I just got the Pfizer vaccine. (No issues whatsoever as far as my allergies go.) I got it about two and a half hours ago and can already tell my arm is going to be sore. Fingers crossed I don’t get too many side effects. But at least tomorrow is Sunday, if I do need to rest.
Thanks for sharing your autoimmune-vaccine issues. @cardamom . When I know more… I will try to share mine…
Hey all, been a while
In case it is useful to anyone, just wanted to give my experience with the Covid vaccine because I had symptomatic Covid (& tested positive) in January and then went on to be vaccinated.
I could also perhaps separately discuss the experience of having Covid, though quite honestly I did not have too much trouble with the BG management aspect. (I have previously seen that my sick day needs are considerably different than a lot of the T1D community though, as I rarely need more then like a 10-20% basal boost when sick.) I was symptomatic for about 4 full weeks though, so there was concern about becoming a “Covid long-hauler” for a little while there.
I was advised by some of the Immunology MD/PhDs in my life to wait 3 months or longer after recovering from Covid to be vaccinated in order to reduce the likelihood of having severe reactions to the vaccine, (which I did). So although I became eligible through work in mid January, I was symptomatic Jan 6th - about Jan 29th (tested positive Jan 7th) and I ultimately received my two doses of Pfizer in early May & early June. With both doses I ended up with a sore arm the next day and perhaps a touch of fatigue, but no other reaction. I do have the sense that my BG was somewhat harder to manage for the month between my two doses (which is backed up by Dexcom Clarity data somewhat; jump in GMI from 7.0% to 7.2%) but this is totally confounded by the fact that I was considerably busier and more stressed in the month between my two doses than the month before, so no real way to definitively blame the vaccine for it.
It has been awhile! Great to see you post. Hope your research work is very fulfilling! Sorry you caught Covid, even though it didn’t turn out so bad, it just doesn’t sound like much fun. Would love to hear how things are going though.
Thank you! Yes Covid was not fun at all haha.
Things are going well! I have really enjoyed my research projects over the past couple of years, it’s been a wild ride and I’ve learned a lot. I am actually now a few short weeks away from a move back to California, where I’ll be joining a new lab and hopefully learning lots of cool new things I liked Boston but I’ve ultimately decided that I think seasons are overrated, most of the burritos in New England are borderline inedible, and being a 6.5 hour plane ride away from friends and family turned out to be even harder than anticipated due to the pandemic.
Diabetes-wise things are well! I am perhaps slightly too reliant on Control IQ at the moment, in that if I applied more attention to things I’m sure my control could be somewhat better. I am feeling a bit stretched thin though, so I am content to let the algorithm take on the brunt of the thinking for right now
Are you planning on pursuing a PhD, or just slaving away in people’s labs? Eating burritos in Boston? I am not sure I have heard anything so blasphemous. Control IQ is the bomb, Cody has moved into the same approach you are taking as he heads off to college in a few weeks.
Glad to see you pop in, @glitzabetes! I was wondering how things were going!!
I am still planning on a PhD, I actually applied this last cycle but things didn’t turn out in my favor (for a variety of reasons but I will blame Covid most of all - not only did lab shutdowns put a damper on my ability to finish/publish projects before applying. I literally was still recovering from Covid during interviews and was not really my best self for the 8 straight hours of zoom calls). My new gig is actually in a lab at my top choice school, which hopefully should help out in my next attempt! Lots more opportunity to ingratiate myself to faculty members
Glad to hear Cody is enjoying Control IQ as well, and congrats on the graduation and impending start of college!!
Thank you @T1Allison! Happy to get to catch up with ya’ll
As a fellow Californian, this really spoke to me, haha!
I think seasons are overrated, most of the burritos in New England are borderline inedible, and being a 6.5 hour plane ride away from friends and family turned out to be even harder than anticipated due to the pandemic.
As a Boston resident, it also spoke to me. I absolutely agree about the burritos. Respectfully disagree about the seasons. Although maybe one’s love of seasons comes from where you grew up.
I lived in Palo Alto California for a year back in my youth and for the first 20 years of my return to Massachusetts I thought I would go back West. It certainly is beautiful and so much friendlier too.
In New England you learn to appreciate adversity - bad weather, insects, traffic, unfriendly people, horrible burritos. All of this is good practice for diabetes management!
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