Covid-19 vaccination experiences

Sure! I didn't write anything down, so this is all from memory (and you know how bad that can be.....) but here's what I remember.

It started the morning after the shot with very sore arm, general aches and pains and feeling feverish. It mostly felt like a big ME crash where everything feels even harder than usual. Each day I would think, maybe it's better, and then, nope, still feeling really crappy.

I didn't bother taking my temperature, so I don't know whether I actually had a fever or just felt like it.

It lasted maybe 5-6 days, or perhaps it was a full week, before I was back to baseline. Not permanent or anything like that, just worse than other vaccines.

Comparing that the COVID vaccine (Pfizer), my first shot was like a flu shot (sore arm, no other symptoms).

After my second shot, in addition to a sore arm I got aches and pains, and feeling exhausted, but not those feverish/flu-ish feelings. These symptoms lasted only about 3 days, I think.

Hope this helps!

 

Well, I don’t really want to be in this particular minority but
100% contrary to my expectations, I haven’t recovered from my covid shots. I’ve improved some over in the 6 months since, but not to the state prior. I still have novel and significant digestive problems and my legs seem to drag behind me, except they’re required to carry me and they’re only just able to do that. So I don’t move all that much.

Perhaps this is a set of knock-on conditions. I had to give up my small exercise routine after the shots, as the consequences of forcing myself to exercise when at a low state were severe enough to be memorable. It wasn’t a good memory.

I have utterly no idea what to do next, other than limit all activity and wait until I can do take some little bite of exercise. The latter seems to stretch the envelope and raise my baseline, but after many improve/crash cycles it clearly will not prevent the next crash.

Edit: And a Funny thing: When I told the M.D. giving me a sorta standard (very brief) annual physical I expected a dismissive response. Instead, I got “We’ve had many patients who had no problems with other vaccines have reactions to this one.” This is not an altie or hippie practice, it’s a pretty much standard medical office.

 

Seems reasonable but seeing behind the curtains how medicine works for the last several years makes a strong compelling case that it could be just as common with other vaccines, medicine simply has no way of knowing and probably doesn't even want to know, given how problematic it would be for public messaging over vaccine safety. If someone had such a reaction without the context of the pandemic and LC it would be simply be chalked off as burnout, depression or whatever. No one would track this, it would even be a stretch if anyone ever bothered to put it in writing somewhere, and probably not in a way that can be used.

It's at least as likely that this is the case. I would personally put those odds as very high, although of course the numbers for infections is probably vastly greater and they don't care either so I really can't see how medicine could possibly be aware of a smaller issue that is similar to another one it is in systemic denial over. Wilful blindness is just as blinding as the involuntary kind. Health data are simply not tracked rigorously enough for this and retrospective studies are riddled with flaws and bias.

 

I’m no biologist, but I can’t understand how an old-tech vaccine - using inactivated virus or whatever vaccine is grown in chicken eggs - can be worse than the actual disease. A virus hijacks your cells and replicates itself in billions and billions of copies, then it kills the cell it has hijacked, all the while suppressing your immune system with whatever tricks it has evolved.**

Of course I also didn’t understand that this particular vaccine would be bad for me, I believed the worst possible effect was a week or two of exhaustion.
Net: What I thought I understood about the immune system and vaccination is a speck on the canvass of minimum practical knowledge.

**Rather like those riots we had in the States, where the government became mysteriously become unable to respond, all while it had powerful systems capable of erasing an intruder. Virus are insidious things.

 

I haven't recovered from the vaccine either and it's been seven months since the first one and four and a half months since the second shot. My ME has gone from mild/moderate to severe. PEM is really bad. I also have the leg issues - they feel weak and shaky and they always tingle and feel like they are vibrating. I'm guessing that I now have Peripheral Neuropathy as a result of having the vaccine.

 

Huh. I’d never thought of that, perhaps that’s the malady describing weak legs after the vaccine. As someone who formerly worked out 6x/week, even the idea of having weak, shaky legs is revolting. It’s a fact, its my life now, but I still sorta refuse to accept it.

