Mornin' all. I got my first dose today and I feel almost tearfully relieved and energized to be on this side of history. I thought I would start a thread dedicated to the experience of being vaccinated, so that we can share info with those who are still on the fence or who are watchful waiting to see how things go.
My hospital got 5000 doses delivered on Tuesday. We have given almost half of that already in the last two days. Participation is voluntary and divided into tiered groups based on patient exposure. Those who volunteer (still paid but outside normal job duties) to work the employee Covid vaccine clinic we have set up can also get it, which is how I was eligible to get it already today.
Getting the second dose is crucial for any protection, so we make an appointment to come back for the second dose on exactly day 21. We will get another shipment from Pfizer in time for that. My wait time in line was about 30 minutes in all. The first day employees showed up and waited over 2 hours, cheerfully. There is a LOT of positivity and hope going on here surrounding this, which feels amazing.
We go to an observation room for 10 minutes after the injection, where we were given bottled water and single serving snacks while we observe for any allergic reaction.
The injection itself was nothing. Easiest shot I have ever gotten by far. I don't even have any arm soreness so far. I will touch base if I start to get any kind of side effects.
Got the 1st Covid vaccine a few days ago, no pain during insertion.
Slight soreness at site next day but no side effects otherwise.
Got the 2nd Covid Pfizer Vaccine & here's my experience:
Day 1(day of 2nd dose): slight injection site pain, mild swelling/redness, size of a dime and warm to touch.
Day 2 (next day): Similar injection site pain/swelling with more pain in deltoid & mild armpit lymph node tenderness. In the afternoon I had a fever/chills, sweats, mild headache (responded to tylenol), fatigue the rest of the day. Tylenol made everything more tolerable.
Would recommend getting it despite the day of S/E. I feel more at ease knowing that soon I am less likely to bring home Covid to my family thanks to the vaccine.
A Nursing Researcher’s Experience in a COVID-19 Vaccine Trial
Kristen R. Choi, PhD, RN1,2
7-9 minutes
I was scrolling through Instagram in early August 2020 when I saw an advertisement that caught my attention. Usually, I swipe past these without a second glance, but this was for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine trial. It was recruiting participants for the highly publicized phase 3 trial of a new vaccine, BNT162b2, that had shown promising results earlier in the year. As a nurse and researcher who has encountered social media recruitment in my own work—and has closely followed the COVID-19 vaccine trials—I was curious to see how Pfizer planned to convince 30 000 people in the US to volunteer. I clicked on the advertisement.
The recruitment website (https://www.covidvaccinestudy.com/) was nicely designed with bright photos and thoughtful messaging about the trial. I intended to look at the recruitment approach, but found myself instead thinking about how important it is for people to participate. In the US, as of September 2020 COVID-19 had been diagnosed in nearly 7 million people and had killed more than 200 000.1 A vaccine could save lives and stop the spread of the virus. Volunteering for the trial felt like an honorable thing to do—and the 50% chance to be randomized to the vaccine early seemed equally compelling to me as a practicing nurse. Before I left the website, I entered my contact information to be considered for participation.
A few days later, I was in a parking lot loading groceries into my car when I received a phone call from the study coordinator.
“Hi, is this Kristen? I’m calling from the COVID-19 vaccine study. I’d like to go through a screening and schedule you for the first visit, assuming you still want to participate, that is.” He went on to ask me questions about my health and lifestyle. When I passed the screening, he continued, “Let’s check the schedule for your first visit... It looks like I have an opening today. Can you come in today?”
I responded, “Um, sure. Yes. Send me the time and place and I’ll be there.”
As a researcher myself, I had an idea of what to expect when I arrived. I read through an informed consent, signed paperwork, and answered questions about myself and my health. I chatted with the medical assistants and research nurses about what it was like to be a nurse during the pandemic. I gritted my teeth through the dreaded nasopharyngeal swab for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
Nearing the end of the visit, I found myself alone. Waiting for the actual injection, I thought about how strange it felt to be a research participant. Randomization is considered the gold standard in clinical research, necessary for omitting all possible bias and determining causality. I had studied the ethics of randomization and why it can be unappealing or even unacceptable to people. But the disconcerting feeling of randomization surprised me. I thought about why getting the experimental vaccine rather than the placebo mattered for me as a health care worker—and then, even those stakes seemed low when I thought about what randomization must feel like for patients.
I sent up a final prayer for the active vaccine as the research nurse finally administered the blind-to-me injection. A visit for the second injection was scheduled for 1 month later. My arm was sore, but I did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I could not begin to guess whether I had received the vaccine or the placebo.
I returned to the research clinic the next month. It was easier and faster this time, although I was dismayed to find that there was another nasopharyngeal swab test. I received the injection and returned home.
The experience after the second injection was different. My arm quickly became painful at the injection site, much more than the first time. By the end of the day, I felt light-headed, chilled, nauseous, and had a splitting headache. I went to bed early and fell asleep immediately. Around midnight, I woke up feeling worse—feverish and chilled, nauseated, dizzy, and hardly able to lift my arm from muscle pain at the injection site. My temperature was 99.4 °F (37.4 °C). I tossed and turned, sleeping little during the rest of the night.
