Note: I’m under a physician’s care, called my doctor this morning, she said not to worry unless it goes on more than a week or is accompanied with fever, nausea, etc. So don’t sweat it.
I got the second shot in the Gardasil (the HPV vaccine) series Wednesday, and it still hurts like a bitch. I kept waking up last night because I kept rolling onto that shoulder, and it still hurts. This isn’t something that’s happened to me with other vaccines. So I wanted to know, what causes that? Why are some vaccines more sore than others (tetanus being the big one?) Is it the location of the shot? Something in the shot? Does it have anything to do with live versus killed vaccine? What’s all going on here, exactly, precisely?
And is there anything I can do to minimize discomfort - heat, cold, acetaminophen versus ibuprofin, etc? In other words, what is it? Is it swelling? Something else?
“Pain at the injection site is common with HPV vaccine, occurring in about 8 people in 10.” http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-hpv.pdf
All vaccines work by provoking an immune response with white cells drawn to the injection site. Whe the white cells get there, they clean up the antigen(s) they find (just as they would clean up the bacteria or viruses causing a natural infection) and they release various chemicals that cause the well known signs of inflammation: pain, swelling, warmth, and redness. (Of course, you don’t seen the redness or feel the warmth if the injection is deep into muscle, as most vaccinations are.) So basically, the pain and tenderness you feel is like the pain you feel with a big zit or an infected sliver, the result of an immune response. The reason some shots cause more pain than others has to do with the nature and extent of the immune response they elicit and your individual reaction to the particular antigen(s) in the shot. Acetominophen or ibuprofen ought to help decrease the pain and tenderness.
I think typhoid shots are a lot worse than tetanus shots.
A co-worker of mine go the HPV vaccine and was told that soreness is a common side effect. I know from experience this happens with some flu shots too: soreness and redness at the injection site. For me it took a couple of days to stop bothering me, but it also woke me up if I rolled over onto my sore shoulder at night.
I think the soreness is mostly caused by the muscles being pierced by the needle (causing localized tears in the muscle fiber), plus irritation of having the fluid from the vaccine forced through it in a really localized way while trying to provoke a response from your immune system*.
So it hurts a little more than the soreness from working out (caused by microscopic tears in the muscle fibres) but not as much as a pulled muscle (bigger tears, grade III strains are rippy-rippy-owie-owie!).
You could probably call your doctor’s office and ask if an anti-inflammatory like Advil would help. I usually treat my flu shot site the same way I do minor strains. I leave it alone or ice it if it really ticks me off.
Keep an eye on it though. Sometimes people have allergic reactions to the medium that carries the vaccine. One flu shot season they were refusing to vaccine people who were allergic to eggs because there was some egg derivative in the shot.
Normal soreness and swelling goes down in a couple of days.
ETA: *The vaccine is supposed to irritate your body and get the immune system juices flowing.