Urk. That was rough. I woke up in the middle of the night shivering. I dragged my down sleeping bag into bed, which solved that, but woke up again after about 3 hours overheated. Then i spent all yesterday in bed, tired and headachey.
I’m mostly better today.
I never have any adverse reactions to the jab.
Well, you’re very lucky. All my sympathy for those like @puzzlegal and my wife who have severe, but not dangerous reactions that linger for a few days. And a rueful thumbs up to people like my friend (who updated his on Monday during his lunch break) who get the 24-hour suckage and then it’s all done.
People with mild or no symptoms (like myself, like yourself) should be grateful to be lucky, and hope it’s not because our immune system is just sleeping on the job!
I got my Covid, flu, and pneumonia vaccination on Friday. No wait at CVS and no vaccination card, though they did add to the vaccination card the little old lady ahead of me brought. California has a vax record that can be downloaded to a phone, and it includes a QR code. That’s always sufficed if I’ve been asked for proof of vaccination.
Had the (almost expected now) usual reaction. By evening my arms were a little bit sore (not enough to keep me from sleeping on my side) and I was slightly feverish. Next day I just didn’t feel like doing anything but take naps. Back to 100% (or what passes for 100% at my age) the day after that.
I’ve settled into a semi-annual schedule for shots. I got my last one (sixth shot overall, fourth booster) in July. The pharmacist advised me that there’s likely going to be a new formulation later this year to better handle this winter’s projected variants, and waiting wouldn’t be the end of the world considering my history, but I was travelling in September and wanted as much in my arm as was allowed before then. So come January I’ll schedule my next one. A doctor friend suggested I ask for Novovax, but as long as whatever Pfizer is on the menu is up-to-date, I’m good with that.
We just came back from a pop-up clinic run by the provincial health authority; got flu and Covid.
No need for a specific vax card. It’s all online with our provincial health cards. They brought up our files to check.
They asked us what type vaccine we wanted; we said “whatever you’ve got”. Never have understood why some folks are so insistent on a certain vaccine.
Home now. No soreness.
Eh, different people have better/worse/no reactions to different options. My wife and I have done 2 pfizer, 1 moderna, 2 pfizer now. I have little to no reaction to pfizer (low fever and fatigue the next day) - but with Moderna it lasted twice as long, same intensity though.
With my wife, she feels near full-on flu symptoms starting 8-12 hours after a pfizer shot, with low fever, body aches, and exhaustion for 48 hours. And again, almost twice the duration for moderna (near on to 5 days). So she avoided getting any more of that option. 
But I’ve read people who’ve had the reverse. And most people have no or mild symptoms like myself. So yeah, there’s valid reasons for a preference, as long (IMHO) as it doesn’t prevent you from picking one.
I guess we’ve been lucky, then; never noticed any difference with the different vaccines.
Vive la difference! Seriously, whatever it takes to make people comfortable getting any (scientifically tested) vaccine to mitigate and prevent spread.
My flu arm is more tender than my Covid arm.
I got the Novavax and flu vaccines yesterday. Late last night both arms were slightly sore, with the flu shot arm being just a bit more sore. That makes sense, because I very recently had the flu.
I had Pfizer for my initial Covid series, then had Covid (delta), then had two Moderna boosters, then had Covid (omicron) again, now Novavax 2023-24.
Out of the Covid shots, Novavax has had by far the fewest side effects for me. Extremely sore arm for all of the previous ones, and feeling cruddy for 2-5 days.
I’ve been wanting to get Novovax for my most recent booster (shot number seven, booster number five) but here in Ontario, pharmacies don’t stock it. You have to book at some provincial site, which only has appointments one day a week each at clinics scattered throught the far reaches of the city, and it became a coordination nightmare. So I shrugged and got yet another Pfizer jab. At least it’s up to date withe variants. Maybe in the summer when I’m due for round eight, I’ll take a day off of work and make the trek for the Novovax.
Huh, i have a friend who got novavax because he could get it as a walk-in, and needed to make an appointment to get an mRNA vaccine. And this kinda makes sense, as you can keep novavax in the fridge for extended periods.
Out of curiosity, in what city is that? Here in Toronto, walking in gets you Pfizer or Moderna, by and large, though I assume AstraZeneca is still available if you hunt for it.
The friend lives in a town near St Petersburg, Florida, where demand for covid vaccines is low.
I got novavax as a walk-in here in the northeastern US, but i could easily have gotten an mRNA vaccine, too. I waited for novavax to become available because I’d gotten all the others that had been approved in the US (pfizer, j&j, and moderna, long story) and decided it would be fun to complete the set. Also, it came on the market just about when i wanted to be vaccinated.
I just got my Spring booster this morning. I’m lucky. I’ve had very few and minor reactions. The worst reactions I ever had were to the shingles vaccine. My sister was sick nearly a week the last time she got her Covid booster. Hopefully, I’ll continue lucky!
That’s really good to hear.
I’ve put off getting my recommended booster because my reaction to all the vaccines has been so miserable. Like you, for me it’s at least 3 days of awfulness: Chills, fever, sore joints, sore muscles, headache, nausea. Plus the sore arm. Each reaction is a little more severe than the last.
I was going to get Novavax until I learned it’s a 2-shot series. My reasoning was that if the side effects are as severe for me as Pfizer and Moderna, then I’d have to endure them twice. But your experience is reassuring that if I opt for Novavax, two shots may actually be less harrowing than just the one! Thanks for sharing.
It’s two shots for an initial vaccination. It’s just one for a booster, just like the mRNA vaccines.
Like @puzzlegal says, it’s only 2 shots if it’s your initial vaccination. Some people, as we know, held out on getting vaccinated at all until they could get the conventionally made, non-DNA scrambling, non magnetizing, non-tracker version. /sarcasm.