Covid jab

[tgca]

I had 1st Astra Zeneca vaccine on Monday. I went to bed and developed a very high temperature and was somewhat delirious, felt very sick and couldn’t sleep. I slept the whole of Wednesday day and night and felt very shaky on Thursday morning. I have never had a reaction to any other jab and am wondering how many of this forum have had reactions? I spoke to the pharmacist beforehand about my 2 mg dose of pred but he seemed particularly uninterested. I have reported all this to the yellow card site (a difficult one to negotiate!) and suggest those in a similar position to do the same.

[jinasc]

Sorry to hear that and hope it is a much better experience with 2nd Jab.

When I went for my AZ, I was advised to take a list of all meds. They asked me what I was taking when I got there - gave them the list - they read it and it was OK.

Did they ask you what you were taking? Just curious.

[tgca in reply to jinasc]

Yep but he wasn’t really very interested, just made a note on the back of the form.. more statistics?!

[SheffieldJane]

I had the same vaccine as you on Friday just gone. I am sleeping like a baby and have a slight headache.Perhaps it is a consolation for you that this kind of reaction is supposed to be a sign of a robust immune reaction ( I read this I think). I hope so for your sake. It sounds horrible and frightening.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I was told by my daughter that a lot of NHS staff are saying they had quite considerable reactions to their vaccines.

Generally it would be taken as a sign that your immune system was up and running - if anything, pred would have reduced it a bit. Is there any chance you have had Covid at some point?

[tgca in reply to PMRpro]

I very much doubt it as we live in an isolated area on the side of the hill and rarely go to the shops

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to tgca]

Good. Though it did happen to friends - one shopping trip before xmas, although he was very careful he got it and gave it to her!

[HeronNS]

Any possibility you are allergic to any of the ingredients? The pharmacist may be a lot more interested in your particularly severe reaction than he was to your very low dose of pred. That being said, my husband has had the two dose Shingrix vaccine for shingles and had a very severe reaction, the second worse than the first (which I think is usual, unfortunately). We understand the reaction is to the adjuvant which works to prod the immune system into mounting a defence against the targeted pathogen.

[maria40 in reply to HeronNS]

The very conscientious Nurse Practitioner at my surgery went through all the contents of the vaccine against my allergies before my vaccination and could find nothing, yet my reaction to AZ was very unpleasant and didn't really go away for more than two days.

[maria40]

I've reported my very similar reaction on the Yellow Card scheme.

[Lookingforideas in reply to maria40]

I’ve been trying and it’s stored as pending in the app but I can’t seem to get it to actually send 🙄😜

[Rache]

Hi tgca, sorry you’ve been feeling so rough, hope you feel better soon. After the Astra Zeneca jab, I only had a slightly tender arm and a mild headache for 24 hours which paracetamol sorted out. My husband, a fortunate person who has no health issues to date, had no symptoms at all. Since he’s not on steroids or any other medication, I would have thought his immune system might have caused him more of a reaction.

[tgca]

Hey ho, looks like nobody really has any clue and, at our ages, we are the guinea pigs...!

[piglette]

I had a reaction to Astra Zeneca and so did the young nurse at our surgery. I was desperately tired and felt very cold. My arm is still swollen and painful.

[Coffeebeans]

I've yellow carded my response too. Very similar to yours. It did resolve quickly with days feeling ill but the sore arm was very very sore.

Seems the jab is like covid, we all react differently and it's not clear who will have mild or major symptoms!

[Lollybygolly]

I had mine on Saturday. Headache chills tired and aching body particularly wrists and fingers. On 5mg Prednisolone down from 20mg. Day 3 I’m getting over symptoms but arm still sore and heavy. Slightly nauseous and have had nosebleeds, which is unusual for me. Overall I feel as though I’ve “gotten away with it” and I’m happy.