 

I'm having trouble accepting my life as it is right now. There has been a lot of tears the past few weeks. I can't do gardening or yardwork anymore. I can't stand long enough to cook a decent meal, make a salad, or bake. My life is now spent watching TV and napping. It's not good for my mental health. I'm still hoping that this is just a temporary situation. I've met a lot of people the past few months who are going through adverse reactions to the vaccines, and there are people who are recovering six, seven, eight months later so I'm not giving up.

 

Due to get my Pfizer booster early December. Really hoping for a less rough ride than the last two. Not sure I could deal with another 3 month relapse.

 

I rather wish I hadn't.

The first shot of AZ back in March caused transient paralysis (doctor called it a Guillain-Barre type reaction), where l temporarily lost the use of my lower body and had severe weakening of my upper body.

Although l have regained most of my housebound mobility, my original stamina level has not been recovered. My legs are weak and proprioception is not what it was. I regularly stumble as l am not picking my feet up as l should and the other month l fell, fracturing my cheekbone.

Also, since March l have had persistent bouts of contact dermatitis, especially on my face, eyelids swelling up until l can barely see, and itchy skin all over.

My GP asked if l would be interested in the Pfizer Covid vaccine, but he then went on to say that he couldn't guarantee this would be safe for me either. So far l have refused further vaccination.

 

I have had 2 doses of AZ and one of Pfizer and reacted to all three, but less severely to AZ2.

I would describe both AZ1 and Pf as severe but the reactions were entirely different. AZ1 was described as "almost anaphylaxis" by my GP, and I had many episodes of throat angioedema, but I found Pf worse if anything but not anaphylaxis like, so bad that the hospital vaccination centre where I had it transferred me to A and E.

At this moment I wouldn't take another vaccine, and I haven't taken flu this winter, despite taking it regularly before this.
However while I certainly feel weaker and sleep more and so can do less than before taking the v, I have not been left with significant neurological issues.

What to do when another v is due? When I told my GP that I didn't want another v, he said to me " both you and I know that you will need one".

 

My GP has been after me to update my tetanus shot for over 20 years and I refused. Back in 1991 I was vaccinated several times during my sudden viral ME onset and my GP wanted to give me the final (3rd) Hep B jab. I refused b/c I loss stamina after the second Hep B jab and became worse.

I know COVID is different, but sometimes we have to make difficult decisions as to whether we want to get vaccinated.

Most GPs are PRO vaccine no matter which vaccine, even when we explain to them that we became worse after the jabs.

 

Thanks @Trish. It's been a most difficult year.

 

Note that there is evidence of GBS recurrence from the Pfizer vaccine. So don't let anyone tell you that "there is no evidence".
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2783708

 

Had my "third primary" dose a couple of weeks ago, this time a Pfizer (first 2x were AZ). I'm due for a 4th dose, the "booster", in 6M time. This is because I take biologic immunosuppressant medication.

Arm ache was the only immediate & obvious reaction, whereas I got a temperature/achy feeling from the AZs. The Pfizer didn't give me a stinging neuropathic pain in my foot, unlike the AZ & Flu vaccines.

About 5 days after the Pfizer I did feel a bit strange for a couple of days, cracking headache with some unusually severe back stiffness and lower back/groin pain, may or may not have been related. Fine now.

 

@Ryan31337 . My Pf was also a "third primary" following two AZ. I suppose I will be due a booster in 6 months but at the moment I am feeling very reluctant but sitting on the fence I suppose, because I also want the protection of the vaccine.
I am hoping to discuss fractional doses with my immunologist since I reacted badly to both types of vaccine I have taken.
It has been a difficult year.

 

Has anyone had 2 Pfizer (with negative experience) and then Moderna as a third dose? Any difference in reaction?

(I think I’m allowed to switch between the two in my area, but that might not be the case everywhere.)