Covid day 4

Glad you (OP) are doing better.

I had it back in Nov. just as I became eligible for the booster (which I had to delay).  It was super mild for me.  The only long lasting effect I have noticed so far is that I have completely lost my desire to eat bananas.

The 2 Pfizer shots and Moderna booster all had no effect other than a sore arm thankfully.

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

I'm curious if your booster was the current Moderna batch (regardless of what your initial vaccination was). 

I am a 100% Moderna bro.  Not certain on batch numbers.  

I am sick. Negative test. Probably just kid #4s head cold. Having to delay booster until better.

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

I am sick. Negative test. Probably just kid #4s head cold. Having to delay booster until better.

3/3 of my household have a bad head cold right now, going on a week or so. Kiddo has a cough to go with it, but 2 pediatricians (one we saw in a visit, and our neighbor in the same group who we were talking to while walking the dog) both said not to test her since there was no fever and she's acting normally. 

My wife was exposed at work (though all masked); she's been tested 3 times in the last week and keeps coming up negative. 

We're just hoping we can avoid it until kiddo gets her vaccine, hopefully by March. We're considering holding her out of daycare for the first 2 weeks after Christmas (only one week of daycare).

Some rotten cold or something has been tearing through our house. Negative tests for covid, strep, and rsv. I was supposed to get a colonoscopy tomorrow, but had to cancel because our 1 yo get very very bad diarrhea from the antibiotics he got for an ear infection. So much liquid nasty flowing. I e had 4 hours sleep in the last 48. I think he's on the mend, finally.

mtn said:

93gsxturbo said:

I just got my booster yesterday and this knocked me down worse than anything....

.....I got the booster since I have  two vacations coming up and I dont want to have any issues.  Didnt get knocked down like this on the regular jabs.  

This has been super interesting to me, the extremely varied reactions to the different shots. My wife had basically 4 hours total of feeling lousy from the 2nd jab, but was out for about 24 hours after the booster. I was out for 24 hours of just being exhausted after the second jab; the booster made me slightly tired but I basically just went to bed earlier than normal (also got the flu shot at the same time). My parents had a full dose booster (oops - it was a rogue pharmacist who misunderstood the approvals) and Mom got knocked out after having no reaction to the first jabs. Dad got knocked out after the 2nd, but no impact from the 3rd. EDIT: All original and booster jabs described here were Moderna......

I have some more data points on this.  I am all Moderna, my wife and wifes nephew (younger) are all Pfiser, shots taken in the afternoon (to hopefully allow effects to hit during the night sleeping)

1st shot:  Sore arm for me a, minor sore arm for her and nephew.

2nd shot: Knocked me down for the full next day, with fever and achenes.  She was a bit tired and slept.  He was a bit ache during the day, got a strange boost of energy and could not sleep(!)

Booster:  Generally a bit ache and tired the next day.  She was destroyed the next day with fever and aches (much like my second dose).  Same reaction as above for the nephew.

Of note, the Moderna dose is 50ml, the Pfiser is 30ml.  The booster for Moderna is 25ml (I was happy to hear this based on my reaction to the second dose), Pfiser is a full 30ml.  So getting Moderna you get a LOT more "stuff".  Is it directly related to effect... I don't know (I am sure it is a little though).  Just based on my trend line, I would expect similar reactions to any future full or half doses to be the same as my 2nd and booster.

What does all this mean?  In general I have no idea, just another in a long line of rather important questions no one seems to ask or answer.  Is the large reaction a good thing?  What does it indicate?  It "seems" like in our case, with enough "stimulation" the immune system eventually goes turbo.  Does a strong reaction mean you have a strong defense to the virus if you get it, or you will you react badly?  This would be REALLY nice to know!!

Elderly people (reduced immune system) seem to have almost to reaction.  Younger people do not seem to have any stronger reaction or even as strong as I had (that I have heard of)   ???????????

In reply to aircooled :

Yeah, I don't think that there is going to be any conclusion anyone will be able to draw from all of this. Side note: I don't consider a sore arm for a day or two a side effect of the vaccine, because it is realistically a side effect of putting a needle into your muscle. You'd get a similar impact from just about anything, likely even saline. Definitely worth noting though. 

Wife just found out that a patient of hers (J+J, no booster) was positive. We'll probably not be on any kind of quarantine, because she got a rapid test and its already come back negative, and she's also been double masking for the past week (KN-95 and surgical)

My recommendation is to hydrate like you are running a marathon the day before and of the shot.  Night and day difference for me between shot #1 (very sore and yuck feeling the following day) and no effects from #2 and booster.  Whether or not it actually helps, it certainly won't hurt.

I would say to be careful out there. My son had what sounded like a mild sinus infection and headache for a few days that turned out to be COVID. And I had a PCR test (in preparation for a surgery scheduled later that week) that came back positive last week less than 24 hours after testing negative on a rapid test. It looks like I caught it from my son.  

When I went for the 2nd test where I tested positive I had no symptoms, everything started later that day with a slightly scratchy (not sore) throat and some minor  congestion.  It never felt worse than a mild sinus infection + low-grade fever (minus losing my sense of smell a few days in).  Thankfully, I seemed to get a mild case and have recovered well so far (no fever for a few days, oxygen levels look good).

It's ripping through our area (South West CT) right now, and it seems to be hitting the vaxed, vaxed and boosted, and unvaxed all the same. 

So my advice is that if you have any kind of cold, do yourself a favor and get tested, especially ahead of seeing friends/family for the holidays. Hopefully it's nothing, but I'm glad I knew what I was going to be fighting before I even had symptoms!

