My Reactions to the Second Dose of Pfizer: 1 September 2021

With the first Pfizer dose, tiredness and a really sore shoulder kicked in the evening I got the shot. I had lethargy for most of the week.

With the second Pfizer does (this past Monday), I had a sore shoulder that evening and that seemed to be it. I thought (naively) that would be it.

Tuesday morning, I could barely get out of bed. My mind was mostly awake and alert but body was not complying. I was cold, and my shoulders, my upper back (spine), and hips were aching. I decided to take it easy, but got restless in bed, so took some ibuprofen and a hot shower, and I seemed mostly ok the rest of the day (except my heart rate was elevated and I would get those flesh-crawling feelings like fighting off a fever).

Tuesday night, my temperature was see-sawing, my skin would go flush and I’d be hot and then I’d be shivering, and I said to Noel I had to go to bed because I was tired and maybe I could sleep it off.

I started off with a t-shirt with a long-sleeved t-shirt over it, pajama bottoms, underwear, and bed socks because I had been shivering as I went to bed, but that got super hot (after being super cold) after getting into bed, so I took the shirts off after maybe 5 minutes.

I had popped some ibuprofen before I went to bed. In bed, my face was really flushed but I could feel that drain as the ibuprofen kicked in, which was a lovely relief.

I slept somewhat well but I kept waking up soaking wet and stuck to the bedsheets. It was so bad, in fact, my CPAP was dripping water due to the humidity my body was generating. (That has never happened before.)

This morning? I feel okay. Drained but okay.

The shot’s worth it, don’t get me wrong. And please go get your shots because they are better than the alternative of getting pretty sick with COVID. But when my parents, brother, and sister-in-law, and some friends said I’d have some rough patches the day after the second shot, they weren’t kidding!