From the Covid-19 Information page on FB
|
It’s been 48 hours since I received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Here’s how it has affected me.
I got vaccinated on Saturday. Since I had to go to work right after I received it, I took 600mg of ibuprofen an hour beforehand as a precaution.
I got to the site, filled out some paperwork, and was vaccinated at 8am. I had to wait 15 minutes afterwards to make sure no allergic reaction occurred. This is standard for any vaccine and if it happens, it happens quickly. It didn’t happen. I then immediately went to the NICU and saw patients straight until 1:30. There were a couple that were critically ill and unstable. I had no problems at all doing this.
I got home in time to make the 3pm Zwift indoor cycling race for which I had signed-up. This is part of my normal exercise routine and since cycling like this measures power, it would be an objective measurement of how I felt. It was a 14 mile (22.5 km) race and I completed it in just over 46 minutes and placed 166 out of 584 other racers that I competed against. I averaged 222 watts for the race which is slightly more than the average power I usually produce for this race distance. I did an additional 7.5 miles (12 km) for a cool-down. Overall, I biked just over an hour. I felt great! The cycling data told me that I was functioning normally and the pool of sweat below my bike also confirmed this was true.
Bandaid off after bike ride and shower. No soreness. No mark. No nothing.
I ended the night watching Alabama win the SEC Championship! Roll Tide! I noticed ever so slight tenderness in the muscle where it was injected when I was jumping up and down with my dog to celebrate. This soreness was no different from what I felt from the flu vaccine in October.
I slept really well, but when I would turn over to sleep on the side where I got vaccinated, I could feel it. Again, no different from any other vaccine.
There was no redness or swelling noted when I got up the next morning.
I saw patients from 8:30a to 1:30p once again with no problems. I could feel the soreness in my arm with certain movements, but nothing out of the ordinary from any previous vaccine. While I was seeing patients, we heard Code Blues called on the COVID floor four different times. A little soreness in the arm is well worth it if we won’t hear that as much in the future.
I got home, ate a little something, and then ran 4 miles (6.5 km) with my dog at a 8:20/mile (5:20/km) pace which is the fastest we have run this distance together. She was feeling great and I was, too, so we let it rip.
My arm soreness was completely gone by 6pm.
I again slept well and it has now been 48 hours. If the vaccine had any side effects on me, it made me a slightly stronger cyclist and a faster runner!
I seriously doubt the vaccine had that side effect, but that gives us a great opportunity to discuss this important topic.
You are probably going to see the news media jump all over any allergic reaction, fainting episode, seizure, heart attack, or other medical problems in people who received the vaccine.
Some people will be allergic. People have allergies to food, pollens, animals, drugs, and vaccines. This happens. It is expected. It is treatable.
People faint. With or without a vaccine.
People have seizures. With or without a vaccine.
People have heart attacks. With or without a vaccine.
Just because these things happen within an hour, a day, a month, or a year doesn’t mean they are related to receiving a vaccine. All these were looked for in the vaccine study which enrolled 30,000 people. They happened, but they happened in a statistically expected way. When something is rolled out in mass numbers, you will see more of these “events.” Unfortunately, some will try to link them to the vaccine. I can assure you that this is being followed closely.
My wife gave me a Christmas cookie that our dog licked tonight (yes, she really did that!). Just because I ate it, it does not mean that that this strange, new cookie caused the seizure I may have tomorrow. What the people that follow this will be looking for are statistical anomalies. If my wife fed a dog-licked cookie to everyone in my family and 4 of us had a seizure in the next few minutes, we may very well have a problem with dog-licked cookies, need to look more carefully at this, and need to quit eating them. Let the scientists work. The media aren’t scientists. Neither are the vast majority of your FaceBook friends. That has become exceptionally clear through all this.
Finally, remember that most serious vaccine reactions occur within minutes to hours after getting a shot. The rest occur within a two week timeframe. I will update you then on anything I have experienced.
Love your family.
Love your community.
Be smart.
|