Age: 38.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Erythema, Hypersensitivity, Pruritus, Skin reaction, Skin swelling
Clinical narrative: Approximately two weeks after receiving the Moderna booster, I started to experience intense itching on different parts of my body. The first night it was my back and my torso and bottoms of my feet. The itching would be intense and last for about 30 minutes, then it would go away on one part of my body and start on another part of my body. I attributed it to maybe dirty sheets or maybe our dogs had rolled in something outside and then I had touched them, so I didn't think much of it. The next day, Tuesday January 11, as evening rolled around I had INTENSE itching that rotated through different parts of my body. My palms, then the soles of my feet, then my thighs, then my shoulders, then my neck,... I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and noticed I had hives all over my thighs. I have NEVER had hives before. I've never had an allergic reaction to something before so I had trouble believing this was happening and I tried to figure out what it would be. I thought maybe the new scent of fabric softener we had switched to a few weeks prior had something in it that was irritating my skin. So on Wednesday I washed my sheets and all of my clothes multiple times without the softener. Wednesday night I was still itchy but not as much. Thursday during a work conference call at 10am I was itching like CRAZY. My arms would not stop itching so I kept lotioning them as I was on the call. This persisted for over an hour. Thursday evening I went to happy hour with a friend and the arches of my feet were itching like crazy. I was talking to her about the potential things that could cause it and we settled again on the fabric softener maybe combined with work stress and we decided I would have to wash my sheets a bunch more before the softener would come out. I itched like crazy all night Thursday, even took a benadryl and it did not help. Friday I was speaking with another friend about the crazy itching and hives going on all week and she asked when I had gotten the booster. I said it couldn't be the booster because I'd gotten it like, 3 weeks ago. She mentioned that the timing could be right for the booster to be causing the reaction (she works in health care). After some googling I found others who have had these symptoms show up around two weeks after the booster. I am very pro vaccine and got my first and second shots back in March/April 2021. I was hesitant to really consider the booster as a source of the itching and hives but I have NEVER had skin reactions like this to anything. I almost wrote a letter to Downy to let them know that their fabric softener must have been a bad batch. But the more I consider this, it has to be linked to the booster. I haven't done anything different in my daily routine or eaten anything different or used different products in the shower in the past week or two. The itching comes and goes but when it starts, it's persistent and INTENSE and typically involves a breakout of hives. In addition, even if I scratch gently, HUGE red scratch marks appear and the skin where I've touched it gets really raised and red. Last night (Friday January 14) I had to take two Benadryl and that seemed to help me sleep through the night. Today, Saturday January 15, will be day 6 and so far I haven't had much itching, but it seems to be the worst at night. I hope this information can help y'all with your research please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you need more information. Again, I am not an anti vaxxer I just think maybe young healthy folks don't need a booster right away. I did not have much of a reaction to the first two shots. I'm 38 years old, 5'9, 140 pounds, a marathon runner my whole life, never smoked, don't drink much, go to bed around 830p like an old granny every night so I can wake up for my early morning running. Eat fairly healthy I don't like sweets but I do love Doritos and I put sour cream on almost everything. But I think that I'd be considered a healthy person with no prior allergies or adverse health events and especially never to a vaccine of any type. Again I hope this information is helpful!!!