Age: 66.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Headache, Injection site rash, Joint swelling, Loss of personal independence in daily activities, Nausea
Clinical narrative: 9 hours after my 2nd vaccination (3/5/21) I came down with fever, chills, fatigue and body ache - all expected. I rested for the next 3 days and resumed normal activities on the 4th day and was shocked to find that I became winded after only going one block on my normal daily walk.  I had been in good health and was physically active.  What followed was 6-8 weeks of baffling, unexpected and varying symptoms. I felt I was going crazy. The first symptom was getting immediately winded upon any exertion.  I cut down the amount of physical activity to build back up.  I was making progress in that it was taking longer before I would feel winded.   But then I found I was extremely fatigued.  I would fall asleep the minute I sat down and relaxed and would stay asleep for hours at a time.  I tried to fight it at first, but then realized my body needed the rest.  This lasted around 2 weeks. Then after that started to resolve, I had a week of sharp headaches.  I am not a person that normally gets headaches. After that started to resolve, I would get what I call pressure headaches.  I laugh that I am a human barometer; I can feel when the air pressure changes - my head feels full (but no sharp pain) and I get slightly nauseous. These symptoms normally resolve within an hour or two when the storm passes or stabilizes - but now the pressure sensations were pretty constant and lasted about 2 weeks. Then I developed a lot of eye sensitivity to light, I felt pressure in my eyes and had tearing - all abnormal for me. Then I developed tooth and jaw pain - similar to a sinus infection - but I did not have any nasal congestion.  I thought about calling my doctor at this point to rule out a sinus infection, but did not. Then my lower legs and ankles started swelling and stayed swollen.  This is abnormal and at this point, I did call my doctor.   Before I could get in to see her, I was able to see my eye doctor to rule out any vision problems.  My eyes were fine, but while they were testing my peripheral vision, I had a sharp and sudden bout of vertigo.  I saw my ENT to rule out an vestibular issues.  They found nothing but did have me start doing some vestibular therapy as I was still having some occasional slight spinning sensations - not vertigo, more like what you feel on an amusement park ride.   Within 8 weeks all these weird and unusual symptoms had subsided and I began to feel normal again (until I developed a kidney stone, but that's another story!) I went from seeing my doctor once a year to spending way too much time with my wonderful health care providers.  And I have real concerns about getting future boosters - I am very grateful for the protection afforded by the vaccination and I would gladly endure the one day of fever, chills, fatigue, etc but 6 - 8 weeks of feeling lousy and wondering if I was going crazy is not something I'm looking forward to repeating. BTW, I had no reaction to my first vaccination (2/6/21) other than a week later developed itching and a rash at the injection site.  Because it was so late after the jab, I assumed it must have been a spider bite until I googled and found that Moderna arm is a thing.  It resolved on its own and I had the second vaccination in the other arm as a precaution.  I don't recall developing a rash after the 2nd vaccination.  I don't consider this a major problem, but wanted you to have the information.