Joshua Paschal

Given vaccine hesitancy, I thought I would spend this morning detailing my symptoms upon waking up this morning. All and all I am doing okay, but I hope some people would benefit from me explicitly going through all of my symptoms. I hope to give regular updates as well–at least for a couple of mornings and nights–to see what helps with the symptoms and what might be wise to avoid.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical expert and you should seek medical advice from those certified in the relevant area. This is merely personal testimony more-or-less aimed at say “yeah, I am okay.”

That being said, let me go through each of my symptoms one at a time.

The most obvious thing was how early I awoke (thus why I am writing this at 6:15AM). I woke up with my initial symptoms at 5:40 or so, give or take a few minutes. This is especially surprising given my usual sleep cycle aims to be 11:40pm to 8:20pm. It is hard to say if the vaccine causes this though: there are two conflicting possible causes. Firstly, I was notably hot–I likely had a mild fever, but I suspect my bedding might simply be too much (sheet, comforter, & throw blanket). I will try sleeping under fewer layers tonight. Secondly, today is my last day of teaching and I have a paper due tomorrow, so my body might have woken up early in anticipation of such. That is heard of for me–I often do fine I wake up exceptionally early when something has me really excited, such as travel plans. So the jury is out on the question of what caused me to wake up early.

I noticed some morning symptoms upon waking up that definitely would have prevented by from going to sleep without drugging myself. They were: fever, mild headache, noticeable nausea, and very mild but general swelling of the joints.

One is supposed to use painkillers very sparingly after a vaccine, as painkillers can suppress the immune response a vaccine is supposed to elicit. That being said, I did take a single 200mg ibuprofen to treat the initial symptoms. Only nausea remains untreated.

In addition, I also treated my symptoms by taking a colder shower than normal. This immediately made my fever and headache better. I would recommend trying it if you experience similar symptoms. Cold compresses, I suspect, would work similarly well.

As I am writing this, I can barely detect my fever and my headache is more or less gone. It has been roughly 30 minutes since the medicine was taken (I showered after taking the painkiller). But during and after the shower I have noticed some minor symptoms: thigh itchiness, calf weakness, and inability to crack my joints.

I suspect all three of these symptoms are caused by the underlying symptom of inflammation. They are also all completely manageable, although I suspect the muscular weakness with spread and amplify throughout the day. Only time will tell. I will aim to at least minimize my caffeine in-take today as to try to keep my blood pressure down to minimize inflammation-related symptoms.

All-in-all, my discomfort has been around a 3/10. The nausea is annoying, but I still need to eat, so that will likely help. The headache is also fine–it is akin to a mild dehydration headache. Hopefully, fluids will help offset that as well.

I have also taken B-complex and D3 vitamins, as I usually do in the mornings. If my symptoms do dissipate throughout the day, these also could have been contributing causes. But that is purely speculative and remains to be realized or noticed.

I hope this recording will help people be more at ease about getting vaccinated. Vaccines are not supposed to be pleasant: they cause immune responses similar to actually being sick. The goal of the vaccine is, ultimately, to produce the same antibodies that allow someone to be immune to a disease without actually getting the disease itself. Even first shot immunity has been recorded to range from 64% (reported by USNews) to 80% (CNBC reporting a CDC study). I only had a tender arm from my first dose, so if you are hesitant, at least get the first one! But discomfort does not justify not getting the vaccination. There are some legitimate reasons, such as a recorded history of vaccine-related reactions; some illegitimate reasons, such as someone on the TV yelling about microchips and Bill Gates.

Joking aside, I hope this testimony helps people understand more. As it currently stands, over 200 million doses have been distributed, so the topic might be beaten to death at this point. I just thought I would share my experiences before I have to go to the store and buy toothpaste. Running out of toothpaste when you are already nauseated is… not fun.