After relatively minor side effects from the first COVID-19 shot in March, the second dose last Thursday laid both Amy and me down for the weekend with soreness, fever, rash, and other symptoms that are now starting to fade, four days after the shot.
All I had from the first show was soreness in my right arm, the one vaccinated. Amy had some swollen lymph nodes and other symptoms.
Shot number two last Thursday at the Dedmon Center at Radford University went into my left arm (because the shot was delivered while I sat in the driver’s seat of our car). It was sore that night and on Friday morning, along with other sore areas, but in a body where pain is a constant, I wasn’t sure what was COVID or otherwise.
By the football game between Floyd and Bassett Friday night, I had developed a headache, the first one I’ve had since leaving the hospital nearly two months as a patient after the motorcycle-cow encounter.
With no headaches for more than eight years, I wondered if my closed-head brain injury from the crash had somehow blocked such pains.
The second shot of the COVID-19 vaccine ended that thought. During the game, I tired more easily than normal and was exhausted afterward. Saturday brought more pain and a rash that spread over both arms, my chest, and elsewhere, along with new pains in places that I didn’t know existed.
Both of us had fever Saturday and Sunday. Amy has migraines as a matter of course, but the ones she suffered over the weekend were far worse. Her throat tightened and she had trouble breathing. Phone calls said symptoms were consistent with some who have had the second shot. They would, they promised, subside.
Monday morning showed the rash fading and less pain. I still have a headache. Amy has a worse one.
Tuesday is day five after the shot and that is the time when it is supposed to provide full protection to an estimated 94-96 percent of us.
Monday’s reports from the Virginia Department of Health showed a sharp drop in hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 over the weekend. Floyd County, however, reported six new cases — higher than the 1-4 new ones in recent days.
Hopefully, our symptoms from shot two will be gone by Tuesday.
We will, however, continue to wear masks and practice social distancing but we suspect the rise in infections in Floyd County comes from those who aren’t.
That has been, and remains, a problem.
1 thought on “Side effects from the second COVID-19 vaccine shot”
Sorry for the pain and suffering, Doug. You didn’t mention which vaccine this was. I’ve had both vaccinations with Pfizer and was, I guess, a lot luckier in the side-effect department. Either that or the needle missed me. Hope you’re all better Tuesday…
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