[2021-05-15] Side effects
When I received my second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine yesterday, the nurse who administered it told me that I might feel nauseated. I didn't give it much thought, as I had had no side effects from my first dose.
A few hours after the shot, however, I started feeling tired. In the middle of the night, I was shivering in my bed, even though it was a warm night and I was under a down duvet. I scrunched up my legs, feeling too tired and lazy to get up to put on pyjamas. But as the nausea increased, I had no choice but to get out of bed, don pyjamas, and make my way to the bathroom, where I was sick to my stomach. It was an odd sensation given that I hadn't thrown up once during my entire chemotherapy treatment. Fortunately, the nausea passed by the morning.
What didn't pass so quickly was fatigue, headache, muscle pain, chills and mild fever (my temperature hovered between 37.7°C and 38.2°C all day). So I spent the day in bed, mostly with my head on a pillow and my eyes closed.
Despite the side effects, I'm happy that I got my second dose. I was heartened by statements on various websites that side effects to the COVID vaccine are a natural response, as the body works to build immunity against the disease.
I expect the side effects to diminish over the next few days. In the meantime, I'm back to pyjama days.
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