Hey guys,

I hope you’re all doing alright. It’s winter in the northern hemisphere and an especially shitty one in the midwest United States where I live. We are absolutely buried in snow and as i type this it is -1 degree Fahrenheit (-18 C). I’m not blind to my blessings, but damn it if I'm not just blue and wanting to sleep all the fucking time. It’s my true hibernation period.

So this week I didn’t have anything prepared, officially. And rather than do a half-assed job for a great guest, I’m going solo this week.

I want to share my recent experience with getting my COVID-19 vaccination, so I’m going to read my journal to you (with some edits, of course). I have a lot of strong opinions about the COVID vaccine and the way my state and country are handling this ongoing pandemic, but this isn’t that kind of episode. This is just my personal vaccine experience.

As this blog goes on, I’ve added links I’d love for you to check out. Be sure to get clicking!

Tuesday, December 29th, 2020

Yesterday I got an email informing me it’s my turn to get one of the newly available COVID-19 vaccines. I get the first dose tomorrow morning, a couple of hours after my night shift ends. I want to take an opportunity to get some thoughts down about this and share my experience as it happens.

Since it’s now my turn I presume it means all our ICU staff have gotten theirs. This is good news as we are still seeing new cases of COVID in Iowa, even though we’re on the decline. I’m feeling a little cringey as we come upon the weeks following Christmas. I hope there’s not another spike after holiday travel and gatherings, but the possibility is there.

On a related side note, I am part of a new group of nurse podcasters who are recording roundtable-style podcasts - aptly named “The Nurse’s Roundtable”. Our first episode is about COVID-19 and the vaccine. In that episode, we all share how we feel about the vaccine and whether or now we each plan to take it when offered.

It was a really good show, and it included (besides myself)
Tina from Good Nurse, Bad Nurse
Sara and Amie from The Gritty Nurse Podcast
and Swardiq Mayanja AKA Q the Nurse with a YouTube channel of the same name
I’m so happy I can call them all my friends.

Please check out the video version of the podcast here or on your favorite podcast platform like Spotify.

Maybe this is silly but, I kinda hope I have some symptoms afterward so I have some sense that it’s working. That’s a silly thought after the high efficacy rates we’ve seen in trials, but it’s just how my brain is processing this right now. In reality, I would like to not feel like crap after either dose. I’m already a high risk for migraines. I am glad that I don’t have to return back to work after this first one. If I do have some residual soreness at the site, I can handle it in the comfort of my own home.

I have 2 hours between the time my shift ends and my vaccine appointment within the hospital. We also have a winter storm coming with lots of snow and shitty road conditions. I can’t be late for the appointment so there’s no messing around. If the roads are crap, I can’t really go anywhere and be back in time. I’ll probably take my time getting off the unit, grab a coffee, and hang out somewhere in the hospital where there’s not a lot of people.

I’ll need a second dose in twenty or so days, depending on which version I get. I hope it works out again that I'm scheduled to receive it on a day I don't have to come back to work.

Receiving a vaccine changes nothing about my current practices of mask-wearing, social distancing, and generally keeping my ass at home. We can’t relax until we reach about 60-70% vaccination rate to rely on herd immunity, according to recent news I've heard. With so many people doubting the safety of this vaccine and relying on conspiracy theories, it may take us a good while before we reach that point.

I’ll report back tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 30th, 2020 - Vaccine day - Dose 1

As I said above, I anticipated hitting up the vaccine clinic when my shift was over. Change of plans. I’ve had a particularly migraine-heavy month, and last night a bad one took me out. I didn’t work my shift - instead I took my migraine medications and suffered it out at home all night. Not wanting to lose my spot, this morning I dragged my ass out of bed and arrived at the hospital barely 10 minutes ahead of my appointment time only to discover there was a line about 50 staff members deep in a main corridor leading into an area of the hospital I had never been into before. Despite my headachy annoyance, the line moved quickly, but I was still in line for about 30 minutes. I had my usual post-migraine brain fog so I just zombied my way through the line without making much eye contact with anyone. The nurse giving my injection went through screening questions and gave me information about the kind of reaction I might expect and to stick around after the shot in case I had a reaction. They gave me the Pfizer mRNA vaccine and a date for my second shot on 1/21 at 8 am. My mood was much happier as I exited the vaccination area.

