Covid vaccine

[tex]

Kari,

I believe you're correct — the virus was here way before the medical community was aware of what was happening. My brother is a real estate broker, so he deals with people from all over the country on certain properties. He (and his wife) caught the virus back in January of 2020. He slept sitting in a recliner for several weeks because of breathing difficulties. He went to see his doctor a couple of times because his cough was so bad. The cough lasted over six weeks. His doctor didn't have any idea what he had, and although he had bad diarrhea, his doctor insisted it wasn't the flu. After it was over, he had the trademark fatigue that lasted for at least four or five more months.

Lucky us. We must have been about in the middle of the worst part of the ice storm, judging by the tree and power line damage. I spend at least a few hours most days cutting up broken tree limbs and dragging them into piles, and I'll probably still be doing that for about another month, before I finish. We had a lot of old trees, and unfortunately, old trees didn't handle all the ice very well.

But every cloud has a silver lining. I was out of shape (and overweight) from sitting at a computer most of the time, for most of the winter. By the time I finish getting rid of all the broken limbs, I'll be a few pounds lighter and in much better physical condition.

Love,

Tex

[Rosie]

I had my second COVID shot (Moderna) on Thursday and had fairly strong symptoms. By the time 4 hours had gone by, my arm was quite sore and I had a hard time sleeping that night. The next day I had chills and some body aches, and felt pretty tired. But absolutely no digestive issues! Today I am recovering nicely, but still have occasional chills. My arm feels fine. It was annoying, but a small price to pay for the security of being vaccinated. I was surprised at how much my mood improved, as I wasn't consciously aware at how much the constant low-grade nagging worry about getting infected was bringing my mood down.

Rosie

[Vandolyn]

Tex, you are right. Start Benadryl the day before the shot and continue for 4 days. I had no issues..

[brandy]

I live in Florida. As of March 15th 60 and older can get the vaccine in Florida. I just make the age limit.

The boyfriend and I get ours tomorrow. Pfizer is the only one available in my area.

I suspect I may have had Covid in January of 2020. I live in a college town of 70,000 students. I'm guessing 25% of our students are Asian. We have a lot of international travel done by professors. I got very sick the second week of January. I don't think I'd been that sick in 40 years. The worst was over after about 2 weeks but I had a severe lingering cough through March. I took the antibody test in August but tested negative. It may have been too late to find antibodies.

[Patricia]

Hi Brandy,

I just received a call that I can get the COVID vaccine tomorrow, it will be the Moderna one.

Originally, I was going to take Benadryl but I decided against it after reading this on the CDC website:

Administration of antihistamines to COVID-19 vaccine recipients prior to vaccination to prevent allergic reactions is not recommended. Antihistamines do not prevent anaphylaxis, and their prophylactic use may mask cutaneous symptoms, which could lead to a delay in the diagnosis and management of anaphylaxis.

I have quite a few allergies (food, bumblebee sting, antibiotics). I think my risk of an anaphylactic reaction to the vaccine is slim, but I definitely would not want to mask it. I did get both shots of the shingle vaccine last year and did fine with it. I was a bit run down after the second shot and the shingles rash on my face that I had had earlier in the year returned for a few days after the second shot of the vaccine, but that was the extent of it.

I will drink a lot of water today, tomorrow, and the day after and bring my epipen to the appointment tomorrow.

Love,

Patricia

[Kari]

Hi Patricia,

Thank you for posting the CDC guidelines pertaining to antihistamines. Makes me feel better about my decision not to take Benadryl beforehand.
I get my second shot of the Pfizer vaccine in the morning - can't wait to get it behind me!!!

Hope it goes well for you and Brandy.

Love,
Kari

[Kari]

Hi all,

It seems I just got confirmation that I had the coronavirus already (as I thought). I read an article (link below) that indicates that those people who had the virus previously would react more strongly to the first dose of the vaccine than to the second one. This certainly has been the case for me.

Brandy - you may want to pay attention to your reactions with this in mind.

Here is the link: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/strong- ... 25129.html.

Kari

[Patricia]

Hi Kari,

What was your reaction?

I believe I had an allergic reaction to the Moderna vaccine. I have allergic reactions to bumblebee stings, Amoxicillin, Zithromax, Biaxin, Bactrim as well as carrots, celery, peanuts (these foods provoke swelling of lips, itchy throat, trouble breathing).

