[Review] A side effects that I suffered after vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine.

Hello, everyone I am Chifumi Maeda, a Japanese female president living in Bangkok. Thank you, guys, for visiting this “True comments from Japanese female presidents living in Thailand” blog. I’d today like to talk about my experience on suffering from a side effects after receiving vaccination here in Thailand.

Until I’ve vaccinated by AstraZeneca

Thailand started giving vaccination to its medical and healthcare workers from late March this year with Chinese Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccine. And then gave priority to those over 60 years of age and those with underlying diseases followed by general public step by step. I have applied for my vaccination in early May to the social insurance via my company however received no reply from them whatsoever. With this application, it was not possible to choose which vaccination that I can receive from the choice of Sinovac, Sinopharm, or AstraZeneca. Our Thai staffs had applied their vaccination via hospitals and other medical institutions and some of them had already received their 1^st jab of AstraZeneca already at the end of June.   My husband is running a manufacturing company and as his company is employing a large number of people and therefore in order to avoid any cluster occurring, they were able to receive their 1^st jab on the very first day (7^th June) of the time when the general public was able to receive their 1^st jabs.   From our embassy, the Embassy of Japan, we’ve received invitation to temporally return to Japan to receive Pfizer vaccine however in order to do that, we need to be quarantined for some period each in both (Thailand & Japan) countries and was not at all realistic as all such costs had to be incurred by ourselves. I’ve tried very hard to apply for my jab with number of hospitals but there were too many information such as or being spreading and got so complicated that no one knew anymore what the situation was anymore and we weren’t able to apply for the vaccination on our own anymore.   Under such circumstances, we’ve received information from our embassy, the Embassy of Japan, on our vaccination.

Information dispatched by the Embassy of Japan for AstraZeneca vaccination

We’ve received invitation for vaccination for Japanese nationals from the Embassy of Japan. First for those of age 60 or over and with underlining disease, and then widened to those of age 50 and over and on 13^th August to those with age of 40 and above. As I am 45 years of age, I’ve received the invitation on 13^th August and I immediately made my vaccination reservation. There were several hospitals that I can choose from for my jab but I decided to have it at the Samitivej Hospital as it was the closest to my work and often went there whenever I needed to visit a hospital. When I made my reservation, I’ve received message mentioning that “will take 2 weeks from the reservation” and I thought “ok so it must be sometime in September…” But I got mail on 19^th August and received my 1^st jab on 24^th of August. The dates were already decided by the hospital. Once I had my 1^st jab, they gave me the date scheduled for my 2^nd one.

So finally, I had my 1^st AstraZeneca jab.

I received the message by mail sying that “please come at 14:00 – 14:30 on 24^th August” so I left my office at 13:30 to head for the Samitivej Hospital. The venue had separate reception, waiting room, vaccination place, and the follow-up place where to spend time after the jab to see if everything is ok. There were about 20 people at the venue for the vaccination, The vaccination went as smooth as any shots that you get anywhere and waiting of 30 minutes follow-up found no problem and I headed home and had my dinner as usual. I finished my dinner and took shower as usual and felt no difference from my any other evenings but…

Oh my god! Here it comes! My side effects were – shivering, headache, vomiting, and muscle pain

The vaccination day (24^th August 2021)

Just past 21:00, 6 hours after the vaccination…. I’ve decided to go to bed early and then felt that shivering that you always do before the body temperature goes up. Checked my temperature but it was just normal. My toes felt abnormally cold. Lower half of my body was freezing cold but it was boiling hot at the upper half. I didn’t know any more if I was feeling hot or cold. I had thick blankets over my feet and had no blanket at all on my upper body. As my face was very hot, I had an ice pillow under my head and neck. I was sweating like never before on my face and back. Several hours after I fell asleep, I was woken up by a pulsing headache. It was 1:00 in the middle of the night on the clock. I’ve took antipyretic (2 paracetamol pills) and tried to go back to sleep but the pulsing headache was so severe that I couldn’t sleep anymore until the morning.

2 days from the vaccination

The pulsing headache continued until the morning. I’ve had a light breakfast at around 7:00 in the morning but it didn’t stay too long in my stomach. After 40 minutes I was vomiting them. I’ve also taken some water but it also didn’t stay in my stomach. I didn’t want to eat anything but tried to have some apple but same result. As there were no sign of the pulsing headache going away, I’ve decided to go laydown in my bed. When kept my head cooler, I felt my head lighter therefore I’ve used ice pillow. I didn’t know any more if I was feeling hot or cold but I was sweating a lot. I was able to have some MISO soup for my dinner. And finally at around 21:00…. I felt somewhat better. My vomiting has stopped but headache didn’t go away. But it was not that pulsing headache but a lighter one. However, I had pain like a muscle pain on my left arm and left half of my body. Especially inside of my left ear and left side of the neck was having a pain. I still had some shivering therefore kept myself warm when going to bed.

3 days from the vaccination

The shivering went away and was able to wake up at my usual time in the morning. I was able to take my 3 meals but the headache was still there. I’ve taken care of myself and decided not to go to the office but worked from home. The muscle pains on left side of my body got worsen and I wasn’t able to lift my left arm up. And there were pain at my left side arm pit, hip, base of the left foot, and the left knee. I believe it was where the lymph node is. Come evening, my headache got better and was able to go to bed as usual.  

4 days from the vaccination.

I was able to live my normal daily life although I still had muscle pain on the left side of my body. My appetite came back. I could still find headache when I tried to feel it but could work as usual therefore I went to office to work. And after those bad days, I was able to work as usual, go home as usual, have my meals as usual and sleep as usual.

What would be a good idea to prepare oneself for side effects

These were what I’ve prepared for my side reaction.  

[A gel sheet] for your forehead (such as KoolFever)

Those gel sheets that you apply to your forehead are useful when you have fever. I get migraine from time to time therefore I always keep this sheet at home to keep my head cool as it helps to reduce the pain. This sheet really came in very handy this time as well.  

[Gel pad] (such as Nexcare ColdHot Maxi)

It is a gel state pad and I use the big size ones. I believe that family with kids keeps them in the fridge in case the kids get sudden fever. Or not? This gel pad also came in handy this time. I’ve wrapped it with towel and used as a pillow. This can also be used as heating gel as well as cooling gel. One of my friends who used to have menstrual pain had it heated and applied on her stomach.  

[Electrolyte drink] (Such as Royal-D and POCARISWEAT)

As I was heavily vomiting, I had it ready so as not to fall into dehydration. Many families I believe may have them ready in case someone in the family has diarrhea or when they play sports. I’ve taken it into my body slowly at the room temperature. It helped me a lot as when I took the drink, it stopped my vomiting.  

Summary

So, I talked about my own side effects experience from receiving AstraZeneca jab. My husband had none whatsoever side effects and there were some employees with the effects and some without depending on the person. What I’ve talked about is based purely on my own experience and may not apply for everybody.