SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Check-in

Hey folks, the purpose of this contribution is to share in detail the experience I’ve had in my body since receiving the Moderna vaccine 1 week ago the night of January 12, 2021.

The purpose of this thread is not to start a conversation about where to get vaccinated or the politics of vaccinations at this time. I invite anybody else who gets vaccinated to post their experiences here to gather intel on what responses folks might expect when being vaccinated with this new technology.
For a short explanation of the mRNA vaccine technology from a covid-19 specialist (and my mentor and teacher) visit Heather Zwickey’s instagram. In addition to the video I linked she is posting recent podcasts and in the comments she answers questions.

Day 1: I visited a practically invisible impermanent unit in the hospital complex at Harborview Clinic with 1 security guard standing outside. Likely because I have a phobia of needles, I was already experiencing mild nausea the day of the vaccine. I was vaccinated around 19:30 that evening. I barely felt it, it was over before I knew it. I waited in a waiting room 10ft apart from other masked, newly vaccinated people for 15 minutes like you’re supposed to. I moved my arm the whole time; people thought I was raising my hand to ask questions. No immediate symptoms were apparent.

Day 2: My (left) non-dominant arm is where I chose to be vaccinated. It’s tender to the touch and it has had no color or temperature change (and won’t). It’s tender to the touch and hurts like a deep soreness in about a 4 inch diameter around the bandaid.

Day 3: My whole arm is sore and pulsing with a deep ache. Arm = above the elbow and below the shoulder. When I roll onto my left side in the morning it wakes me up instantly due to the pain. The worst is raising it over my head where it begins to hurt in the shoulder joint.

Day 4: If I tried to sleep on my left side at any point during the night I had to pivot immediately to avoid pain and waking. The arm is very sensitive. I’ve been mildly nauseous and mildly tired for the past 2 days and today I am still tired. The pain has shifted to the back of my left shoulderblade. It doesn’t let up and it’s a deep, sore, boring pain. Today I can tell it’s the quality and intensity of the pain that makes me feel nauseous. And the fact that it doesn’t ever recede or change throughout the day. I got in my car to drive to visit a friend and was almost scared I couldn’t drive. With gentle reminding that this pain has a reason and nothing else was wrong with me I could function normally - if not a little more carefully and cautiously.

Day 5: I’m wrecked. My whole body is sore and I’m just having a garbage body kind of day. Not so much tired or nauseous though.

Day 6: The pain in the shoulderblade is almost gone. There’s a boring pain of a much smaller spatial area in the center of my back but it only lasts the morning.

Day 7: There’s a ghost of the pain there once was in my arm. I can lie on my side or take the weight of another person on my arm with only moderate discomfort. I realize the nausea from the past week has affected my appetite and messed with my eating schedule so I get really intentional about eating 3 meals a day (normal for me) + snacks. I have to be intentional to build it back up.

Day 8: Besides some mild stiffness in the left shoulder and shoulderblade it’s pretty much gone.

Notes
The pain kept me from my regular daily movement practices - but I already had an injury in my right arm that was limiting that. I stretch(ed) every morning, rolling my joints - which included my left arm - and during neck and side stretches. Most nights before bed too. Despite the pain I still continued to move my body and my arm. I practiced yoga 1-2 times with blocks.

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So I’ve only had the first vaccine so far, and am scheduled to have the second in a few days. I was lucky and only had a few side effects: I felt depressed the night I received the shot (this is typical for me and vaccines, they drain me and make me feel a bit sick sometimes, and it sides on depressive for a night) and I had a hella sore arm for a few days. Other than that, I was fine! Fingers crossed for the next one :crossed_fingers:

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Update: I had the second vaccine, my arm was just as sore, and I felt fatigued that day. That night, I felt dizzy and feverish, slept in, and felt fine when I woke up.

As of now, I have been exposed to Covid (I live with someone who tested positive), and feel run down, but am experiencing only minor symptoms other than feeling pretty exhausted. I’m a bit headachey and sniffly, but other than the fatigue, have limited signs of being sick.

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I had my first shot of the Moderna vaccine on Feb 27 - I got super lucky because my housemate is a nurse working in a vaccine clinic in a stadium in Kent and got a dose that would have been tossed at the end of the day.

My arm was incredibly sore the night of and day after. 2 days after there was some soreness still but could do exercise that involved my arms, and 3 days later I could tell that there was a bit of soreness but it was very mild. No other symptoms to speak of.

When I get the flu shot each year I often feel a bit under the weather for a couple days afterward. I’m imagining that the next shot (scheduled for the March 27th) will be a little more intense symptom-wise but we’ll have to wait and see :slight_smile:

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2nd Vaccine Checkin - shot was March 29 at 3:15pm. Arm was super sore for a few days, as expected. I felt a little bit of mild nausea and fatigue the day after when I tried to do some manual labor.

While I didn’t have any super intense flu-like symptoms, I definitely think the 2nd shot took a lot out of me last week. I didn’t have much mental capacity and felt pretty depressed overall. Feeling a bit more energy a full week afterward.

Took first dose of Moderna vaccine on Sat, and have had basically the exact same sypmtoms and timeline so stealing.

Third day here, arm feels a little sore, but can do pushups if I don’t mind a little pain. Maybe extra tired yesterday, but hard to say, tired a lot.

My follow up is that I received my second shot of the Moderna vaccine on February 6th around 9am. The rest of my day was normal to productive until about 3pm where my day took a dead stop. I was not sick; just stopped in my tracks. That evening around 10pm I became full on sick: chills, convulsions, no temperature regulation, probably a fever but we didn’t check. I just had my night of agony with my partner by my side and probably wouldn’t have remembered how bad it was if she wasn’t there witnessing me. It was step-by-step literally what they told me it would be: I got really really sick with full body pain nausea and the works which contributed to a sleepless night and then in the morning I was not sick anymore. It took me about 2 days to recover from the restlessness of it all. What was cool was how simulated it all felt. I rarely get sick like that but when I have I remember feeling gross, you know? This was like having the sick without the icky sticky grossness of it.

Semi-relevant: I was exposed to Covid 11 days after my 2nd vaccine. My partner was exposed at the same time, and we developed similar symptoms at the same time. She was not vaccinated and tested positive. I took 2 tests and both came back negative. She lost her sense of taste and smell while I didn’t. Other than that, we had similar experiences. I was super grateful to have been vaccinated, as she was way more stressed about getting more intense symptoms. Hope this helps!

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I’ve recently completed my vaccine schedule, so I’ll add my data point. My reactions to both doses were quite mild, but I think that it’s important to share “negative” or mundane results as well as extreme ones.

I received the Moderna vaccine. After my first dose, the injection site had light pain and a feeling of numbness, which was amplified by raising my arm. Physical arm strength was reduced; it was uncomfortable to lift heavy objects. After 1 day, some soreness persisted, but was not bothersome unless I raised my arm more than about 75° above the horizontal. After 2 days, it was fine up to 115°; after 3 days, I had fully recovered.

My second dose was administered 36 days after the first due to logistical issues (cross-country flights). After my second dose, I felt the same light pain and numbness. After 1 day, I could raise my arm to 90° in front of me or about 120° off to the side; after 2 days, I had fully recovered.

I felt mentally cogent and unimpaired the whole time. Grateful to have had an easy experience, and happy to be in the clear.