I am having a grumpy morning. Part of that is due to Carla having a surprise! day off of school (think broken furnace, frozen pipes kind of reason) when she was just off for FIVE CONSECUTIVE DAYS and part of it is that I got some feedback that was honest and thoughtful and nonetheless hurt my feelings and made me question my life choices and part of it is that I still don’t feel great after my booster.
I am going to tell you about my booster, for blog-record-keeping purposes, and for your own anecdotal-data collection purposes. But I want to be clear that I am GLAD I got my booster, and that a robust immune response is supposedly A Good Sign, so I am not complaining (well, a little) but instead reporting. I got my booster Sunday afternoon. I arrived at the pharmacy 15 minutes before my appointment, which is when I realized that I forgotten my vaccine card. (I did this with my second vaccine; now I have THREE vaccine cards SIGH.) The pharmacist was unfazed by my lack of physical vaccine card; I told her I had a photo of it on my phone and she was fine with that. She had me sit in a VERY little cubicle. She asked which arm I wanted and told me it was okay to take Tylenol later if I needed it; she said she’d gotten feedback that most people have a sore arm and feel a little achy starting about 6 to 8 hours post-booster. She injected me with the booster, applied a bandaid, and said goodbye.
I got the Moderna booster; my vaccines were Pfizer. By ten p.m.-ish I was starting to feel a little yucky, but that could have been the power of suggestion or the beginning of a long-weekend hangover. When I woke up Monday morning, I felt awful – achy and tired and shivery and off. My arm was very sore. My glands were swollen and painful to the touch. I had a fever of 100.9, so I took some Tylenol, fed Carla and drove her to school, and returned home and climbed into bed. I sleep for about an hour, but when I woke up, I stayed in bed, feeling yuckier and yuckier. At 2:30, I had a temperature of 101.7. When I picked up Carla, I felt so bad waiting in the car line that I kept running through little worst-case scenarios: would I pull over into the nearby parking spaces? Was my in-case-of-emergency friend still in the car line herself, so I could ask her to get Carla for me? Would we both get into her car? Did I have an extra booster seat? Did I have a mask? When I got home my temperature was 103.3, so I looked up whether I could take ibuprofen (the pharmacist had specified Tylenol, so I wasn’t sure). The CDC said I could take any NSAID, so I took some Advil and got back into bed. My bones and joints hurt. My skin stung – even the feeling of the fabric of my sweatshirt sliding over my stomach made me flinch. My eyes hurt. My neck and kidneys ached. I kept waiting for the time to switch over to 24 hours post vaccine, hoping either for the miraculous relief of my symptoms ending or for the sweet release of death. Neither came for me. As the night wore on, I felt slightly better. My skin stopped hurting, for instance. My fever was down to 100.6 when I went to bed
Today I feel MUCH better. My glands are still tender, but not quite as swollen. The site of the injection still hurts, both to the touch and with movement, but it’s not unbearable. My back hurts – but that could be from lying in bed all day. My head hurts and I feel a little wobbly. But no fever. My bones and skin are back to their normal state of only vocal when directly injured.
AND – most important – I am BOOSTED.
Carla gets her second vaccine in a few days (I set a reminder on my phone to remember her vaccine card!), and I am so excited for all of us to be vaccinated and boosted. It will be such a relief. And, frankly, even if we have to get boosted every six months and I have to have a day of yuck twice a year, it will be 100% worth it for the dip in Covid-anxiety I have enjoyed each time one of my family members has received a shot.
Now, onto dinners this week.
Dinners for the Week of November 30-December 6
- Honey-Dijon Pork Tenderloin with Sautéed Peas and Quinoa
- Baked Lemon Garlic Cod with Sweet and Spicy Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts
- Roasted Lemon Dijon Chicken with Asparagus and Potatoes
- Balsamic Chicken and Mushrooms with Everyday Salad
- Thai Sweet Chili Salmon with Steamed Broccoli
- Leftovers
- Takeout
What are you eating this week?
So being in the trial, I have been boosted twice. The first one was miserable. Everything you said, I don’t think I’ve ever felt that poorly in my life outside of the time I had real flu for a week. But my second booster was fine. It was like my body had filled up on antibodies with the first three shots and was like “oh, more of the same, we will file it over here, no need to overreact.” So if you ever do need another (and I very much doubt this will be an every six months forever situation), ideally it will be no big deal. I didn’t feel great but I went about my daily life as opposed to trying not to move and wishing for death.
