Hello, I’m Mamington, a working mom of three.
COVID-19 vaccination for <64 year-olds have officially started. I contemplated whether to receive the vaccine given the limited amount of testing done on prior to its roll-out, but I signed up because being vaccinated seemed to be the way to be able to do more with my children, particularly attending school and extracurricular events as a parent.
I have recorded my experience for anyone interested. I hope you find this useful.
- Subject person (myself, Mamington): Japanese, around 40 years old, body temperature 36.1, no chronic illnesses, not pregnant
- Vaccine type: Takeda/Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
- Place of vaccination: Vaccine center within the office building that I work in
- Vaccine methodology: 0.5mL intramuscular injection on the arm
Timeline of my vaccination and side effects:
| 6/21 | 14:00 | Arrived at the vaccine center, check-in |
| 14:10 | Vaccine injection, no major pain | |
| 14:30 | Stayed at the center for 15-20 mins to confirm no major changes in condition | |
| 14:45 | Slight headache but no issues with carrying on with the day | |
| 15:00 | Slight fatigue in addition to the headache, but still no impact with getting through the day | |
| 23:00 | Headache settled down but started feeling shivers | |
| 0:45 | Went to bed with the shivers | |
| 6/22 | 6:30 | Woke up, normal temperature, shivers are gone but felt muscle pain in my arm |
| 15:00 | 24+ hours passed since the injection, arm pain worsened and felt very fatigue | |
| 17:00 | Arm pain continued to worsen, felt like a mild cold, temperature lower than average @ 35.9 | |
| 23:00 | Arm pain is starting to settle down but the entire body feels heavy and fatigued, went to bed |
So the day after the vaccine injection wasn’t pleasant. I felt fatigue throughout the day and was not very effective at work (thankfully I was working from home today so I could rest from time to time). I was hearing that arm pain is a common side effect of the first dose, but I wasn’t aware that we could experience severe fatigue even without any temperature. Side effects really do differ for each individual. I sure hope I feel better tomorrow, and I really hope that the second dose is not so severe on me…
To be continued…
P.S. As of 6/23 (2 days after the injection), the pain in my arms and fatigue have gone away. I am feeling fine overall.