The COVID vaccine isn’t the most terrifying thing in the world. When you first get poked by the needle, it feels no more painful than a mosquito bite. A few hours after getting jabbed, however, some nasty side effects start to pop up. Your arm becomes a sore, limp noodle. You feel nauseous and dizzy. And if you’re getting your second dose like I did three days ago, you get a burning fever. After getting both doses and seeing all my family members getting both doses as well, here are some tips that will help you make your vaccine side effects as painless as possible.
Before getting vaccinated, keep your body healthy and give yourself a lot of energy.
The vaccine works by triggering your immune response to COVID-19, and this immune response takes up a lot of energy. This, in turn, causes all of the vaccine’s side effects. Because the vaccine throws your body into overdrive, you should give yourself as much energy and strength as possible, so you can have enough energy for your immune response and to function with as little pain as possible. In the week leading up to my first and second dose, I ran 1.5 kilometers every day, ate fresh fruits and vegetables, and drank a full bottle of water. As a result, my body had a healthy supply of energy that allowed me to recover from vaccine side effects in less than two days. Make sure to pay attention to this especially on the day of your vaccine.
After getting vaccinated, drink water continuously.
Drinking lots of water helps with the flu and the cold, and it also helps relieve vaccine side effects. This is because your immune system needs water to function in many ways. Water boosts your circulation, speeds up your digestion, and cleans out waste in your body. Once you get vaccinated, fill up a bottle of water and drink it frequently. As soon as you finish the bottle, fill it up again and keep drinking. This is especially helpful if the vaccine makes you feel congested, because drinking water will clear out your sinuses.
Right after you get jabbed and your arm isn’t sore yet, move your jabbed arm around.
Arm soreness is the vaccine’s most frequent side effect. This is because your arm swells with blood to distribute the COVID antibodies and white blood cells created by the vaccine-triggered immune response. Moving and flexing your jabbed arm as much as possible before the soreness sets in will increase blood flow in the arm. As a result, the antibodies can travel around easier in your bloodstream and your arm swells less as a result. Doing this is very important! I didn’t move my arm at all after my first dose, and my arm felt like it was on fire a few hours after getting jabbed. However, I flexed and swung my arm after the second dose, and after the same amount of time, my arm was far less sore. My mom had the same experience, so this was definitely helpful to my family.
Sleep a lot (but not on your sore arm).
Sleeping is the best way to conserve energy. As said before, your body uses a lot of energy after getting vaccinated. If you sleep enough, you will have enough energy to produce an immune response without feeling too tired. However, if you like sleeping on your side, remember not to sleep on your sore arm! Putting pressure on the sore arm will cut off the blood flow there, undoing the effect of your arm flexing.
And that’s about it, at least from my experience! If you have any other tips on getting vaccinated, feel free to leave them in the comments below. If you’re uncertain about getting vaccinated, you can check out my post about getting my first dose. And despite all the vaccine’s side effects, their benefits highly outweigh their risks. While the side effects are painful, I’m glad to be fully immunized!
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