My Experience with the COVID Vaccine

Me exactly one week to the day and hour after my second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Lausanne, Switzerland. June 7, 2021.

Given the global roll-out of vaccines to address COVID and the uncertainty some people have about getting vaccinated, I thought I’d chronicle what I experienced during my vaccination process.

As every region has its own practices related to vaccine scheduling and as each vaccination center has its distinct workflow, I won’t address all these details (but if you live in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland and want to know more about how things work at the Avenue de Bergières “vaccinodrome,” let me know).

However, despite the regional variety of vaccination rules and regulations and processes and procedures, the world has only a handful of vaccines as of this writing. I’ll cover in this post my experience with the one I received: Moderna.

The Moderna vaccine uses messenger RNA (also known as mRNA) to trigger an immune response to COVID. An mRNA vaccine prompts the body to create a protein that triggers the needed immune response, resulting in protection against the illness. Other vaccines, like the one for the flu shot, trigger the immune response by injecting a weakened or inactivated version of the illness into our system—a different mechanism.

You can get more details from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on how mRNA vaccines work via this link. The CDC has a page dedicated to the Moderna vaccine as well.

Vaccination with the Moderna vaccine happens via two injections, spaced a few weeks apart. In my case, I had my first shot in the midafternoon of April 29, 2021, and my second dose in the evening of May 31, 2021—about four and a half weeks apart.

Before and After the First Vaccine Injection

Immediately after the shot, which I chose to take in my upper left arm, I felt a localized warmth that quickly subsided. By nightfall, that arm had a generalized soreness.

Overnight and throughout the following day, I felt a muted fatigue and my left arm felt extremely sore, as though I’d chosen to do an intense workout involving solely lateral arm lifts with my left arm.

However, I completed a full workday without a problem, including meetings, and did a yoga class (that included pushups) without any real difficulty, either due to the arm soreness or the low-level fatigue. I went to bed at a normal hour—no need for an early turn-in. I did not have any sort of feeling of illness other than the subtle overall sluggishness and arm soreness.

Because sometimes seeing a person in motion and talking after something happens helps people make their own judgements about the effects or the experience, I filmed a brief testimonial twenty-four hours after my first injection.

Before and After the Second Vaccine Injection

Unlike with my first vaccine injection, I felt nearly nothing immediately after the second shot. I had no warmth in the injection region—not even any arm soreness. In fact, I couldn’t have said that I’d felt like I’d had a shot of any kind, really.

My arm got a tiny bit sore at bedtime, but I had no other side effects or issues and went to bed at a normal time feeling nothing more than I typically feel after a busy day.

I’d had the vaccine at 6:55 p.m. Just before 7 a.m. the following day, I didn’t feel entirely well. I had a vague headache, generalized cognitive fog, stiffness in the lymph nodes in the lower half of my body that made it impossible to get comfortable, and overall physical malaise. I had a brief flash of low-grade fever in the midmorning that passed very quickly. I felt a very light nausea when walking for more than a few steps, but nothing dire enough to provoke a dash to the bathroom.

Having read that some scientists hypothesize that painkillers (even low-level ones) may slightly lower the efficacy of the vaccine by tricking the immune system into making fewer antibodies, I decided not to take any painkillers unless I couldn’t bear the vaccine side effects at some point.

By about 7 p.m.—without needing to resort to any painkillers—I’d revived enough to sit up on the couch and watch television for a couple of hours. Prior to this point, watching or reading anything didn’t appeal, I couldn’t sit up for more than a couple of minutes at a time (or my headache worsened), and I needed to shift constantly to relieve the nagging stiffness in my lower body.

In terms of food, I’d wanted nothing more than an apple in the late afternoon; a microwaved sweet potato with some butter at around 7 p.m., after I’d started to feel slightly better; and then a cup of raw mixed nuts around 9 p.m.

Twenty-four hours post-vaccination—and twelve hours after the first real side effects—I’d returned to about 80 percent of my normal functioning. I went to bed at a normal hour, slept very well for the usual number of hours, and woke up feeling worlds better than I had the day before.

Nevertheless, I decided to take Wednesday at a low-level pace, to give my system an extended recovery time. I ate lightly, worked just enough to keep from getting too far behind, and did a very gentle yoga class.

Forty-eight hours post-vaccination, I recorded another brief video for you (featuring bedhead):

One Week after Full Vaccination

One week after my second dose of the vaccine, I feel solid and back to normal.

Though I wondered whether I’d cycle back into not feeling completely well after the 36-hour post-vaccination mark, when I’d returned to baseline, I have not had any further malaise whatsoever. No headache, no swollen lymph nodes, not even any fatigue.

Just to stick to the format for this last check-in, I recorded a final brief video testimonial:

The Booster Shot

Different medical groups hinted at booster shots for the COVID vaccine at the six-month post-vaccination point—a prediction that came into reality in late 2021.

Six months and about three weeks after my second dose of the Moderna shot, I had my Moderna booster shot. The vaccination center told me that it involved a half dose of the vaccine given in the first two shots.

Given that I’d felt pretty rotten after the second dose, I’d braced for feeling yucky after the booster and had a pleasant surprise: I experienced a very mild arm soreness (far less than what I had after the first dose), a slightly stiff neck that started about ten hours after I received the booster and was gone by about the twenty-four hour mark—and no other symptoms. Not even minor fatigue or a mild headache.

Sticking with my commitment to show video of me after the vaccine (and now the booster), I filmed one for you so that you can see how I’m doing for yourself. (Yes, the video looks a little different in terms of formatting: I decided to use the opportunity to try out a new video editing platform.)

Vaccine-Induced Liberation

Having gone through the vaccination and the booster process comes as a huge relief. To know that I can move about in the world at a much lower serious risk comes as liberation.

I still wear my mask when not at home or in places where they’ve limited guests to the vaccinated (and now boosted), but I feel much more free and at ease than I did before.

If you’ve had the vaccine and the booster, what did you experience?

For more on my experience of the coronavirus crisis from start to finish, click here for a repository of articles.