When I woke up again at 5:30 am, I felt hot. Burning. I took my temperature and looked at the reading: 104.9 °F (40.5 °C). This was the highest fever I can ever remember having, and it scared me. I took acetaminophen and drank a glass of water. When the research office opened at 9 am, I called to report my reaction to the injection. Thankfully, my fever had come down to 102.0 °F (38.9 °C) by then. The research nurse said, “A lot of people have reactions after the second injection. Keep monitoring your symptoms and call us if anything changes.” My fever hovered around 99.5 °F (37.5 °C) for the rest of the day. By the next morning, all my symptoms were gone except a sore, swollen bump at the injection site.
I cannot be certain, but based on my reaction, I have a strong suspicion that I received the experimental vaccine, not the placebo. While waiting for the research office to open that morning, I had read the research report2 on the earlier Pfizer-BioNTech trial. To my surprise, the nurse was right about how common my symptoms were. In the phase 1 trial of BNT162b2, the following adverse effects were observed in the intervention arm of adults aged 18 to 55 years after receiving the second dose of BNT162b2: fatigue (75%), headache (67%), chills (33%), muscle pain (25%), fever (17%), and joint pain (17%).2 If this vaccine is approved, it is possible that most people receiving the vaccine could have 1 or more reactions to the vaccine like I did. Fortunately, my experience of having all symptoms together seems to be rare.
The adverse effects of the vaccine—even if, at worst, they all happen at once—are transient and a normal sign of reactogenicity signaling an effective immune response. But I worry that they could be a major barrier to vaccine uptake. Clinicians will need to be prepared to discuss with patients why they should trust the vaccine and that its adverse effects could look a lot like COVID-19. They will need to explain that fatigue, headache, chills, muscle pain, and fever are normal, reactogenic immune responses and a sign that the vaccine is working, despite the unfortunate similarities with the disease’s symptoms.
Despite the extensive information I had on the research process and vaccine, on a personal level I did not get the message that I should anticipate a reactogenic response. I was scared when I saw that I had a fever, and my gut reaction after months of scrutinizing myself for all the possible COVID-19 symptoms was: Do I have COVID-19?
I texted a few friends about my experience, and their response was the same: “Wait, does this mean you have COVID-19? Are you contagious?” I assured them I did not and was not, but every physician and nurse in the US needs to be prepared to have a conversation about adverse effects with patients. I can already see the wrong message about the COVID-19 vaccine going viral.
Corresponding Author: Kristen R. Choi, PhD, RN, School of Nursing, University of California, 700 Tiverton Ave, Room 3-238, Los Angeles, CA 90095 ([email protected]).
Had my first Moderna shot 2 days ago. Yesterday arm was tetorifice shot sore, felt sl. nausea as the evening went on and tired. Sore arm kept me awake. Today so tired, deltoid is swollen and nearly vomited when I started to package a sputum specimen for shipping. Tea and toast for dinner and early to bed.
Just got dose #2 this morning, waiting for the likely fever/flu-like symptoms that most seem to be getting. Armed with a chocolate milkshake to soften the blow ?
Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.
I got my first dose 3 weeks ago and my second one yesterday. No issues at all with the first one, other than the expected sore arm.
For the second one, about 4 minutes after I got it, I got really dizzy. Thank goodness they made us wait for 15 minutes. One of the nurses that was monitoring, said a few people vagaled for a brief period. I was fine after 20 minutes and today, just a sore arm like the first dose. FYI Pfizer.
The first shot my arm didn't get sore, but the second one it did. I noticed it more after my shift. I put one of those stick on heat packs and went to bed. I'm all good now, there is some tenderness in the area when I touch it, but not as bad as before.
It looks like the first dose people have been having mild soreness, but nothing significant. The second dose however, people are fine at first, but some hours later people have dizziness and significant soreness in the site. I wonder why the second shot takes hours for people to notice things?
Update 24 hours after dose #2: just a very sore arm (think tetorifice shot) and slept maybe a little harder than usual last night. I've been waiting to feel feverish but so far, so good! Funny how different everyone's experience is.
Got the second dose of Pfizer yesterday, and just a mildly sore arm this evening. I took today and tomorrow off, just in case, but I've felt fine. No need for Tylenol or anything.
The only thing I noticed was about 5 minutes after getting the injection, I had a weird cramping in my palm just below my thumb. It passed after a few minutes, and I wonder if it was psychosomatic.
After all I've heard about reactions, I was worried, but so far so good. For the record, I've never had any reaction other than injection-site soreness from any vaccine. Hopefully my lack of flu-like symptoms doesn't mean a lack of immune response.
Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
So I got my 1st dose of the Moderna Vaccine on Monday. I was advised to take Tylenol with ibuprophen on day one and to do ROM with my arm every hour before going to be. Next day just take ibuprophen and stay well hydrated.
My arm was sore but not nearly as sore as it was when I got the TDAP. The only other notable side effect I had was feeling extremely tired for two days. Bouncing back now.
I was so hoping to grow ears and a tail but one of my co-workers said it takes a bout three months for a tail to grow so I might get one yet.
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Got the 2nd Covid Pfizer Vaccine & here's my experience:
Day 1(day of 2nd dose): slight injection site pain, mild swelling/redness, size of a dime and warm to touch.
Day 2 (next day): Similar injection site pain/swelling with more pain in deltoid & mild armpit lymph node tenderness. In the afternoon I had a fever/chills, sweats, mild headache (responded to tylenol), fatigue the rest of the day. Tylenol made everything more tolerable.
Would recommend getting it despite the day of S/E. I feel more at ease knowing that soon I am less likely to bring home Covid to my family thanks to the vaccine.
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