Picture from Pixabay.

Thought I’d post my experience with the COVID-19 vaccines now that I have gotten both doses.

I belong to the first medical risk group, and got my first vaccine (Astra Zeneca) in February, and the second last Wednesday (Moderna). Today is Tuesday the next week. I’m in Finland.

• The Astra Zeneca only gave me a very slight sore arm for about 1,5 days. Nothing else as far as I could tell – I have chronic migraine/headache every day so I can’t say for sure if it gave me a headache or not, but I don’t think so because there was no headache that differed from my usual in the following days.
• I had the following reactions to the Moderna vaccine starting last Wednesday (the vaccination day) through yesterday:
  • Chills and hot flashes on Thursday
  • Slight fever Thursday through Saturday
  • Very sore arm Wednesday through Sunday (bad enough that sleeping was uncomfortable for three nights)
  • Small slightly swollen, red circle on the injection site Friday through Sunday
  • Headache through Thursday to Saturday. I know this because the headaches responded a lot better to medication than my headaches normally do.
  • All in all: I felt sick for 2 days (Thursday and Friday), kind of sick for 1 day (Saturday), and then only had a slightly sore arm on Sunday and Monday anymore
  • Today I’m back to normal

I can’t remember whether I had any bad reactions when I was a kid but this was the worst reaction I’ve had to a vaccine as an adult! I usually just have a somewhat sore arm for 2-3 days, so this was a new experience for me!