After COVID vaccination, when do ‘side effects... - CLL Support

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After COVID vaccination, when do ‘side effects’ become an ‘adverse reaction’?

Sharastani profile image
17 Replies

Hi

I just had my regular seasonal COVID vaccination and with my previous 3 vaccinations my side effects have been awful.

I purposely book them for a Friday as I know I will be out of action all weekend and I do not have to miss work every time.

The effects are headaches, fever, nausea and basic pain relief doesn’t seem to make much difference.

I will continue to take them as all the advice/evidence states how important they are to CLL’ers.

Am I missing any medication that could help or other options, it has happened with both Pfizer and Moderna?

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Sharastani profile image
Sharastani
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17 Replies
Kvb-texas profile image
Kvb-texas

It sounds like your experience might be classified as adverse because it substantially disrupts your ability to conduct normal life functions. If it were me, I would report it. According to the Vaers HHS website adverse reactions (AE) can be defined as:

1)Death

2)A life-threatening AE

3) Inpatient hospitalization or prolongation of existing hospitalization

4) A persistent or significant incapacity or substantial disruption of the ability to conduct normal life functions

5) A congenital anomaly/birth defect

6) An important medical event that based on appropriate medical judgement may jeopardize the individual and may require medical or surgical intervention to prevent one of the outcomes listed above.

I hope you do well with it and don’t suffer this time. I think it helps us all if we properly report adverse reactions. It is not normal for a vaccine to make you sick for an entire weekend. Good luck. Hope all goes well. Kvb-texas

Kvb-texas profile image
Kvb-texas

I wasn’t stating an opinion, I was trying to be helpful by quoting from the HHS Vaers web site. You can read it on the Health and Human Services website where they encourage doctors to report events that (direct quote)

“A persistent or significant incapacity or substantial disruption of the ability to conduct normal life functions”

I think it is reasonable to interpret that being sick from a shot for a full weekend is a disruption to conduct normal life functions. I think most people don’t know that they should be reporting it when it happens. Maybe because these reactions are so common they don’t think they should report it?

I don’t think people expect a tetanus shot or annual flu shot to make them feel bad for 2 or 3 days. That is incredibly disruptive. Why do we treat covid vaccines differently? I think people should be encouraged to report these events as accurately as possible. I think a lot of people self-censor truthful accurate information because of fear how others will characterize them… and that is a shame. I am not advocating for anyone to forego a vaccine in any way. For people at risk, they may consider these reactions a small price to pay. I wish you well. Kvb-texas

onu1tadi2 profile image
onu1tadi2

How many people die these days who are unvaxed from covid vs people who are unvaxxed and get covid and die? Any stats available?

AussieNeil profile image
AussieNeilPartnerAdministrator in reply toonu1tadi2

Dr Tyler Black recently (30th September2023) presented the plots by age group from the UK's ONS data up to May 2023 on X (formerly Twitter). x.com/tylerblack32/status/1... I presume the rates would be broadly similar for Canada, the US, Europe and Australia.

I've included the plot encompassing the 60 to 69 age group, which I think most closely matches that of our community. Dr Black calculated a 45.2% benefit in reducing all cause mortality from being vaccinated for this age group, though, as you can see, the difference is gradually disappearing from the 3 to 4 fold advantage seen in 2021, as more and more unvaccinated people gain immunity from having COVID-19 infections. How nice to be able to be somewhat confident that your immune system might give you a reasonable likelihood of giving you protection of dying from future illnesses. (COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in Australia last year and it seems to be between the third and fourth leading cause of death in developed countries.)

Neil

Risk of death from COVID-19 for unvaccinated reducing, but still higher than vaccinated
onu1tadi2 profile image
onu1tadi2 in reply toAussieNeil

Thanks for this information. Many people believe that the number of deaths attributed to Covid could be instead attributed to other illnesses or conditions present at the same time. And i do believe the jury is still out regarding heart conditions that often follow and seem to be triggered by the vaccine. I did not take the vax because I have afib and weighed vaccine symptoms against more serious additional heart problems, although I cannot be sure. At age 78, I have not had covid or the flu. I do work with people but am careful to avoid being close to unwell people or in crowds too long. Am taking venatoclax.