I stuck around the hospital for the 15 minutes they advised. I walked back out to the ramp where I had parked, across the street from the hospital, where I was parked at the top. I took a second to snap this awkwardly-framed selfie with the Iowa water tower logo before racing home to get back in bed. You get a better view of my saggy eye bags than my braggy band-aid on my arm. After I took this and posted it to Instagram, my besties texted me to tell me I was going to catch my death coatless in the freezing cold. (My car is blasting heat at me just out of frame!)

I had absolutely no reaction and as I type this almost 12 hours later, I don’t have any muscle soreness even. I’m back to work tomorrow night - curious to see if my wing hurts then. (Note from the future: It didn’t.)

Thursday, January 20, 2021 - 2nd Dose Day

My second dose was scheduled for January 20th between a 12- and an 8-hour shift. After I gave handoff to the day nurse, I left all my stuff in the locker room and went down to the vaccination area early. I was really happy to see that I was one of the first of the day with no waiting. I basically walked straight in and rolled up my sleeve.

Now, I’d like to quote my old internet pal Craig of Keep It Real RN and say that my first dose was given by a darter - and this second dose was given by a stabber. I felt every centimeter of that second needle go into my muscle. Be a darter, folks. No slow torturous stabs, please. Otherwise, I was in and out. I went back up to the unit, took my second historic selfie, got my shit, then walked out to my car as usual.

Friday, February 5th, 2021

I’m writing this follow-up weeks later, and all is well. After the second dose I got home, and initially felt fine. I didn’t take any analgesics; I just went about my normal routine and went to bed. I woke up with a mild headache, which hasn’t been that unusual for me lately. A few times while I was first waking up, I’d roll over and notice the soreness in my arm - strong enough that it’d make me rethink my position. I also had a low-grade fever of 37.9C (100.2F). As the afternoon went on, I got chills and really strong fatigue, like I’d been beat up. My headache turned into a migraine, but again, this is not unusual as of late, so I can’t say this is exclusively a result of the vaccine. I think that feeling like shit just triggered my already-low migraine threshold.

I avoided taking any Tylenol, not wanting to suppress the immune or fever response, especially since it was such a low fever anyway. I basically took my migraine meds and tried to sleep through it which was difficult. I did feel shitty enough to sign off from my shift at 11 pm that night.

I felt a lot of guilt, I just could not get myself into a standing position without feeling like my heart was pounding out my head and eyes.

The next day, I woke up with no fever, mild arm soreness, and way less fatigue. I took it easy, hydrated, did gentle stretching, and stayed home all day. The fever came back that afternoon for a few hours and then vanished for good. I’ve had no other symptoms since then.

I agreed to follow up with the CDC through their V-safe program wherein they text me and ask me to respond with my symptoms by clicking through a few questions with radio button answers. It was a daily check-in for a couple weeks and now it’s just weekly. It really is a minimal commitment to help them gather important data.

My Reflection

I have no regrets, and though I felt like crap for a day, COVID has done so much worse to the patients I’ve cared for these last many months. To be fair, migraines are not unusual for me and I can’t really attribute all of it to this vaccine, and I don’t want my experience to deter the general population from seeking the vaccine. I want to be completely honest, and that’s just what happened.

This is just my experience with the Pfizer Covid-19 mRNA vaccine. I encourage everyone to do evidence-based research and make this decision for themselves. If you are healthy and have no contraindications, I hope you’ll come to the conclusion to take the vaccine and become part of the herd immunity. We need as many people vaccinated as possible to help us stop the mass deaths caused by this pandemic.

Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your own experiences with the vaccine, but I am not here to receive your conspiracy theories about the efficacy or safety of the vaccine. There are plenty of other places on the web for that.

Stay healthy, everyone.

Featured