Members' Covid-19 Post-Vaccination Questions & Answers *NO GENERAL DISCUSSION*

[roche.analisa]

My 17yo son, who had mild Covid in the fall, and my 15yo son, who did not, received their first doses of Pfizer a couple of weeks ago at CVS. It was quick and easy to make the appointments. The older one felt very tired two days after the shot and the younger felt fine.

 

[Orgona]

We are in the age range 45 to 55.
We live in a country where we can’t choose our vaccine. We get our invite and then we can accept or decline. Both of our’s allocated vaccine was Johnson & Johnson. It’s a vector vaccine like the Astra Zeneca but with only one jab.

My hubby received his jab little over 2 weeks ago. He was sick from it 2 weeks long. Didn’t felt bad enough to lay down, but needed to take paracetamol every day and he clearly wasn’t a happy camper. He felt weak, his whole body was aching and felt like he has a fever, but his temperature was normal. He is OK now but still not back to completely normal yet.

I had my jab on Tuesday afternoon. Because of my hubby’s experience, I decided to take it slow and rest for 2 days. Wednesday went very well, without any symptoms but yesterday I begon to feel a strange pain in my lower back. First it felt far away but with every hour it got intenser and intenser. It’s an 8 out of 10 now. Although I can’t say this is from the vaccine, it happened while I’m taking it slow and not doing anything stressful or difficult and I never had pain there before either.

 

[jjenny]

I had Modernas back in March/April. First Moderna gave me a somewhat sore arm. The next day after second Moderna I was not feeling very well, like having a cold (for a day) and a sore arm. But that was it. Nothing too bad. Looking forward to a booster.

 

[pineapple23]

As I'm immunocompromised, I got my jabs quite early. I had my first Astrazeneca towards the end of January and the second around 11 weeks later.
The first time, the only side effect was a slight headache the day after. I didn't even feel the injection.
The second time, I did feel it and my arm was sore for a few days. Plus I had a on/off mild sinus headache for 2 weeks. There is every chance however that I got little or no immunity from the vaccine so looking at getting a blood test to check this out.

 

[hollyj]

I got Pfizer. The first on April 15th, and the second on May 13th. I'm immuno-compromised, and I was really nervous I would have terrible reaction because I always overreact to everything. Pain at injection site, fatigue, and nausea for a few days. But that's all. I was relieved it wasn't too bad. We had a drive through which made it easy and felt safer.

 

[anneg]

I'm in my 70s. I got my Pfizer booster and a flu shot this afternoon at a pharmacy. I decided it would be efficient to get both done at the same time (DH did the same). Flu shot left arm, booster right arm. Hoping the effects won't be too uncomfortable.

 

[Orgona]

A simple update: Despite being vaccinated, I and my hubby has contracted COVID 19. I had a severe case, being on the verge of going to the hospital, but didn’t. In place of that, my family doctor(who I trust very much and who is always well informed and well connected to the best of the specialists’) prescribed everything the hospital gives to patients like me, inclusive oxygen and asked to stay home under his care to be sure I wasn’t going to get intubated. It was hard, but as I said I/we trust him very much. Now I’m well on the way to recovery, it’s approximately 5-6 days already that I feel better and I can meaningfully follow cases again. I use just a little bit of oxygen daily for an hour or two. My hubby had a mild case throughout this.

It just shows everybody can get it and even when you are vaccinated, exercising regularly and are eating healthy you can develop a severe case unfortunately. I’m the last person our friends and family would have thought to become ill from this.

 

[WildOrchid]

SO got his Moderna booster yesterday morning. Approx 15 hours later, fever, chills, extreme body aches. He made it home barely. It’s continued throughout today so far. No reaction at all to the initial 2 Moderna shots.

 

[ChezBoris]

My partner and I, both fairly healthy and in our early 40s, both got our two doses of Pfizer in the early spring 2021. He's a lucky duck and never gets sick in general and had basically no reaction to either dose. I had a horribly sore arm both times, and the second dose made me have flu-like symptoms for about a day. After that, no symptoms, we've both been fine! It should be noted that we were out and about in NYC throughout February and March 2020 and interacted in close proximity to people who days later became very ill with Covid, so it's likely that we were exposed to Covid, and may have even had asymptomatic cases. We never lost our sense of smell or anything like that, but we both had a sort of icky flu for about a week in March 2020. Don't know if it's relevant or not to our experience.

I come from a very large family and all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins (those over 18) have been vaccinated, all with Pfizer and Moderna. No one had any reactions that lasted longer than 24 hours, except for my mom (70s), who got a rash on her arm near the injection site that lasted for several weeks. She had Moderna. She has a lot of hay-fever type allergies/sensitivities -- nothing that sends her to the hospital, but she's prone to getting rashes and watery eyes and stuff like that. Me too, when you get down to it, but I didn't really have a reaction to the shot.

 

[WildOrchid]

Received a Moderna booster on Tues after 2 shots of Pfizer in April. Reactions were a very sore, heavy feeling arm to wrist. Fever, chills, headache, some dizziness, bone pain.

 

[roche.analisa]

I got a third Moderna (half) dose nine days ago at a CVS inside Target. I had made an appointment. My second shot left me with terrible chills and fever for about 12 hours, but this round gave me just a sore arm and mild fatigue and headache.