AussieNeil profile image
AussieNeilPartnerAdministrator in reply toonu1tadi2

I'm well aware of the many alternative theories about why the world has seen an excess of deaths since early 2020, which has resulted in the unprecedented drop in recent decades of the average life expectancy in the US and elsewhere. The principal of Occam's Razor does seem however, to indicate that SARS-COV-2 infections are the most plausible reason, as something new is now the third or fourth leading cause of death in many countries.

Neil

neurodervish profile image
neurodervish in reply toAussieNeil

That graph is VERY telling. Thanks for sharing it. I'm especially grateful that vaccines reduce the risk of long covid, which worries me far more than covid.

I found these 2 articles on long covid (shared by Dr. Eric Topol) to be very helpful. nature.com/articles/s41579-...

erictopol.substack.com/p/pr...

claree_ford profile image
claree_ford

I am sorry you get the whole list of possible side effects. When it’s me I get some but not all. I reckon two to three days is “normal”, up to a week is questionable, up to two weeks (unless obviously improving) “this isn’t right” and more than that “persistent”. But, that is just my subjective opinion. If something about your reaction after you have the vaccine is worrying you (and you can get an appointment), see your doctor. Other than that I wonder if there is a specific medical meaning to “persistent”? I hope your side effects are less severe this time.

Sharastani profile image
Sharastani

Thanks for the responses,. Unfortunately this was not a lazy weekend as I was unable to make lunch/etc and struggled to get out of bed at all for 36 hours and very lethargic for the while afterwards, even 72 hours later I struggled when doing anything physical.

Having been hospitalised once witg COVID I guess this is the price we pay.

PaulaS profile image
PaulaSVolunteer

Like you, claree_ford , I have come to accept 2 or 3 days of side effects after vaccinations as normal, even if they really knock me back for that time. After one of my Covid jabs the side effects lasted almost a week, which was questionable but then I was OK so I didn't think of it as persistent. It was reassuring to read here that some other folk also had side effects that lasted that long.

As you say, it would be interesting to know if there is a medical definition for "persistent", and for "incapacity" . As  Spark_Plug said, "one man's lazy weekend is another man's incapacity".

Hard to define these things. People's expectations vary. Medicine is an art as well as a science.

It would probably be good if more people did report side effects though, if they could describe exactly what they were and how long they lasted.

Paula

Skyshark profile image
Skyshark

Killed me, woke up a zombie.

Dead
Skyshark profile image
Skyshark in reply toSkyshark

Then it killed me again the next night.

Zombie until late on day 3.

Yes my smart watch is liar.

Killed again
Lenny123 profile image
Lenny123

Do not look forward to these shots. Hydrate, teas, take a 200mg. of Ibuprofen, day of and plan to rest for a few days. Ease back into exercise.

Seems better than getting covid, the one time i had it took a month to get back to normal.

22011 profile image
22011

This is a very good explanation of the term adverse event vs side effect: pharmacytimes.com/view/adve...

22011 profile image
22011

I'm not an expert. Just passing on what seems to be a logical explanation from a legitimate source. Here's another that goes into more detail. goodrx.com/healthcare-acces...

To tell the truth, I worked for 20 years in pharmaceuticals and I myself thought that they were the same, that Side Effect was a term we used for patients and Adverse Event was a more formal term for clinical trials and professional use.

SERVrider profile image
SERVrider

Perhaps I have just been lucky but I have had 2 Ocford-AstraZenecas, 2 Pfizer-BioNTech, 2 Moderna and 1 Sanofi-Pasteur. On Saturday I had a Pfizer-BioNTech plus a flu immunisation. This time my arm aches a bit more than previously; is it my immune system actually working or is it the flu injection?

Kingfish6 profile image
Kingfish6

Sounds familiar. I've had 4 Modernas & 2 Pfizers. Doesn't really matter; 10 hours later get as you detailed. Down for 2 days. May take 3-4 to get back to normal. Plus antibodies are negligible. Have told CLL doc I don't want VAX any longer. Doc pushed me to keep getting them.

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