On Thursday April 29th, I went and got my second Covid-19 vaccine. It was a far different experience for me in the sense of well being after. It also affected my blogging and would love to give some updates about that here as well at the end

The Vaccine.

I went to a local CVS at the call of my local county department saying that I was ready for my second dose. I went and of course got the same type of vaccine as it was a follow up and got the second dose of the Moderna. I had heard from friends and fellow vtubers on twitter that it was going to be ok and that it wouldn’t be bad. I was worried because we had a family friend who, after the first vaccine she was ok, went to get her second Moderna and went into cardiac arrest. I, of course being an anxious person in general, was worried. I had many dissuade my worries and told me it would all be fine but that I may be sick the first day or two.

As far as procedure, it was very by the book as expected. I showed up with my vaccination card, they took my temperature, and had me wait for my turn. After having been called back it was super quick; they immediately swabbed my arm and inserted the needle all within about a minute and that was it. The easiest part of the vaccine was over and they had me wait 15 minutes to observe possible side effects and recommended I take Tylenol if I get any symptoms. With all that done and the assurance I got from some friends that I would be fine I was ready to leave. But how did I feel each day? Let’s explore that.

The same day as the vaccine.

I felt great. I felt as I had before I went in for the shot and I was expecting that after a couple of hours I would start to feel the arm pain that came with the first vaccine. The first dose left my arm almost unusable for about 4 days, with gradual movement without severe soreness each day that passed. Not for this vaccine I had felt no arm pain in the slightest and was feeling great. I did however, take it easy as I was told this one could get worse so I ate lighter foods and stay hydrated with Netflix on in the background. It wasn’t until about 11 p.m when I usually go to bed that it hit me and it came swinging hard.

Once it hit me at about 11 I immediately took some Nyquil to lessen the symptoms that I got to try and sleep but it wasn’t enough. The Nyquil did not put me to sleep and I was up until the dreaded 3 a.m. The symptoms were so strong that I was unable to sleep from how uncomfortable I was. I had considered taking a cold bath which I had seen recommended to ease the symptoms but I felt that sleep was right around the corner each and every hour that passed by. What symptoms were so bad that I was stuck awake? Let me list them out for you:

• Headache, to the degree it felt like a migraine. It was intense thundering pain that I could not shake for the life of me.
• Chills, to the point that I was shaking uncontrollably. I bundled up so much even though in my room at that time it was 79 degrees, and told myself that I am ok and the shivering will pass. My hands were ice cold when pressed to my face.
• Fever, this made sleeping through the night after 3 a pain. I would wake up after having bundled up so much that my bed was drenched in sweat and I was on fire. I felt that I had no conceivable way to cool down and stripped down what I worked so hard to bundle up. I would have a cycle of being too cold and too hot all through the night. meaning I never properly slept off the Nyquil.
• nausea, which is self explanatory and never fun. I was having to consider running to the bathroom to vomit or grab a garbage bin. I sleep upstairs so with all my symptoms I was not confident going downstairs to grab any sort of trash bag or bin.
• Body weakness and soreness, about every muscle in my body felt weak and sore. My back and legs, especially my knees, were intensely sore and I was bed bound.

The next day.

My Friday was totally destroyed by the night before. With what little sleep I got I woke up with all of those same symptoms as the day before. Only, with the added problem of drowsiness that makes you feel even more ill because it is a drugged exhaustion. I was unable to sleep off the Nyquil and I have had this happen before. I have taken sleep meds very occasionally and on one occasion they were too strong and left me feeling super sick the next day. All because I felt super tired and groggy and it make me feel like my body was unable to heal through the night. No energy, nauseous, and tired. Those were added to my now Covid-19 struggles.

Because of this I stayed in bed and took on and off naps of varying lengths. My longest one was about 3 hours and I did not do much on social media nor was I strong enough dexterity wise to play any games. I indeed tried but I had to put my switch down mid Monster Hunt because I could not handle the trigger buttons well at all. I did tune in to Milka’s streams and getting to chat felt nice when I felt so isolated to my bed, with not many a visitor. Thankfully by the time I needed to go to sleep that day I was finally able to do so without chills. I still had a fever but at the least feeling consistently hot meant I could construct my room to aid in sleeping.

Saturday and Sunday.

as far as symptoms go, these days were the same. I woke up with massive headaches that were pervasive through the whole day, but all the other symptoms had passed except nausea. I was very grateful and these days I finally got to sleep in, relax, and play some video games. So all in all these days were not the most eventful but they were certainly more on track to feeling better. By the end of Sunday, the headache had subsided and I got a great nights sleep going into today.

Today.

So now I come to you today feeling about 90% if not 100% better. I definitely am ready to start blogging again so I am sorry for the temporary break. I felt I had to focus on getting better and with those symptoms I would not be able to do anything even if I had wanted to. I felt that there was nothing better for today’s article than talking about what I went through.

Closing notes.

With all that said, I plan to do the same vtuber I had planned for my spotlight this week. They were very understanding about everything and I am so excited to talk about them. I wanted to write about this so that others can sort of expect or get an idea of what may be coming with their second Moderna dose. I of course do not intend for this to dissuade those from getting the vaccine. I find this is the best way to finally take control of our lives again and finally cure this cursed Pandemic that has done so much, it could be the focus of a whole dissertation. With that said if a vaccine made me feel this sick, I am truly scared as to what Covid-19 would have done to me. I have not been sick in the last 5 or 6 years so this hit me hard. I had not had symptoms like this I believe since middle school so it may be more like 10 years. I was glad I never got Covid-19 and I am also very happy I did my part in getting vaccinated and hope you will too. If you are reading outside the U.S you might not know but there are many here in the states who refuse the vaccine, outright putting their jobs on the line to avoid it, and I implore them to rethink their decision. I stand on the side of science and stats and I hope to encourage others to do it.

Thank you all for reading, I realize that today’s was a lot longer than the usual. If you enjoyed it please consider pressing like here or following me here and on twitter. It really helps a lot and check out my other links on the page like my Kofi if you love this and want to donate that would make my day but do not feel obligated to do so. Thank you all so much again and I will see you tomorrow!