Covid-19 vaccination experiences

I was the same with my first jab. I prepared food etc and rested up in advance just in case but actually it turned out much better than I thought! Only one rough night and I was back to baseline which was such a relief. My body was clearly not listening to my thoughts about worst case scenario!

 

Does anyone have experience of mixing and matching vaccine types?

I had my first jab two months ago and just booked my second for next week. My first was AZ and I had only minor side effects. Because of this I'm hoping second will be AZ too. But I've no way of knowing. It could be Pz. (I'm in the UK btw.)

Has anyone had first jab of one type and second jab of another?

People seem to be getting worse side effects with second Pz jab but do we know if that still happens if first jab was Az?

 

@Tia

I haven't had any jabs yet, but here in Canada (NACI) are recommending that people who received first dose AZ get the an mRNA (Pfizer or Moderna) for their second dose.

 

@Mij @Sean Thank you. I've actually just managed to get through to the surgery and found that I will definitely be having AZ as my second. I think that's policy here. Maybe I'll get an mRNA option if I get a third in the future! I'm glad to stick to AZ now though because I feel reassured by the fact that my side effects weren't too bad for my first.

Still, I'm slightly more stressed and sleep deprived this time around so I've got a week to try to rest and get my sleep cycle back to normal before my next jab. Fingers crossed!

 

I haven't had the jab (yet?).

My GP recommends that I don't have the jab, but wait for herd immunity instead. I'm having very mixed feelings about this.

My ME onset was clearly associated with a hepatitis A+B vaccination, and I got much worse after the booster dose. (Haven't had any jabs at all since.)

I'm severely ill and currently in the worst continuous PEM/relapse I've ever been, due to a series of medical investigations in 2019-2020 that caused a lot of extreme over-exertion and iatrogenic harm, mainly due to discrimination.

My gut feeling says that the vaccine is too big a risk for me at the moment (feels like Russian roulette), but my head says I still need to have it.

I live in Sweden, and as you already know the infection rate is still very high here, including the delta variant (a recent Scottish study suggests that it's twice as likely to put you in hospital) in some parts of the country. Despite the very high infection rates, Sweden is still going ahead and opening up, bit by bit removing the few, already weak restrictions there were. Soon all responsibility will rest on the vulnerable individual only...

I have serious doubts about covid-19 herd immunity, and I don't believe it will happen in Sweden in the next few years, maybe never.

I recently contacted my GP to ask for a home visit to have the jab. I was eligible for vaccination already in March since I have home healthcare (hemsjukvård), but due to discrimination by the municipality it never happened. I was kind of fine with waiting, because I wanted to see how others with severe ME tolerated the vaccine, especially other severely ill people with vaccine associated onset (I'm still looking, very difficult to find any who have had the jab. There are many wondering the same thing, though).

I've been in strict self-isolation since the beginning of the pandemic, but I don't think it's a realistic solution in the long run. Anything could happen at any time that forces me to break my isolation, and I wouldn't want to travel to the hospital or the dentist for example, unless I'm fully vaccinated.

I really didn't expect my GP to recommend against having it. I'm not sure what to do now...

 

As I'm here ATM...

Adult son with ME, mid 30s, ME for 22 years, had initial dose of Pfizer two days ago. Slightly achy arm, a little more tired than usual, his 24/7 ME headache is a little more pronounced, but otherwise no other side effects, as yet. Was told his second dose would be in 8 to 10 weeks.

 

We are being told here in Canada that two AZ vaccinations offer less protection than having one Pfizer or Moderna vaccination.

 

I spoke to my GP a week to 10 days ago, and he told me I would be getting a Pfizer booster in late summer/ autumn, after having two AZ doses in Jan and April.

In fact he said that all would be getting the Pf, including the 12+, and that the Government had already bought the jabs. That's what he told me but
from what I've read in the newspapers this week, there doesn't seem to be certainty about over 12s, and I am wondering if all would be getting this booster, or just the vulnerable.

Also the COM- Cov Oxford research in mixing and matching found that side effects were greater, than when both jabs were of the same kind, but I'm not sure yet whether there are any results on efficacy of mixing and matching.

This week there have also been comments about a shortage of Pf because of needing to vaccinate the under 40s with Pf because of blood clots in a small number of AZs. It may be to do with the timing of the supply I suppose.

I know my daughter of 45 with a genetic blood clotting issue had difficulty in getting on a Pf list. She has still only had her first Pf dose and had an unpleasant response to it, a sort of shock, and had to be put in a wheelchair and observed. She is never ill so reactions to this vaccine seem very unpredictable.

 

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...fection-plummets-21-days-after-a-vaccination/

 

I wish they could make up their minds. We get such conflicting information that after a while a person doesn't know what to believe.

 

That's an excellent point. Amidst all these claims of catastrophic thinking, there's never a comparison with a control group of catastrophizers who didn't manage to bring about or exacerbate their own illness.

As far as I'm aware, most people spend a significant amount of time worrying about things that never happen, including health-related worries. What is this magic power that ME sufferers have? And why does it only work for ME - even before we knew what it was - (and long covid and anything else the government and insurance companies would like to bury and psychs would like to get rich off) but not vaccination side-effects?

 

I've catastrophized about heavy hormones for endometriosis and Pregabalin for pain. They ended up reducing my symptoms so much.

I didn't care about vitamins and they gave me painful gastritis.

So appearently my body doesnt listen much to what my brain decides to worry about.

Not to say I never experience psychosomatic symptoms, but this one way explanation of A->B is lazy superstition.

 

Had second COVID vaccination almost 2 weeks ago.

First 2 or 3 days were just normal ME symptoms.

Feel like a cooked noodle for the last 10 days or so. Very weak and fatigued.

ETA: Felt exactly the same with the first shot.

ETA#2: If I recall correctly, a recent Globe and Mail article said people might feel rough for a day or two after their COVID shot.

Wonder if anyone is tracking disabled persons' reactions. It's an idea if it hasn't been thought of.

(Trying to be positive and cheery here, and not say disabled people's reactions are very likely not being tracked.)

 

They did a study on MS patients with no increased risk of relapse activity.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33856242/

 

I would think that any MD in Sweden would be pro vaccination for everyone they believe it is safe for. Your doctor probably thinks that you are vulnerable to a bad outcome from the current vaccines.

I would be inclined to listen to your doctor in this case. My specialist has retired and in my fog and clumsiness I didn’t make any attempt to contact him and ask whether I should get the shot. He would have said wait, I’m pretty sure.

It’s about three months since my second shot and I still haven’t recovered, perhaps i had a cascade of effects, like that building in Florida. I have no problem with annual flu vaccines, so I naïvely thought “they all stimulate your immune system, so what’s the difference?”

You may want to wait. Perhaps a low dosage or different vaccine version for people with dysfunctional immune systems will be invented.

 

Any improvement? I’m wondering if I’m the only one who is still down after three months. I wish I was a circuit breaker With a little gremlin to reset the works.

 

I'm at almost 11 weeks since my first vaccination and I still have not fully recovered. The fatigue isn't as bad, but the weak and shaky arms and legs haven't got any better. I go on Thursday this week for my second shot and I have to admit, I'm nervous about having it. It took me five weeks the first time for the fatigue to lessen so that I could function again. My mom is in hospital at the moment and I have to be able to take care of her when she gets released until she is recovered.