Editorials

I got the Pfizer vaccine, here’s what happened

Figured some of you follow my Covid-19 updates on FB, most of you don’t but might be interested in what happened to me. As I write about pretty much everything, you can read this or move on. This will be where it’s updated until dose #2 is over and done with, so no need to fear or look elsewhere on Pocketables for updates unless another author does something.

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TL;DR – at 94 hours past shot one I have felt at worst meh. This will be updated until it’s not. When updated will appear below this line when it’s updated. Second shot is first week of April so that one should be interesting.

Updated at 5ish days (Mar 17, 1:34am cst)

Quick medical history of Paul – Misdiagnosed as asthmatic by a pretty crappy doctor in the 80’s. 10-something years of antibiotics, different breathing medication, nothing worked well other than steroids and as such pretty much was on those for years. Used to be sick an average of 2-3 weeks at a shot every few months. Got accused of faking it multiple times and generally adopted a screw you attitude when I got sick because “Paul’s always sick” was repeated several times at work and in social circles. Yeah, I had a great support group. Bitter? Nahhhhhhhhh.

Cut to 2015 it turns out that was just allergies combined with stopping breathing for over an hour a night when I sleep which, yeah… so my lungs / breathing / body had a lifetime of bleh and are not particularly great, started to get better but two kids cuts down on any fixing the body time. Combine that with being overweight and then add an additional 20 pounds being stuck at home for a year with two kids and no family, daycare, babysitting, or friend support (ok, a couple of hours back in July,) and I’m in the 1C category for Tennessee.

Vaccines in Nashville

1C vaccine appointments opened Monday. I checked about an hour into the start and there were all days for the week appointments available. Decided to schedule one. No issues with the Metro Nashville health department for me, although I’ve heard it was a nightmare for some and most didn’t get it. I do feel a little guilty for that.

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Thursday I went to the Music City Center, where they’ve got facilities set up to give shots to several thousand at a time. They had a couple of hundred people there because you know, there’s no vaccine to give. It was reminiscent of when the Twin Towers fell and people gathered and built hundreds of makeshift stretchers that were never used. Everyone in there could have probably stood 100 feet apart and fit in the Center. It felt deserted and sad that there wasn’t enough vaccines to merit more than a large 7-11.

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Yes, that’s my finger. I keep taking finger shots by accident on the S21 Ultra 5G

I answered 5-7 questions on paper, all my info was already filled out from the website and that was not much. Shot was given. I did not really feel it. I mean, it happened, but it was less painful than a flu shot. I was scheduled for my follow up shot and then told to go and sit around for 20 minutes. I did this and then went home.

And then it hit (softly)

About two hours after I had the shot my arm felt a little sore (this was about 1:40pm). I was working from home at this point and decided to lay down hold my arm up, and work sideways as that’s what seemed to make it feel better. Cut to 4:40pm and I wake up and wonder what the hell just happened. May have been allergies going on, may have been stress, I took a power nap and felt great other than my arm now felt a little like I’d rammed down a door.

That night I felt a little slow mentally. Checked my stats and my heart was up just a bit but everything seemed fine. Temp, beat slightly elevated, SpO2 fine. Just a little meh. 10:30 comes around, I have to be up early the next morning and having had a random 3 hour nap I know this is going to be a rough time getting to … nope, I passed out like I’d been running a marathon.

Woke up at 5something the next morning (Friday) with a right bicep cramp. I should mention I’ve never had a right bicep cramp that I can recall in my life and I am not prone to cramping. It was also not a screaming “augh I am dying and stabbed” type of cramp it was more of a “ouch, I feel as though I have done 100 curls of a 12 pound weight – ow ow ow” and stumbled to the bathroom.

When I say stumbled to the bathroom, I mean it literally. My legs were not jelly, just a little not right. Went back to bed for an hour and got up and was fine. Woke up oily. I don’t know how else to describe it. Long shower to remove said oil. Every pore decided it was time to dump whatever was in my body out my face and ears. Sort of felt like a teenager again. I see nobody mentioning oil anywhere, so maybe I’m special.

Most of Friday other than slightly sore arm and paying attention to the right bicep was nothing.

Friday night, my neck was sore. I took a couple of ibuprofen, that was that. Felt some allergy symptoms which are probably due to dogwoods blooming at the moment and everyone else having allergies. I don’t pay those much attention but mentioning them there. Been on allergy meds for the past 3-4 days and still on them – usually take them for a couple of weeks at start of allergy season now.

Saturday, oily again. Heart is telling me I’m working hard to do regular things (higher pulse rate, SpO2 fine) nose is ever so slightly indicating I have a minor cold, or allergies, I can’t stress enough allergy season has sprung and half of the symptoms here are standard allergy. Brain is back mostly online, I do not feel muddled. I do however feel like I’ve got a slight temperature but I do not.

t+50 hours – slightly more side effects than a flu shot, however half of them could be related to allergies.

Saturday night (update 1) – heart is still faster than regular, SpO2 down to 96%, however aches mostly gone, meh mostly gone, at this point unless something changes I expect I’ll be feeling normal tomorrow. Still unsure what’s allergies and what’s shot as a whole hell of a lot of people are sneezing out in the wild, in a pandemic.

Sunday (update 2) – 3 days / 72 and a half hours or so

Heart rate still a little up, SpO2 back to 98/99, no signs of shot other than band-aid evidence. Muscles no longer feel like I ran a marathon. No cramps. Left knee has some sort of pain but I think it’s unrelated.

Small exertions and I sweat a lot. Did not wake up oily. Only thing I consider abnormal is slightly elevated heart rate and sweating under relatively mild work. I am sneezing some but I’m fairly confident it’s dogwood, not mRNA. Could be both.

Monday (update 3) 4 days minus a couple of hours.

Knee pain gone (right side of left knee). It was abnormal. It went away. Much like the right bicep pain, it is something that I’ve never had. It also wasn’t particularly painful and maybe a kid kicked me and I didn’t notice it.

Do not think I was oily or my skin being odd when I woke up this morning. Allergies pretty much gone but it’s been raining for two days. I can still taste the air so they’re still around. I haven’t had much call to exert myself as of this writing but I did walk up some stairs and that felt normal (yesterday was not normal.)

Feel like I’m getting more air today, but I stress this is potentially allergy related and not shot related.

If I’m not mistaken I am at what I would consider baseline pre-shot me.

As of writing I consider the bicep, neck, and knee pain related to the shot. I’d give them a 3/10, 7/10, and 2/10 on a pain scale. All manageable with ibuprofen. Total of 4 ibuprofen taken. 3 Costco generic allergy meds (Allerclear?). I also figure the sweating was related. Not entirely sure about the SpO2 / lung capacity.

Tuesday/Wednesday (5/6)

I’d say no remnants of anything. I’ve got a tad of insomnia, but the weather’s changing, tad of allergies but it’s dogwood season. I seem to be close to normal on heart rate / SpO2 (o2 fine, heart rate seems to be resting a little higher which could be allergies.)

I’ll update again probably, but I’d say at this point nothing past annoying neck pain that went away and waking up oily two days in a row was memorable.


There were no more side effects. I posted what happened on dose 2 later on, here’s a link to that. TL;DR dose 2 was harder. Booster shot happened in October.

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Paul E King

Paul King started with GoodAndEVO in 2011, which merged with Pocketables, and as of 2018 he's evidently the owner. He lives in Nashville, works at a film production company, is married with two kids. Facebook | Twitter | Donate | More posts by Paul | Subscribe to Paul's posts

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