[Pinkpepper in reply to Lollybygolly]

I had mine on Saturday morning and by the evening had chills, headache and muscle aches just like flu. Feeling a bit better today, hope you feel better soon x

[Pollyanna16]

Last night a member of our book group messaged to ask if anyone else had had flu like symptoms after the Astra jab. She had been in bed all morning with awful flu symptoms. So far 6 have reported with same & a couple of people feeling achey or just a sore arm. None of those affected have immune disorders as far as I know. Take care x

[lonelysunrise]

A lot of folk I know, including myself, have had the Pfizer jab with no reaction apart from an aching arm for a while. However, the few folk I know who have had the Oxford AZ jab have felt quite ill for about five days. None of thee people have PMR/GCA though. Hope you are better soon.

[Lollybygolly]

That’s good to know! Not that I want “normal” people to be experiencing these symptoms at all but glad what I’m getting is within normal reactions. I’m sure I’ve done the right thing. I already feel less vulnerable and more hopeful that the world will recover from this horrible threat to life and happiness.

[AndrewT]

Dear tgca,

Sorry to hear of your Bad Experience. I don't have 'your' condition exactly, I have Vasculitis, and am 'on' 6mg of Prednisolone- along with other Drugs- per day. I have this 'Jab' a couple of days ago and haven't suffered any 'definite' symptoms. That is to say I was a 'Bit Tired', the next day, but then, I had been Extremely Busy that whole day. My arm was a 'Tad' sore but I 'expected' that.

I hope that you feel 'better' soon, my friend.

AndrewT

[Loyd]

So sorry to hear of your bad reaction. I was so nervous of getting mine but zero - not even a sore arm. All seems weird.

[Suedeshayes]

Many of my friends have spoken of similar effects too. Think it’s just the way of it. Maybe taking paracetamol before as a precaution would be an idea, for those still to have it.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Suedeshayes]

It is recommended not to take paracetamol until 4 hours post vaccination. It was seen in studies in children that it can have an effect on the immune response when taken earlier.

[Constance13 in reply to PMRpro]

Good to know. 👏

[Suedeshayes in reply to PMRpro]

That’s interesting. Thanks.

[Hidden in reply to PMRpro]

Since I’m on acetaminophen every day from fractures, please tell me a bit about use before vaccine. Hopefully I’ll be coming up soon on the list to get it. Thx.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Hidden]

It came up in a discussion about relieving the symptoms after the jab and there was a study that found using it before the jab was associated with a tiny reduction in the immune response to MMR and the other childhood vaccines, In children it is certainly small but noone seems to have looked at adults. So the advice was not to take it "just in case" immediately before the jab but it was fine for relief afterwards if they left 4 hours gap. Presumably you take it 4x a day?

[Hidden in reply to PMRpro]

So appreciate your feedback. Take tid so could work around it. As newly started gabapentin for two more fractures ( subacute, whatever that really means), will attempt lowering acetaminophen anyhow. My best to you, 🤗

[tgca in reply to PMRpro]

I hope that no child is given the vaccine as there are still some very unknown effects of it

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to tgca]

There was a comment on Sky this morning that somewhere is starting clinical trials in children over 6 I think they said - teenagers are likely to react similarly to adults they think.

[Dambusters]

My daughter, who has stage 4 IBC, had similar reactions to that vaccine, as did some her friends on the cancer help links. She reported a temperature of 41, feeling so icy cold she couldn't stop shivering, pain in her lungs, breathlessness, delirium and a bad headache. It took 48 hours to clear her symptoms. Her doctor reported the reaction but she has been told that without the vaccine she would probably be very ill if she caught the virus and has been told she must have follow-up jabs.

[Koalajane]

I had the Pfizer yesterday and just a slightly sore arm

[Mollbhan]

I take 6mg pred and MTX, had the Astra zeneca jag last Thursday and felt a bit hangovery on the Friday, arm still a bit sore. Nothing serious, but it is the first time I have ever had any sort of adverse reaction to a jab.