I went to my COVID vaccine appointment on Wednesday and was injected at 9:00 a.m. I was then directed to sit on a chair on the other side of the room. I was super happy that I just got my first dose, sat down, took a picture of my vaccine card (in case I ever need to show it), and was looking forward to some uninterrupted reading when my heart started racing at 9:02 a.m. I decided to take a deep breath and meditate a little but it made no difference at all. I measured my pulse and it was 150-160 bpm. I went over to one of the nurses and told her. She took my pulse and said that other people had had a fast heart rate and to just sit for a while. The heart rate stayed that high for about 15-20 minutes after which it slowly started coming down. Around that time, I started feeling very warm around my chest area. The nurse asked me how I was doing and I told her that the heart rate was slowly decreasing and about the warm feeling and she said to just wait a little. An hour after the vaccination the heart rate was around 90 bpm, I felt fine otherwise, so I was good to go home. At 10:20 a.m., as we turned into our neighborhood, my throat started feeling weird (like it took more effort to swallow). I sat in a recliner at home, drank a cup of tea, and tried to relax. The feeling in the throat went away over the next few hours. The rest of the day I felt like after a medical procedure or after a colonoscopy, kind of weak and I spent the rest of the day in the recliner.

Aside from the arm hurting a little yesterday I don't have any side effects.

The nurse told me to contact my PCP to see if I can get the second dose. Based on the Moderna information leaflet that they gave me where it states that a fast heart rate is one of the signs of a severe allergic reaction I am not permitted to get my second shot. I have an appointment with my PCP next week and I will also make an appointment with an allergy specialist.

I am not yet sure what my next steps should be. I was so excited to get 2 doses of the Moderna vaccine and looking forward to resume a social life and see friends in person again. However, Moderna seems to be very efficient even after only 1 dose.

I wonder what the recommendations will be for people who had an allergic reaction to the first dose. I know that an allergic reaction to Moderna rules out a second shot of Moderna AND Pfizer since the two vaccines are so similar. I think I should probably get checked out whether I am allergic to PEG (which is in a lot of things, even in Benadryl), and if I cross react to polysorbate (which is in the Johnson&Johnson vaccine) since the PEG and polysorbate structure is similar. The CDC is currently working on guidelines for people who had an allergic reaction to the first shot.

I hope my allergic reaction won't deter anyone from getting the vaccine. I believe that it was connected to my allergies and not to my colitis. My colitis has not acted up since.

Love,

Patricia

[Kari]

Patricia,

Wow - what an ordeal!!! So sorry you had to go through that. I have similar allergies to you, and was very nervous about getting vaccinated. If you read my posts above, I believe that I had covid in December, 2019. My symptoms were a horrendous headache, with runny nose that lasted for 4 weeks. When I had the first shot of Pfizer, I reacted very powerfully with the same symptoms. However, the reaction was short lived, and came 44 hours after the shot. I did not have any reaction after the second shot, other than a sore arm.

If you read the article I posted above, it says that those people who had covid before the vaccine, would react much more strongly to the 1st dose, and this is indeed what happened to me.

I have also read that the efficacy after just one shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines is very high, so I think you should feel well protected with just the one dose. Not sure I would risk a second dose if I had the reaction you did. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the CDC studies on reactions. The knowledge base is still so limited.

Love,
Kari

[Patricia]

Thank you so much, Kari!

I am glad that you had no problems with the second shot.

The article you posted is very interesting. Also the fact that you had the same symptoms after the 1st shot as you had in December 2019. You are definitely well protected now!

I am curious what the PCP and the allergy specialist will tell me to do. I will keep you posted.

Love,

Patricia

[brandy]

Patricia,

Wow, just wow!

I had my first shot, Pfizer three days ago. I took Tylenol 2 hours before and took half of a zyrtec.

I had soreness and stiffness the next day. I flew 12 hours later after the shot and that probably did not help with the stiffness.

I'm looking forward to getting the second shot.

[Harmony33]

Hello All,

Thank you all for your continued posts full of experiences, patient advice and ongoing hope. I’m in my third year of managing MC, in good remission with only occasional morning D.

I had the first Pfizer vaccine three weeks ago with only a minor sore arm as a reaction. I had the second dose on Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning I woke up with a fever of 100 with achy head, muscle and joints in addition to a very sore arm. Yesterday I woke up feeling great. The fever had broken in the night.

I guess my immune system just wanted to show me that it still works! Worth it for the relief of now having some protection against Covid.

Harmony

[brandy]

I had heart minor flutterings second or third day after Pfizer. I never had these before in my life.

[Pebbledash]

Second Moderna shot yesterday afternoon. By evening I was shaking like a leaf. The morning after (Good Friday) felt like the worst flu I can remember--chills, sweats, muscle aches, and so on.

Paul

[Kari]

A good friend of mine also had a severe reaction after her second dose of Pfizer. Flue like symptoms with fever, lasting a day and a half. Another friend was shivering and freezing, and simply could not get warm.

Love,
Kari