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

I'm wondering if all of the mutations on Omicron make it harder to pick up on rapid tests?

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

I'm wondering if all of the mutations on Omicron make it harder to pick up on rapid tests?

I was reading an article this morning that asked the same question. The summary was that the rapid tests pick up Omicron just fine. We tested my son right after my positive test with a rapid test, and he showed as positive, as well.

I think the actual numbers are higher than what's being reported, as the big difference this year is that you can test at home, and the results don't necessarily get rollled up into the official numbers. 

dj06482 (Forum Supporter) said:

 

I think the actual numbers are higher than what's being reported, as the big difference this year is that you can test at home, and the results don't necessarily get rollled up into the official numbers. 

You might be right, but I would guess the opposite.  There is a LOT more testing going on now then last year (some are tested multiple times a week).  Heck, one of the primary reasons they even know Omicron exists is because of testing people in the hospital for non life threatening illnesses and noticed it.  I suspect, last year, a lot of mild and non-symptomatics slipped though.

You are correct though, a lot of people with simple cold symptoms will be testing, but almost certainly not reporting anything.

aircooled said:

What does all this mean?  In general I have no idea, just another in a long line of rather important questions no one seems to ask or answer.  Is the large reaction a good thing?  What does it indicate?  It "seems" like in our case, with enough "stimulation" the immune system eventually goes turbo.  Does a strong reaction mean you have a strong defense to the virus if you get it, or you will you react badly?  This would be REALLY nice to know!!

Elderly people (reduced immune system) seem to have almost to reaction.  Younger people do not seem to have any stronger reaction or even as strong as I had (that I have heard of)   ???????????

You may not have heard about it, but people have certainly been asking those questions and running trials to find the answer. 

So far, side effects from the vaccine appear to have absolutely no relationship with efficacy. Meaning, someone who has no side effects will not have any worse protection than somebody who has a really hard time with side effects (sorry)

Nobody in my family had any side effects, we had all Pfizer doses and boosters. I had a few coworkers who had a rough go of it, mostly younger folks in their twenties. 

edit: and I should point out, the fact that vaccine side effects vary widely is kind of expected, it's par for the course in many medications. I have patients on Chemo who have an absolutely horrible time of side effects, and others who sail through and you'd never know they were getting chemo. 

Pfizer shots here 6 months ago and now with Moderna booster received yesterday. I was fine next day with Pfizer both times and had no effects other than a slight sore arm. 24 hours later I am getting whupped on the Moderna booster. My shot arm hurts like hell to move in any direction, slept poorly due to constant feeling of being cold and being unable to sleep on my side. No appetite and I am constantly drinking water. Head feels woozy from time to time. No cough or running nose. Just freaking cold. 

Tuesday update: Went back to work today. I feel ok, but still coughing up junk. Talking to some others who have had it, it appears the cough and congestion can hang on for a while.  But, I did see a number of my customers today, had great sales and drove nearly 200 miles. All in all a very good day.

In reply to Don49 (Forum Supporter) :

That's great to hear. 

Don49 (Forum Supporter) said:

Tuesday update: Went back to work today. I feel ok, but still coughing up junk. Talking to some others who have had it, it appears the cough and congestion can hang on for a while.  But, I did see a number of my customers today, had great sales and drove nearly 200 miles. All in all a very good day.

Glad to hear!

Day 4 after shot 3 and my arm still hurts, the rest of me feels a lot better. I was in class yesterday and hammering coffee just to keep my head off the desk.  Got winded climbing the stairs still, didnt go ride my MTB.

It is encouraging to hear someone recovering. I started feeling crappy last Friday. Saturday I was down for the count. I did a rapid home test that came back positive for Covid. I have been slowly, incrementally getting better each day. The flu followed by a cold is the best description I have heard for what it has been like.

Everyone please take care o themselves.

aircooled said:

Of note, the Moderna dose is 50ml, the Pfiser is 30ml.  The booster for Moderna is 25ml (I was happy to hear this based on my reaction to the second dose), Pfiser is a full 30ml.  So getting Moderna you get a LOT more "stuff". 

 

Those numbers are not accurate.

0.5ml is the proper number.

In good practice, you never administer more than 1ml volume via an injection. 25 or 30ml is way, way too much volume for an IM injection of any sort.

Type Q said:

The flu followed by a cold is the best description I have heard for what it has been like.

 

Everyone please take care o themselves.

This was a very good description of my course of symptoms as well, with 10 days of Taste/Smell loss starting after the flu symptoms...

In reply to aircooled :

I am not expert in immunobiology I got the pfizer vaccine and reacted 3 times (2 plus booster). Before getting the booster I did contract Covid and was sick for 18 days (I have immune issues). I have had a high exposure rate recently to covid because several people at work contracted it. I have been tested and have had no symptoms so I have been lucky or maybe the vaccine and masks are doing there job. I wonder if there is a relationship of feeling the side effects to shots in general. For example I get the flu shot every year, typically I have side effects, that last 1 to 3 days, they are very mild. I know studies like these would take time but it would be interesting. My dad on the other hand who has medical issues does not have any side effects, but my mom does. Perhaps it's passed down trait?

Thursday update: After working 2 days I came home and basically slept for 14 hours. I feel ok today, but still have congestion and some coughing. I will take things easy until after the weekend and then back to work.

I'm 2.5 months out and still don't have taste or smell back to any real percentage. I get a whiff here and there and every once in awhile I'll be able to fully taste something. It sucks but, hey, I'm alive.

Christmas and the cough is almost gone. Best present ever!

Merry Christmas Don!