[Dxn12]

Both my wife and I both had reactions, hers worse than mine but they went after 48 hours so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

[Lookingforideas]

That sounds almost exactly like my reaction. I had the jab Tuesday afternoon and was ok that evening but then woke up about 2.30 am shivering and shaking, almost like tremors too, teeth chattering loudly & feeling as if I was freezing but the marrow in my bones was hot - really weird. Joints aching, skin incredibly sensitive, medium headache - not too bad, but really very sore arm ... my husband, (who had the same AZ jab Tuesday morning & was fine ) said I was radiating a lot of heat and felt like I was burning up and seemed almost delirious ... he had to change the bedding twice as it was soaked through - I just sort of rolled over to let him pull it away - thank goodness he was ok as I’d have just had to lie in it - I was incredibly weak and couldn’t stand up - let alone change bedding...

I was in bed all day Wednesday, up but shaky on Thursday, then brand new on Friday 😁. It’s Monday now and my sore arm is just getting back to normal - not looking forward to the 2nd one at all though 🙄😳

Oh, PS... I’m tapering and am on 3.75mg (1 x 2.5mg and a halved 2.5mg) at the moment - assiduously chopping tablets to keep the taper as smooth as possible now I’m lower - just passed my first Pred anniversary last week in January...

[Lyndaki in reply to Lookingforideas]

I had a similar reaction to you to the AZ jab but without the sore arm! Had injection on the Sunday, reaction overnight plus tiredness & felt great by Tuesday thankfully!

[Susanrid]

I too had a bad reaction to Astra Zeneca - banging headache, cold and tired for 24 hours. All my women friends report the same. That has to be better than COVID though. Strangely 48 hours after the jab I realised that much of the stiffness pains and general malaise of PMR has completely disappeared and I feel very well (whispering that in case it wakes the sleeping dragon!). And this has continued now for 10 days. Currently on 7 mg, diagnosed March 2017. Don’t know what’s going on but hops it continues.

[ClarkB]

A friend’s mother had a similar reaction to yours, as did my friend and with the same time scale. My partner had no reaction whatsoever.

[scottygirl73]

So sorry you had such a reaction to vaccine,i was fine but remember we are all different and some may have reaction and others ok.Good you reported side effects,but on positive note you have had your firt dose😊Take care xx

[Blossom20]

Good for you that you reported it on the yellow card scheme. I didn't know that could be used just for reactions that resolved (thought it was just for severe non resolving conditions). I am surprised that no-one seems to be collecting data from people about their reactions - not Oxford, JCVI, Sage or NHS, no-one official.There seem to be a lot of people getting quite severe reactions so I would have thought that at least Oxford would want to know so that it could be recorded!

I had high temperature and shakes and shivers for 24 hours, then very tired and grumpy.

I'm getting a bit worried about the second jab as some people are saying you get a worse reaction!

[Skysey]

I had a headache the evening of the AZ vaccine and the next day but paracetamol worked well. I was extremely tired the next day but woke up fine the following morning. Hope you are feeling better now.

[Knitwit2020]

The CBC in Canada today just released an article on why we should not take pain meds before or after the vaccination..it blunts the effectiveness. For local swelling and pain they recommend a cool compress . Also to avoid the use of antinflammatories just prior to getting vaccinated.Looks like we won't be getting our "jabs" until late August...so worrisome given the new variants out there..but we just have to be patient.Stay safe Take care z Kw2020

[Songbird69]

Oh! Well I took paracetamol the following day and Prednisolone is an anti inflammatory too - so wonder what effect that all has together. Nothing has been said to my knowledge about this in the U.K.

[tallgal]

I have reported to the yellow card too as I'm still getting bad headaches after 17 days

[tangocharlie]

I am absolutely terrified of having mine because I have allergies to all sorts of things including medications and some foods. There is no way of knowing in advance how you will react. My rheumie just said to make sure I take the steroids and antihistamines beforehand and that I am better off having it than not having it and then getting Covid.

[maria40 in reply to tangocharlie]

I was wondering about taking an antihistamine before my second jab as I had the bad flu reaction to my first which was AZ as I was advised not to have Pfizer because I have a penicillin allergy. I'd be interested to know how you get on if you take the antihistamine. Good luck!