Just like the previous two vaccines the booster I received yesterday knocked me on my arse!
I had the vaccine at 11am and by the afternoon I could feel the familiar ache in my upper arm. I had dosed up on Ibuprofen and Paracetamol as a preventative and headed for bed early with quite a sore arm and a slight ache in my legs.
I didn’t sleep well, a bit unsettled and awake shortly after 5am. I could feel an ache in my back and legs in addition to my arm and when I eventually got up at 7am to prepare for work I was feeling pretty tired. I showered and changed feeling rough but figured I could get through a day at work and then BOOM! a cold sweat hit me, sudden nausea and very faint to the extent that I was seeing stars. I had to call in sick to work and crawled back to bed scaring the crap out of Catriona in the process.
I stayed in bed sleeping off and on until lunchtime when I relocated to the living room, feeling slightly better but still rough. As the afternoon progressed I could feel the aches and tiredness gradually lifting and this evening I’m feeling much better. I’m back to just a bit of an ache in my upper arm, pretty much where I was at lunchtime yesterday and hopefully back to 100% in the morning.
I really hope this is the end of Covid vaccines as I’m getting pretty fed up with them by now…
As I mentioned at the end of my last post I had my first Covid19 vaccination yesterday morning. I was very impressed with the setup. The vaccine centre in Donegal is in Letterkenny and using the buildings of the local college (LYIT). It’s an incredibly efficient process and feels comfortable and modern, reassuring really. It’s staffed by a mixture of Irish Army and HSE staff. I had a 10am appointment and I had my jab by 10:06 which is lightening fast as far as HSE standards usually go! The normal wait afterwards is 15min in a staffed waiting area but as I have a penicillin allergy I had to wait 30min. After that I was back in my car before 10:45 having spent less than an hour there. I have been given the Moderna vaccine so get a second dose in 4 weeks.
Afterwards I went to collect my bike. The mechanic hadn’t texted me as promised but the bike was ready. The shop was flat out and I only had a chance for a brief conversation but the two niggling rattles/creaks had been easily identified and fixed.
My plan had been 100km on a route out of Letterkenny and fairly hilly. I was concerned about over doing it though so decided to go home instead and do a shorter spin, closer to home and on familiar roads. I had hoped to change clothes somewhere in Letterkenny and this was proving difficult anyway with restrictions still in place in many areas. When I did get home and was getting my bike ready I realised that my lights and Garmin were still plugged into the charging dock upstairs so I would have had to come home regardless!
I took the opportunity to get some errands done on the way home and spent almost an hour chatting to my neighbour so it was after 2pm before I rolled out. It was just on the right side of chilly and a bit breezy but my route would have a tailwind for a lot of the exposed bits and be sheltered for most of the headwind bits.
I headed to Clady and up over the pretty challenging Glebe climb before descending to Victoria Bridge, one of my favourite river crossings around here. Back road to Strabane and home again via Clady and eventually the main road. 42km and it felt good. The bike felt great after the service and so much better having ridden the MTB on Friday. There’s nothing like riding off-road on fat tyres to make you appreciate the speed and agility of a road bike on tarmac. My legs were moaning a bit on the steeper climbs and despite a growing ache/numbness in my left arm overall I felt really good.
Yesterday evening the ache increased and I was definitely feeling tired. I was feeling a little bit woozy but thankfully nothing more serious than that. I took some paracetamol yesterday morning, afternoon and before bed last night just to be sure. This morning my arm is quite sore and tender to the touch. I still feel tired despite a good sleep and I feel slightly achy. The slight woozienss is still there but overall I think I’m just getting the usual symptoms that I’ve heard others describe and some of it may be tiredness from the combined effect of cycling the two days also. I am very hungry this morning (again this could be the cycling) and I’m just listening to my body and feeding it. Today is a family day so a chance to rest up and hopefully be fit for a big day on the bike tomorrow.
niall harran 