Sore arm after Covid vaccine?

[ihearttc]

I had my vaccine yesterday afternoon (I’m 44 and a TA, our local hub offered it to all school staff). I expected my arm to be painful today but it’s really painful and I just wondered if anyone knew why this vaccine is causing such a lot of pain in people at the injection site?

I have Pernicious Anaemia and have a B12 injection every 10 weeks. If anyone has ever seen the needle they use for that, it’s quite big and goes quite deep as the B12 is a really thick liquid but I’ve never had any issues post injection with that.

It doesn’t really matter because I’m sure it will go soon enough, just wondering why this has such a different response.

I'm not sure if needle size is relevant, maybe a nurse would be able to answer this?

It just seems to be a thing that this vaccine makes your arm feel really sore. Take some paracetamol.

@musicalfrog

No I realise it probably isn’t...it was just to give people an idea that I’m very used to injections and they don’t usually cause me any pain so I wasn’t sure why this one was so different.

I can’t take paracetamol but have taken some ibuprofen.

My arm was sore afterwards but not half as sore as after my flu jab - the side effects after the AZ were bloody awful too!

My arm ached for 5 days, after 2 or 3 days I couldn't actually lift my arm above my head. From what I read on here that wasn't uncommon. Felt like I had glass shards in my upper arm.

I suffered with awful pain which kept getting worse for 5 days before it eased off. My arm, shoulder and neck were swollen and I had restricted movement of my arm. I had never heard of Covid arm before this. Thankfully it started to ease and was normal after 9 days.

After my first jab my arm was sore fir almost a week, it's a very common side effect. After my second jab, I had soreness again but not as bad as first time. This time I also had some armpit swelling and fatigue but all symptoms were gone within a few days. I'm 45 and had the Pfizer vaccine.

The soreness is less to do with the puncture than the vaccine itself. It may be the excipients (the other ingredients apart from the vaccine) or it’s the immune response.

If you think about an insect sting or bite, it’s not the mechanical damage that causes the reaction, it’s the venom or saliva that the insect injects. Similar thing.

That makes total sense, thank you.

I expected it to be painful after speaking to other people but I’m so used to injections that I didn’t think it would bother me so much!

I had a slightly sore arm.
Interestingly, having had the flu jab for probably 20 years I find the level of soreness varies year on year.
Don't know if it is what they put in, or to do with the injection technique.
Either way I find it a very minor side effect for massive benefit.

45 and had Pfizer. The needle size they use is tiny as it enables them to get more jabs out of each vial.

First time - felt like shit for a day, sore arm for another day.

Second time - sore arm went on and on and on. DH got annoyed at me whinging and was saying 'still?' We'll see what he'll like when he has his...

The pneumonia jab is the one that gave me waking in the night soreness.
Still major gain for little pain.

Arm pain is a very normal response after vaccines. This is nothing compared to a tetanus vaccine and no different to the flu vaccine

I’ve never had the flu vaccine so can’t compare.

I had the Pfizer yesterday too. Also a very sore arm today and some nausea.

Our hub called in school staff yesterday too!

I had 4 jabs about 5 yrs ago for a trip to Africa.
2 in each arm.
One of my arms was super sore after, for at least a week. Other arm was fine.
Soreness after covid jab was very trivial in comparison. Gone for me after 4 days.

I remember soreness after tetanus & Tb jab, too.
Not flu, though ,I had flu jab in autumn 2019 & nothing from that.
I presume that high variations in how we respond each time is Normal.

I had

Sore arms after vaccines isn’t an uncommon side effect.

I had about a week of sore arm, maybe felt a bit bleh for a few hours the next day but apart from that ok.

The arm was more painful than my flu jab, I'd agree. Pain completely better after the week though.

www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/why-your-arm-might-be-sore-after-getting-vaccine

I don't think it's much to do with the drug or needle. I inject meds every week and have done for years. I swapped what I took, to the exact same medication but a different carrier... And my site reactions stopped. I got huge, absolutely massive site reactions from the original drug for years and then absolutely nothing to the replacement one. Needles the same, the drug itself the same... It will have just been something in the carrier liquid.

Site reactions to vaccines are really really normal

I give vaccinations. Needle size is irrelevant, all the vaccs go into the muscle. IM injections are typically painful but I can only think this one is SO sore because it’s a new vaccine? And your body has never received it before. The drug volume is tiny too (0.3mls)

@OpheliasCrayon

Thank you that’s really interesting. I had assumed it was the actual needle going through muscle that caused the pain and couldn’t figure out why I don’t normally have any issue. I didn’t for one minute think it might be the solution itself.

I have never had such a sore arm in my life as when I had my COVID vaccine. The next day I couldn’t move it, it became incredibly swollen, was throbbing, very hot. It took two weeks for it to subside. Never had this reaction with any other injection

It was very quick for me, seemed quicker than other jabs, so very tiny volume makes sense. Thanks for that info.

I think it can just vary from vaccine to vaccine. Both my doses were on a par with this years flu vaccine which gave me a sorer arm than normal.

No where near as bad as the monovalent swine flu vaccine which hurt like hell for about 2 weeks.