Covid booster - Moderna - update

[julesjones]

Note: possibly TMI. :-)

Having had Moderna as my autumn booster on Friday, side-effects so far - I could feel a slight ache at the injection site within a few minutes, spreading into my arm. I have RSI and various muscles and tendons react fairly quickly to anything causing an inflammatory response (including viral infections). It got more painful during the day, and was very definitely triggering the musculo-skeletal problems, including pain in my palm. This did not surprise me, because it's a normal reaction for me, but I thought it was worse than with Pfizer or a typical flu vaccine. I was also a bit tired, and generally "meh" by the evening, with little enthusiasm for food. I took aspirin during the afternoon, partly as a painkiller and partly to control the effect the inflammation was having on all the broken bits.

I went to bed too late. This was a mistake. I had also a couple of days earlier started cutting down the dose of a med that amongst other things is a sedative for the migraine insomnia. This too was a mistake. The injection site was painful enough that every time I turned over I woke up; again, something I'd expected from long experience with the flu jab. What I had not expected was cramp low in my abdomen, of the "what did I eat?" variety. This also kept waking me up, just not quite enough to go and make a hot water bottle. I ended up with about 4 hours of broken sleep. I felt utterly wretched during Saturday. A lot of this was lack of sleep, but the cramp was not. It did not ease off for most of the day, and while a hot water bottle helped, it didn't stop it. It's possible it actually was something I ate, but I do wonder if the inflammatory response triggered a mild bout of IBS. I also noticed that my arthritic toe joint was aching, so at some point took some more aspirin. The calf muscle that was sensitised by the fallout from the stress fracture some years ago was also complaining, as was the related stiff back muscle.

I started to feel a bit better by late afternoon, but by evening just making a meal was still incredibly draining. I took a full tablet rather than half a tablet of my sedative. I also took 200 mg of ibuprofen and 15 mg of codeine. (I have low dose prescription codeine for acute migraine episodes.)

I slept a lot better.Today I feel less tired, the tenderness is slowly improving even if I can still feel some pain in my little finger and palm, the cramp is slowly improving. I'm glad I didn't have to go to work, but I would have actually been able to do some work, unlike yesterday when I would have been present in body but not in spirit.

 

So worse than the Pfizer was, but still not terrible,

And I get to do it all over again next weekend, when I have my annual flu jab...

Comments

[agoodwinsmith]

Argh. Happening in mid transition to a new med level just complicates things. And there is also a "don't over-medicate" sort of lethargy to addressing symptoms.

But sleep is the best.

[graydon]

I suppose that indicates it's working, but it's still unpleasant.

Hope there's a general decrease in inflammation with the flu shot!

[heleninwales]

I hope you feel better soon and that the flu jab causes less of reaction.

My husband has had zero reaction to all the jabs we've had since covid started. Meanwhile I've had a day or so of feeling fluey and generally a bit "off" with two of them.

[duskpeterson]

I get to have five vaccines this fall: shingles, pneumonia, flu, COVID, and shingles pt 2. I've loaded up on electrolyte water.

[watervole]

Sounds pretty horrible. Sleeping on something painful is always a nightmare.

Still, we'd bother rather have that than Covid, which I guess is the only upside.