're doing the right thing by continuing to monitor that even while reinstating the vaccine.

Some nice results from the US trial:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/22/astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-79-effective-with-no-increased-blood-clot-risk-us-trial

[illariy]

Thank you for the link! That does sound quite good. Oh, and I didn't know that AstraZeneca was specifically intended to be low-cost and used all over the world. That is very cool! I wonder what they are going to do with the unused doses here in Germany now:

On Tuesday, 30 March, Germany has decided to give the AstraZeneca vaccine only to people over 60 years. They are still debating what to do with younger people who have received their first dose of it and need the second dose for continued full protection.

I heard on the radio that in my state, 5 of all 6 university hospitals pleaded with the government to stop its usage due to the increased cases of CVST and resulting deaths within the younger population.

I did get vaccinated today and got my wish, BioNTech. (We are not allowed to choose but I got lucky!)

[rydra_wong]

Congrats on your first shot! \o/

Useful round-up of what we currently know about the CVST situation:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/02/covid-further-rare-blood-clot-cases-found-in-oxford-astrazeneca-recipients

Hopefully we'll get some more solid data soon on what the risk actually is and in what groups.

[sabotabby]

I'm told flu-like symptoms are a good sign; it means you got an immune response. So, yay!

[rachelmanija]

One thing I realized yesterday which I'd never quite put together before is that some specific symptoms I got must be what it feels like to me when my immune system is fighting off something: a woozy feeling, ringing in my ears, dizziness when I move my head sharply. I think of that as the "coming down with something" feeling, but in fact I sometimes get it and then don't come down with anything. I think it's not an illness, but an immune reaction, and in those cases my immune system fought off whatever I'd otherwise have come down with.

[sabotabby]

Huh, interesting. I get that too.

[em_h]

Yes, for me there's a funny sore-tingly skin feeling which I recognize as my immune system activating, and yes, sometimes I get that (especially overnight) and then don't get sick, because it's done what it needed to do.

[gwynnega]

Yay vaccine!

[oracne]

Probably too late to do any good, but moving your arm around in the hours after the shot (only if it's not agonizing!) helps the soreness to pass more quickly, for me at least.

[ethelmay]

By the way, frozen shoulder (longer term, not just pain due to arm soreness) is a possible complication of any immunization, and generally means the shot went into the wrong area.

[naomikritzer]

Interesting that you had flu-like symptoms for the first shot. Any reason to think you might have had an asymptomatic COVID case?

[rachelmanija]

No, but it's not impossible. Is it any flu-like symptoms after the first shot a sign of that, or just severe ones?

[rydra_wong]

Handy round-up of side-effects stats for different vaccines:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/18/covid-vaccine-side-effects-pfizer-moderna-johnson-is-it-safe

The fatigue/headache/muscle pain combo is pretty common with the first dose for the mRNA vaccines; it's just even more common (and can be more severe) with the second dose.

[hederahelix]

I'm late to the party, but congrats on the shot!

I hadn't really put two and two together until reading your subsequent post, but, when I get the annual flu shot, I usually get it in my right arm (because reasons).

And I usually get a weird tingling not quite pain but definitely feels like something in going on something in my neck on the right side, which is a very old soft tissue injury.

I got that with both doses of the covid vaccine, but I didn't really thihnk of it as unusual since it's my standard flu shot response and is fairly short-lived.