Post-Vaccination shot 2, Days 2 and 3
Mar. 17th, 2021 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneYesterday was better than day 1. I still had a slightly elevated temperature, but it didn't break 99. Now, a lot of people would say that 99 doesn't merit consideration, but by the thermometer that I was getting 99-99.4 on, my normal is 97.1. So I was feeling pretty crummy at 99.4! And you never know how well calibrated these inexpensive consumer thermometers are.
Monday I never recorded my temperature above 99.4.
So I left work an hour early Monday, got home about 4:30, and slept for about 4 hours. Had some fish sticks, went to bed. Got a good night of sleep.
Tuesday, got up with the hope and intent of going to work, but quickly disabused myself of that notion. Temperature of 99.1, still feeling lousy. I texted the library director. Three of us are permanent employees: we usually have 4 FTEs (actually 3.5) but one retired at the end of '19 and hasn't (and may never) be replaced. We rotate "working" from home one week in three, and this week it's the director's week at home, last week was my week.
I asked her if she had any reaction to her second shot - she got hers Saturday. She's also 'complicated' - diabetes, in addition to another thing or two. She had a bit of a fever and chills on Sunday but was fine Monday. After I described what I was going through, she offered to come in and cover for me, she had paperwork in her office that she needed to attack. I accepted her offer.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays are our weakest coverage. We only have two permanent people in because of our rotation, which is to minimize our virus exposure. We only have two student work-studies working in the library because of budget cuts, and neither of them are in on Tuesday and one is in only 3-5pm on Wednesday. While our library isn't super busy (gate count averaged 31 people first two days this week), I don't like just one person being here alone all day without a break.
I figured I would be at least good enough to come in for a couple of hours to cover my co-worker's lunch and maybe an hour, but if the director could do the day, all the better. As it was, I had breakfast, brushed my teeth, and slept on the couch for about 3 hours.
I needed it.
All told, my temperature continued dropping yesterday and this morning was back down to the low 97s! I was quite happy. I feel not quite 100%, but so much better than Monday that it's one of those night and day comparisons.
So my advice BEFORE you get your second shot: rest up for a couple of days BEFORE. If you're by yourself or the primary cook for your household, either have meals prepared in advance or a plan for ordering. I'd suggest high-protein and easy-prep. While I've had the shakes, I also have a neuro problem that's triggered by illness, so I don't think that really counts as a symptom, but if you have essential tremors, it could be significant for you. I would also plan on 2-3 days of doing nothing afterwards, but symptoms might not manifest for a day. So if you can, get your first shot on a FRIDAY. And you might have no reaction to the second shot at all!
It's a total crap shoot as to how you'll react to the second dose. I hope you have a very mild reaction. I think mine came somewhere in the middle of the mild and anaphylactic/requires hospitalization/death scale.
Monday I never recorded my temperature above 99.4.
So I left work an hour early Monday, got home about 4:30, and slept for about 4 hours. Had some fish sticks, went to bed. Got a good night of sleep.
Tuesday, got up with the hope and intent of going to work, but quickly disabused myself of that notion. Temperature of 99.1, still feeling lousy. I texted the library director. Three of us are permanent employees: we usually have 4 FTEs (actually 3.5) but one retired at the end of '19 and hasn't (and may never) be replaced. We rotate "working" from home one week in three, and this week it's the director's week at home, last week was my week.
I asked her if she had any reaction to her second shot - she got hers Saturday. She's also 'complicated' - diabetes, in addition to another thing or two. She had a bit of a fever and chills on Sunday but was fine Monday. After I described what I was going through, she offered to come in and cover for me, she had paperwork in her office that she needed to attack. I accepted her offer.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays are our weakest coverage. We only have two permanent people in because of our rotation, which is to minimize our virus exposure. We only have two student work-studies working in the library because of budget cuts, and neither of them are in on Tuesday and one is in only 3-5pm on Wednesday. While our library isn't super busy (gate count averaged 31 people first two days this week), I don't like just one person being here alone all day without a break.
I figured I would be at least good enough to come in for a couple of hours to cover my co-worker's lunch and maybe an hour, but if the director could do the day, all the better. As it was, I had breakfast, brushed my teeth, and slept on the couch for about 3 hours.
I needed it.
All told, my temperature continued dropping yesterday and this morning was back down to the low 97s! I was quite happy. I feel not quite 100%, but so much better than Monday that it's one of those night and day comparisons.
So my advice BEFORE you get your second shot: rest up for a couple of days BEFORE. If you're by yourself or the primary cook for your household, either have meals prepared in advance or a plan for ordering. I'd suggest high-protein and easy-prep. While I've had the shakes, I also have a neuro problem that's triggered by illness, so I don't think that really counts as a symptom, but if you have essential tremors, it could be significant for you. I would also plan on 2-3 days of doing nothing afterwards, but symptoms might not manifest for a day. So if you can, get your first shot on a FRIDAY. And you might have no reaction to the second shot at all!
It's a total crap shoot as to how you'll react to the second dose. I hope you have a very mild reaction. I think mine came somewhere in the middle of the mild and anaphylactic/requires hospitalization/death scale.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-17 10:58 pm (UTC)I dug through my clothes to see if I had anything green. (Almost all my clothes are purple.) The only thing I found that had any trace of green on it was my Snake Discovery (my favorite YouTube channel) t-shirt, that has a green snake on it.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-18 12:02 am (UTC)It was totally unplanned, but I did wear a green shirt today. Had I been thinking about it, I would have chosen a different color. Maybe orange. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2021-03-18 12:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-18 12:27 am (UTC)Oh, I'd be VERY careful where I'd wear such a shirt! And down here it would make no diff. Plus, I don't own any orange clothing.
I know a joke from a time of The Troubles. A reporter was walking down a street in a dangerous neighborhood late at night when he shouldn't have been out and passes by a dark alley and hears the sound of the hammer of a gun being cocked and a voice says "Be ye a Catholic or be ye a Protestant?" Knowing he had a 50/50 chance of getting shot, he fell to his knees and started crying "Oh, lord please help this poor Jew boy!" The man in the alley started laughing, uncocked the gun and said "Go home, lad."
no subject
Date: 2021-03-18 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-18 03:29 pm (UTC)Best of luck to you! I hope everything goes smoothly. Sounds like you've got a good plan to minimize disruptions.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-18 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-19 05:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-19 03:05 pm (UTC)Yup! And in two weeks I can drive up to Albuquerque and maybe swing by the Bosque Apache wildlife sanctuary and see if there's anything worth taking pix of! And soon to Phoenix!
no subject
Date: 2021-03-24 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-24 06:27 pm (UTC)I wanted Pfizer but got Moderna. They’re both mRNA, so fundamentally similar tech. For the first shot, nothing more than arm soreness for a couple of days, but the second shot definitely was a bit of a doozy for a couple of days! But everyone is different, you may have no reaction, or it could be literally two weeks later. Very hard to predict.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-24 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-24 09:09 pm (UTC)The Pfizer vaccine was developed without Operation Warp Speed money by a German company, BioNTech, by Turkish immigrant biochemists. I like the story. That’s it. They put a lot of work into researching mRNA attacks against cancer, very successfully, too.