Over this past week 5 of our siblings and their spouses have had their 2nd shots of AZ or Pfizer and none have reported any side effects other than a mildly sore arm for a day or 2.
The nurse tried to pinch my arm kind of hard before she gave me the jab - I don't have a lot of fat in that part of my arm and I'm small, so maybe she needed to pinch my arm hard enough to give it some height or what, I don't know... I've been jabbed so many times in the past, but I've never paid such close attention when I was getting a shot, so I don't know if this is something they do every time or not...
This is a different placement than, say, a flu shot, but your experience is exactly how it works. They inject deep into the muscle. The pinching helps make sure they are in the right area. And yes, the mildly overworked feeling is normal.
Oh good! Thanks for the assurance! The heavy arm feeling happened pretty much immediately after my shot, and I didn't see anybody mentioning any effect right after, so I thought it was just me. I think the hot/burning feeling spreading right after the injection, along with the heavy arm worried me a little, so thanks for your post! DH just came home after having received his first shot, and his injection site is pretty high up on his arm as well, which made me feel a bit relieved as well.
Yeah I think that's what people mean when they say they were sore. I found lifting my arm sideways above shoulder level, that's where it felt tight, kinda like maybe someone punched me there? And heavy overnight, but better the next day or so. And yes the jab entry is almost more the shoulder/delt muscle, high on the arm.
2nd shot was the exact same experience for me.
Moderna - the administration of the first vaccine did not hurt; but my arm really started to hurt that night; and I had an odd - temporary - side effect for a few hours that night. I felt as if I had fireworks going off in my body. That was scary. Thankfully, that went away and did not return. Thereafter tired and achy joints, and chills on off, for about a week. My arm swelled, and hurt for an entire month and made clicking and crunching noises. Yuck. I didn't want to go back for my second dose, but I did.
By way of background, I have to use the same arm for all vaccines and needles, and the arm took a lot of abuse over the past 14 months. Also, it took my arm a month to recover from each of the two Shingrex vaccines. It did not do that for the pneumonia vaccine.
The second dose for me was not as harsh as the first. I did not have the firework experience again; I did not have the chills; and the body aches were less. I've been a bit tired, did get a large bruise, and am typing this with an ice pack on my arm. Sigh . . .
DH got his first dose of Phizer. (We weren't able to go together because he was out of state helping with the grandchildren and he didn't want me to wait.)
DH had precisely, no side effects whatsoever.
I am very squeamish about shots, to the point where I have to constantly change the TV channel whenever they show people getting "stabbed," which is very frequent event on TV news shows.
This is why I firmly decided on getting only the J&J shot because, as I told my doctors during my recent "medical month," (a roughly one-month period where I see my doctors and get other medical services every 6 months), "if they're going to stab me, they only get to so it once."
So, last Friday, I made it to my local pharmacy and got the shot around 11 AM. It was quick and nearly painless. So far, so good. right? Wrong. Five minutes later, I felt dizzy, nauseous, and broke out in a cold sweat. Not wanting to pass out, after I took a Tums I made sure to take into the store with me, I got out of the chair and laid down on the floor for close to 10 minutes until I felt better enough to sit up again. No pharmacy staff saw me laying on the floor, although some some other customers did. I didn't seek any help. About 10 minutes later, I got up and left.
I felt okay for the next several hours, able to do some local errands for the next hour-plus. But more side effects awaited me that evening.
Around 7:30 PM, I suddenly had a bad bout of the chills including shaking chills. I also had a bad headache. I put on some warmer clothing and struggled through dinner before getting under the covers with my ladyfriend. I took some Tylenol every few hours and slept through the night okay. The chills didn't reappear although I had a headache through most of Saturday. By this morning, the headache went away.
Now you can see why I don't want any part of a 2-shot vaccine. Once was bad enough.
I am very squeamish about shots [...]
Five minutes later, I felt dizzy, nauseous, and broke out in a cold sweat. Not wanting to pass out, after I took a Tums I made sure to take into the store with me, I got out of the chair and laid down on the floor for close to 10 minutes until I felt better enough to sit up again.
That first part is not related to the vaccine itself but to the act of the injection. It's called the Vasovagal Syncope: https://www.healthline.com/health/vasovagal-syncope
Looks like you know how to address it with the Tums and the laying on the floor
I'd have difficulty claiming it was some kind of delayed reaction.
There are so many ways to crunch the data. Now I want to know how many long distance runners had bad side effects to the vaccines. And how many sedentary people, etc.
That first part is not related to the vaccine itself but to the act of the injection. It's called the Vasovagal Syncope: https://www.healthline.com/health/vasovagal-syncope
Looks like you know how to address it with the Tums and the laying on the floor
A coworker of mine nearly passed out during a first aid class when the instructor was describing how large a pool of blood can be made from a scalp wound. No pictures, just words. He started to say how so much blood could make some people faint, then poor coworker meekly raised his hand and said he was feeling faint. The instructor calmly helped him lie down and he was fine after a while. Doesn't take much sometimes.