 

[galiuro1]

Got my booster about 10 days ago. I ended up in the ER the day after the shot with a heart arrhythmia. PACS to go along with my PVCS, both supposedly benign but when that's all your heart is throwing in twos and threes instead of a four beat, well, I felt horrible. They sent me home with a new pill (already on too many for a plethora of health crap) which took a week to really get things more steady. Still extremely fatigued and achy. Thought well maybe I caught covid while in the ER, tested twice with Binax and once with PCR, all negative. I am a vaccine backer but man, I have never been walloped this hard by a vax. My adult son developed tachycardia after his second shot and it never left, he's on a beta blocker for that. I want to believe in the science but I seem to be one of those rare folk it is not easy on. Other people I know had zero problems but boy, that's not the case for me.

 

[BritishSleuth]

I got the J&J Janssen vaccine back in May and the Pfizer one as a booster two days ago with news of this variant.
I have to say the effects are night and day. After the J&J one I felt like I had been hit by a bus and was in bed for three days after. OTOH the Pfizer one gave me almost no reaction at all. Just a bit of a sore arm.

Is this normal?

 

[scriabina]

I got the J&J Janssen vaccine back in May and the Pfizer one as a booster two days ago with news of this variant.
I have to say the effects are night and day. After the J&J one I felt like I had been hit by a bus and was in bed for three days after. OTOH the Pfizer one gave me almost no reaction at all. Just a bit of a sore arm.

Is this normal?

Everyone reacts differently. I'd say what you describe is within the large range of normal. For what it's worth, Moderna probably has the strongest side effects, but that's because it is a bigger dose compared to Pfizer. As for J&J, that has a completely different mechanism of action to Pfizer so I'm not surprised you had different side effects.

Glad you got the booster!!! I just got my booster a few days ago. All Moderna. Out of the three shots, the degree of severity for side effects increased on each one. Definitely felt the worst after the booster. My arm is still sore but other than that I feel back to normal now. I had a bad headache, body aches, terrible weakness, violent chills and a fever of 102.3 starting about 8 hours after the booster. Was awake all night. OK now and am so glad to be boosted.

 

[Simply Southern]

Everyone reacts differently. I'd say what you describe is within the large range of normal. For what it's worth, Moderna probably has the strongest side effects, but that's because it is a bigger dose compared to Pfizer. As for J&J, that has a completely different mechanism of action to Pfizer so I'm not surprised you had different side effects.

Glad you got the booster!!! I just got my booster a few days ago. All Moderna. Out of the three shots, the degree of severity for side effects increased on each one. Definitely felt the worst after the booster. My arm is still sore but other than that I feel back to normal now. I had a bad headache, body aches, terrible weakness, violent chills and a fever of 102.3 starting about 8 hours after the booster. Was awake all night. OK now and am so glad to be boosted.

Thank you for sharing. I got my Moderna at 10am, yesterday. All of the above symptoms, plus a loud ringing in my ears, extremely nauseous and dizzy. Almost went to ER last night about 2am so severe.

How long do the side effects last? Thanks

 

[scriabina]

Thank you for sharing. I got my Moderna at 10am, yesterday. All of the above symptoms, plus a loud ringing in my ears, extremely nauseous and dizzy. Almost went to ER last night about 2am so severe.

How long do the side effects last? Thanks

So sorry, I just saw your message! How are you feeling now?

For me, the side effects began about 8 hrs after the vaccine and the worst of it was over after 16 hours. Fever only lasted a few hours. Headache was last to resolve after about 36 hours. Yes, I had nausea and dizziness and basically stayed in bed the whole time. If I tried to get up to move around I felt way worse and was scared I'd fall down the stairs so I stayed put. I'd say you should feel mostly normal -- besides some weakness-- 48-72 hrs after vaccination.

Omicron is 4 times more contagious than Delta, and double vaccination isn't enough to protect from Omicron. However, early studies indicate Pfizer and Moderna with booster have decent efficacy (~75% protected against symptoms) against Omicron.

For those who work, sign up for the booster on a Friday so you can recover over the weekend.

Also, it seems in older populations, the boosters are generally better tolerated. My mom got both her flu shot and booster at the same time and all she had was sore arms.

 

[MimosaMornings]

Thank you for sharing. I got my Moderna at 10am, yesterday. All of the above symptoms, plus a loud ringing in my ears, extremely nauseous and dizzy. Almost went to ER last night about 2am so severe.

How long do the side effects last? Thanks

I had Moderna all three times and didn’t have any of those symptoms. Very mild fatigue sore arm slight headache from first shot. Moderna arm, very noticeable swelling at injection site and sore arm for about 7 days. Very tired and listless 36 hours. Little appetite. Slept most of the following day. Headache relieved by Motrin.
No nausea or dizziness.
Most of my family reported worst symptoms starting 15-19 hours after injection. Worse of it has subsided after that day.
I hope you feel better by this evening.

 

[libraryg]

Thank you for sharing. I got my Moderna at 10am, yesterday. All of the above symptoms, plus a loud ringing in my ears, extremely nauseous and dizzy. Almost went to ER last night about 2am so severe.

How long do the side effects last? Thanks

If I were you, I'd be checking out forums about adverse events related to these injections.

 

[Spyralflare]

I got Pfizer last January. First dose, ok for a day, but didn’t feel well after that and took a day off to rest. The second dose really knocked me for a loop and I was unable to eat much and exhausted. During the 3-week period between shots, I also had several instances of waking up abruptly at night in the wee hours. Hard to get back to sleep. Never had that before or since.
I had my booster in October, also Pfizer, and again needed to take a date off for general malaise, and again a lack of appetite.
I work with senior citizens, most 80 or older, and very few had any reactions at all.

 

[IceIce9]

My daughter had her booster last week. Moderna for the first two, and the booster was Pfizer. She was surprised to have NO side effects since everyone had told her horror stories.