COVID Vaccine Reaction

From emails:

11/10: 3pm: Got the Booster.

11/11: evening: The booster really kicked my ass. When I got up this morning it was 4 pm in the afternoon. I was really really tired.

11/12: I still feel like crap. I don't know how much this was a low cortisol event mixed in with the booster side effects. That is to say maybe the vaccine triggered a low cortisol affect at the same time. I was so weak I was having trouble walking. Now I'm just very tired I think.

I had a strong reaction to the booster which I got Wednesday. In the evening I started to shiver. I went to bed and didn’t wake up till 4 PM. Had a little bit of nausea. Super tired now still. It may be being amplified by adrenal insufficiency courtesy of the last immunotherapy treatment.  Taking some extra hydrocortisone pills, hopefully will resolve for not too long. 

11/12: Half a can of soup for lunch, half for dinner plus half a serving size tubs of yogurt. Hope the appetite gets a little bit more robust tomorrow. Thank you -- food wise I'm in good keep. And I feel like I'm going to improve. Being weak would be frightening if there was no explanation. Now it is just tiring.

11/15: My home test kit says I don't have Covid -- no pink line to go with the blue one. My sleeping is back to normal. I think my adrenal insufficiency condition is interacting with the after effects of the vaccine. My only response being how many pills I 'updose' on. I wake up not interested in, uh, cereal again. Which in fact was a freak show a few days ago when I tried to eat it and it tasted bizarre. I don't think it would be that bad this again. But coffee, yes. A couple pieces of Halloween mini chocolates, yes. Had an apple for lunch today. I'll be hungry for a full dinner. Calorie consumption about 50%. I've been feeling more energy each day. I'll try walking to a blue mail box to mail a letter tomorrow.

11/17: It's still taking a while. I used one of the home COVID test kits to see if somehow I picked up COVID around the same time as the booster. But, at least today, booster + 5 days, it's negative. I can feel OK about doing a load or two of laundry (don't have hookups for machines in my apt). Some of the strength of the effects is likely b/c my body doesn't make its own cortisol anymore so it's up to me to guess how many extra pills to take in response to a stress on the system... which the booster clearly was. I've been 'updosing' but on booster day +1 I was sleeping through to the early evening, no pills.

11/17: I even got through cereal today so the 'barely slightly queasy' diet is done. I'm about 11 lb off my all-recent-decades low we talked about in 2018 so it's all good. 

11/21: I got the booster shot last week, on advice of my medical providers. In my case I got quite a strong reaction but am fully recovered. I got a negative COVID test so I'm nearly certain the symptoms were all due to the "secondary adrenal insufficiency" condition where my body did not make any cortisol in response to the reaction caused by the booster. I got it on a Wednesday and didn't wake up till 4pm Thu! Then "rode the toilet" for a little bit and went back to bed. Eventually got up and took the cortisol pills like I am supposed. Next time I will make sure to take extra pills ("up-dose") the day of any booster shot.

11/30: I got the booster the Wed before the Bazaar at about 3pm. I went to bed near midnight (a few shivers, assumed I was just cold) and woke up 16 hours later at 4pm, to dry heave in the toilet. Slept for another few hours. I should have 'updosed' on hydrocortisone after the shot -- since adrenal insufficiency = zero cortisol otherwise. Hard to updose when you're not awake. I did not eat hardly anything the next day, took 4 or 5 days with updosing to get my appetite back to normal. I think that means I didn't get a bum dose.Your mileage will vary... I will remember to take a handful of hydrocortisone pills.