I got part one of my 2-part Covid-19 vaccine today (about 9 hours ago). I was expecting to feel at least some of the common side-effects. The only one that even comes close is a very mild soreness at the injection site. I don’t even feel it unless I touch it.
But I can ignore that because I actually feel really good right now. Better than usual. I should be getting tired and ready for bed, but instead I’m alert and have a general feeling of well-being. I imagine some of that is general relief about having taken an important step in preventing this unpredictable disease. Maybe that’s all that it is.
I know there’s already a poll in this forum about reactions, but it doesn’t list feeling great as an electable option. Anyone else experience this? I know I may be singing a different tune in the morning, but I find it remarkable right now.
I got that on day 3 of the second round of Moderna. The day of the injection was nothing but a sore arm, day 2 sucked but was not the worst, day 3 I felt on top of the world.
I’ve read (maybe in that reaction forum you mention) that temporary symptoms of a racing heart and sleeplessness have been experienced. Just a WAG, but maybe there’s sometimes an adrenaline response in the body while reacting to a foreign substance, you’re having a mild version of that, and you’re interpreting it as feeling great, like someone who did a little speed or a line of coke.
Or, more likely, it’s just a mental psychological boost from having done a positive thing and from looking forward to seeing a light at the end of this pandemic tunnel.
A sore arm for a day, but that didn’t even come close to the amount of relief I felt that after more than a year the beginning of the end was finally here.
I also felt unusually good the night after my first shot. Maybe it’s due to the adrenaline response hypothesized by @solost . It didn’t happen after the second one, though.
I’m going to suggest a sideways version of the placebo effect. While the vaccine is not a placebo, the positive feelings described here mirror a classic placebo effect.
Both of these make sense. I have no doubt that the boost is at least partly, of not mostly, psychological. I actually felt that expulsion of tension in my muscles as the needle was going in. I’ve experienced that before when a burden of one kind or another was lifted, but I did not expect the prolonged energy and undarkened thoughts.
As a follow-up, I had to force myself to go to sleep around 3AM. I was still feeling great and didn’t want to turn in. Thought I’d be miserable all day today, but while I’m not feeling the euphoria, I’m also not feeling terrible, even with the several glasses of wine that helped me celebrate. We’ll see how round two goes.
Got my first shot yesterday and feeling kinda bleh today, actually. Not unexpected of course. And not feeling horrible, or anything, just have an extra sweater on because I feel like I have a very slight fever.