Congratulations on getting boosted! Two of my kids got their second shots yesterday. The sense of relief is ridiculous. They still don’t understand that it doesn’t mean they get to go to school mask-less, but i feel so much better about all the times I’m not there to be their mask enforcer.
And I would have been SOOO grumpy about it if they had been home from school again this close to their Thanksgiving break.
I’m sorry you felt so bad, but so glad you are boosted!
I didn’t get a booster and my kids had school, but yesterday was definitely a grumpy day for me. I couldn’t even put my finger on it specifically – just general unease with renovations going on (always stressful for me), so complicated work dynamics I just don’t know how to read (are people mad at me/avoiding me, or am I 100% reading way more into the sudden lack of communication from certain people than I should be), and I think some normal hormonal swings.
I took a long nap, a long hot shower before bed, watched some GBBO after the kids were in bed, and I feel about 1000x better today.
When I have those grumpy days I literally feel like I will never do another productive thing in my entire life and that I’ll stay in pajamas and let my hair grow down to my knees because I don’t have energy for anything. And then I realize I’m sleep deprived or need to cry…and then I wake up one day or the next and just get back to normal. But seriously – every time I feel like I will never not be grumpy with the world again.
Yay for boosters. They have just approved the vaccine for kids here in Canada, and most adults (young/healthy) aren’t eligible for a booster yet. We’ll see what happens…sigh.
Yay for the booster! Boo for feeling so crappy! You have every right to be grumpy. I had the Moderna originally and felt really bad for two days afterwards – am not looking forward to my booster next week.
I’m so sorry you had after-affects but…YAY you are boosted!!! We are hoping to get our boosters soon. I didn’t have any identifiable after-affects with the two Pfizer shots but I did have a significant psoriasis outbreak after the second shot…which I’m just now getting under control. I have to wonder if the shots caused it; which makes me curious to see what happens after I am boosted. And even if there is another outbreak, YAY, I will be boosted!
I am SO tired of COVID…still masking and doing what I need to do but, holy cow, I am tired of the anxiety.
That honey-Dijon Pork sounds amazing!
Oh Suzanne, the side effects sound AWFUL but I am so glad you got yours done! I am going to do that very soon as well. My younger son has a COLD! If you can believe it. Our first cold since 2019, and I’m just waiting for it to go through the house. He’s on the wrestling team and they wrestle without masks for safety reasons, so I’m assuming that’s where he picked it up. So weird. Sneezing! Very 2019 🙂
Where was I going with that? Oh yes, I want to make sure I don’t have any cold symptoms before boosting.
Yay for Carla being vaccinated! YAYYYYY!! I’m sorry about your grumpy day though, may the week do nothing but improve!
This was my blog post after my first vaccine (AstraZeneca), where my aftereffects were similar to yours: https://bibliomama2.blogspot.com/2021/05/backsliding.html, in case you want commiseration. Go ahead and complain, it was DREADFUL, and yes, I was still happy as hell to be vaccinated. If you’re anything like me, big occasions like what I imagine American Thanksgiving to be often occasion a mood drop afterwards, so be gentle with yourself. I don’t know how you folks manage Big Thanksgiving right before having to get ready for Big Christmas.
Wow, I am so sorry you had a bad booster reaction! But yay for getting boosted.
The honey Dijon pork sounds great. I might give that a try. Coach and I fly to AZ on Friday so I’ve been making lots of food for the kids to eat now and have leftovers later. Cheesey chicken. Pizza casserole. Mozzarella chicken and pesto in the crock pot. Meatloaf.
Glad you are boosted but yikes those side effects bite. Today is the first time I heard that the booster is doing that to EVERYONE. And now I read this. Won’t deter me but I’m going to have to plan it out pretty well. Hope your grumpiness has faded.
The pork was excellent – will definitely make again.
Ughhhh, I am sorry that you had such a bad reaction to the booster. I am getting my booster on Friday afternoon, even though I am really not looking forward to the reaction. I got every single side effect one could get from the second shot and I was miserable for about two days. But there was something weirdly cool about seeing my immune system at work! I’m preparing myself for a very yucky weekend.
I’m sorry you had such a bad reaction. I’ve only had a sore arm and fatigue after the vaccine/booster.
We had salad and cauliflower cheese last night, basically cheese sauce on cauliflower, which is then baked. It’s a decent substitute for homemade mac-n-cheese. Night before was cheesy-broccoli-quinoa patties and carrots from the garden. Monday it was roasted Brussels sprouts and beets with applesauce and veggie sausage.