Covid Vaccine Update---A personal perspective

 Vaccine update time!!!! 

3 days post Pfizer mRNA Covid 19 vaccine 2.  Wanted to be transparent, so here we go.

12/15/2020, 1730 Pfizer mRNA Vaccine #1:  One of the happiest memories in my life coupled with relief.

I literally didn’t feel the vaccination at all.  In fact I didn’t even know she had done it until she reached for the bandaid.  About 5 minutes post vaccine I had the onset of the sensation that I had been swallowing really ice cold water, or sucking on an ice cube.  About 3-4 inches of the back of my throat felt cold.  That’s it.  Just an odd cold sensation which lasted for about 3 hours. 2 hours post vaccination I started to feel a bit of right upper arm ache, but no big deal. 

0330 awoke with significant arm ache, not able to get super comfortable, but did fall back sleep.  

0645 awoke, did an online feelings class, and then had breakfast. I hiked 5 miles that morning and felt really okay, other than an ache in my arm. 

1200, on 12/16/2020 I suddenly felt like I was aware of every muscle in my back and butt.  Sore muscles made it uncomfortable to sit up, and so I went in to lay down.  With this I started to feel chills and achiness.  Temp up to 100.5, and headache started.  Felt nauseated, and uncomfortable.  My headache was odd, not like my usual migraines, and my back ache was progressively worse throughout the day. Temp stayed elevated, and at 2030 I took motrin, 400 mg and went to bed.  Slept well.  

12/17/2020 woke up at 6, and felt normal, with a bit of a sore arm.  I had a normal day, other than for the next 5 days I felt a little nauseated and had just a bit of that same, odd headache.  By 1 week post vaccine mostly felt normal.  I would not have been able to work on the day after the vaccine, as I was tired, and achy, and literally couldn’t really concentrate super well.  All of this made me delightfully happy, as I am fully aware my immune system was working. 

Fast forward to 1/5/2021, when at 1620, Sarah S gave me Pfizer mRNA Vaccine #2.  We both were bubbling over with joy.  Second vaccine stung a tiny bit, but was quick.  

5 minutes later that same, odd cold sensation came on in the back of my throat.  No tickle, no where else felt cold, and it lasted for about 5-6 hours.  (Funny side note, on my drive home, I was chatting with a friend who was really upset about a work situation, and had gotten warm in my coat, so I mindlessly turned the thermostat down to 60, not realizing it.  I only ever have the air blow at my feet due to dry eyes, and a few minutes later my left leg started to feel cold.  So I had a moment, “what on earth is happening?  Why is my whole body turning cold now?  What’s next?” Then I realized my leg was cold because the thermostat was blowing outside air in…..I am my own worst enemy.)

Okay, back to 5 minutes post vaccine, about 10 minutes afterwards my right arm started to ache, and before I got to my car, it felt about as bad as it had when I awoke at 0330 after shot #1.  By 2200, my back was aching just a bit and I had developed a migraine-like headache.  Went to bed, and I literally could not sleep through the night.  I was more and more uncomfortable, and as soon as I would fall asleep, I would wake up restless.  

0645 1/6/2021  I woke and felt awful.  Temp 100.6.  Body aches were moderate then, and that weird headache was back.  I made it through another feelings class online (which is actually a leadership development class), and had a few hours of feeling okay.  )Which may or may not be an indication of how well the class went.)

1000 1/6/2021 Nausea kicked in, but my pain was manageable.  I went with Kit for coffee and then went on a short walk with Jonner.  By the time I got home from the walk my aches became more and more pronounced.  The rest of the day I was in my recliner, on the heating pad as my back pain made any other position too uncomfortable.  Gradually every muscle in my body ached, and holding anything in my hands made my hands ache.  My upper arms felt weak and getting up from the chair was not easy as the soles of my feet hurt, and my legs felt weak.  My temp continued all day, and even the weight of a blanket on my feet was painful.  My sprained ankle from 3 weeks before hurt, like I had sprained it again. I could feel every bone in my toes, and fingers.  Each muscle in my back was sore, and the soreness made me restless. Sitting completely still was the most comfortable I could be, but that only helped a little.  Faith tried to rub my back to help me feel better, and just her touch on my skin was painful.  

2000 I finally took 400 mg motrin, because there was no possibility that I could have slept or had the blankets on me without pain.  By 2200 I fell asleep, and woke up at 0600 on 1/7/2021 feeling completely normal.  Which was a complete surprise.   In full disclosure, I was half convinced I would wake up and pee myoglobin (muscle enzymes as they break down) because I hurt so significantly the day before. (Side note, my pee was just normal….obviously a healthcare provider is writing this.) 

The last 2 days my feet and hand muscles have hurt the more I have done, and I’ve taken motrin about 4 times.  (I have taken motrin about one time inn 2020 total before vaccine number 1.)  I have that odd headache still, and if I do much physical activity it worsens.  Also, I had some very odd abdominal pain on the 6th, and a few times yesterday.  But that is gone mostly today.  

So….There is my full disclosure.  Would I do this again?  ABSOLUTELY.  I have every reason to believe that if a few copies of the spike protein made by my  own muscle cells could illicit this response from my immune system, then the full version of Covid would have been a living hell.  Which my patients have clearly told me that they have experienced.  Most folks have had mild vaccine reactions.  Slightly sore arms and a bit of ache.  Some couldn’t even tell they had the vaccine.  Isn’t it odd that most folks have fairly mild Covid as well, and some that aren’t even aware they have been sick?  And so many people want the mild Covid to be the only reality they see or believe.  But I have had patients tell me that they laid in bed and wondered if death would actually be a relief for days on end, and they couldn’t sleep from Covid insomnia, so nights were also filled with unrelenting pain.  Some patients are still completely non functional, alive, but unable to live they life they had before Covid.  So I will gladly take a temp of 100.6, a headache for a few days, and nausea over the temps of 104 for days that people have had, residual headaches and loss of taste for months.  

mRNA vaccines cause our cells to make just a tiny part of the virus, so that our immune system will get trained for when the real deal hits.  I don’t know why some people have severe reactions, and some have just a bit of a no-big-deal reaction.  But my immune system doesn't like the spike protein, and my solace was that my pain was evidence of an immune system on full alert.  I do not think that Covid would have been a benign process for me.  And now, thanks to God opening minds to work brilliantly in science for the last 15 years developing these vaccines, my body will “see” Covid in its entirety and give that nasty little b@$+@46 the boot.  I have been having an internal party for the last 3 days.  I felt like literal poo (steamrolled poo is how I described my state of affairs to a friend), and all the while was deeply happy that my immune system was at work.  (And fabulously even those with no reaction to their vaccine at all also have an immune system working...which is slightly unfair but it's life right?  Some children, teens and 20 somethings have died of Covid, young parents gone from their infants forever, and then some 90 years olds have recovered without harm.  We don't know why Covid does what it does, but we do know what the vaccine does:  It works, with or without a bad day or two.) 

Thank You, God for designing our immune systems.  Thank You for making brilliant people who study science.  Thank You, for 2 absolutely awful days after my vaccinations, that prove once again that comfort doesn’t often produce the best in life, pain does.  Thank You for #ourshot, that will allow my beautiful fellow humans to hopefully rise above Covid.  Thank You for my holy biocontainment suit that has protected me until now.