The Lemon Fool

PinkDalek wrote:

tjh290633 wrote:The point was made very forcibly in mine and my wife's invitations that one must take your NHS number with you. An old prescription will have it.

As does my (old?) NHS card.

Despite that, neither of us were required, forcibly or otherwise, to take our NHS number with us. Maybe that’s because we’d already said yes and when to the vaccine (using https://book.nhs.me/) and they had a printed sheet of paper available for me to hand over to the vaccinator.

Probably many vaccine centres have different procedures.

Did your invitation come by post?

Mine was email, hers indoors was by phone.

TJH

tjh290633 wrote:

Sobraon wrote:Slightly against the flow of the thread but in line with the OP. Had the OxAZ injection on Thursday, I was aware that I had been given the jab on Friday but otherwise nothing. Mrs S was out of sorts on Thursday night and Friday (but that may have been me rather than the vaccination ). She took about 4 doses of paracetamol over the two days.

As an aside my estimate of the set up was that the centre was running at about 25% of capacity (half was closed and the other half was running at half load). There were a lot of staff not fully employed. It took about and hour to get through, and if you don't take your NHS number (they don't tell you to do this) they have to look it up and manually write it down on a scrap of paper ( I kid you not). I know the vaccination facility at our county's largest hospital (Lincoln) was put onto 'hibernation' about a month ago so I suspect the limiting factor on vaccination rate is the supply of vaccine to the Midlands and North of England.

The point was made very forcibly in mine and my wife's invitations that one must take your NHS number with you. An old prescription will have it.

TJH

Last week it was widely reported that there was a significantly restrained supply of vaccine, it is supposed to "ramp up" this week.

I was not told to bring my NHS number, while waiting in line though there was a sign showing you how to look it up online. I did not do this and at no stage during the process was I asked for my number. I was asked for the six digit code number I had been given with my appointment. The first woman I spoke to expressed some surprise when she asked me for this number and I reeled it off having memorised it...not a difficult task!

John

UncleEbenezer wrote:

bee12345 wrote:I had the AZ vaccine at 3:40pm, and felt fine for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Went to bed at 9:30 which is earlier than usual for me because of needing to have an early start the following morning. Took a couple of paracetamol before going to bed because I'd heard it would be a good idea.

Can you normally get away with that?

If I go to bed early for an early start, I'll be unable to sleep, and it might lead to something tending towards your story.

Nope, never works, but I always try in the hope that it might! I don't ever get stabbing pains and a high temperature though!

redsturgeon wrote:Just checked my antibody levels one week after the OxAz vaccine. Used two different rapid lateral flow tests and both showed negative. Not surprised and will check again at two weeks.John

Are those blood or saliva?

supremetwo wrote:

redsturgeon wrote:Just checked my antibody levels one week after the OxAz vaccine. Used two different rapid lateral flow tests and both showed negative. Not surprised and will check again at two weeks.John

Are those blood or saliva?

Blood.

redsturgeon wrote:

supremetwo wrote:

redsturgeon wrote:Just checked my antibody levels one week after the OxAz vaccine. Used two different rapid lateral flow tests and both showed negative. Not surprised and will check again at two weeks.John

Are those blood or saliva?

Blood.

Are saliva antibody tests available?

And since we're on the topic of saliva tests I know there was work going on in the UK and elsewhere to try to get saliva-based antigen tests developed and in some countries they have been available for ages(*) but does anyone know what the current status of that work is in the UK now? Is it still an ambition to develop such tests and if yes are we getting closer? Looking simply at the taking of the sample it seems to me that a saliva test would be a big benefit in terms of removing the possibility of a poor swabbing technique giving a false negative and also to increase the likelihood of frequent testing regimens being complied with since taking a test would be quicker and less uncomfortable for the person being tested.

- Julian

(*) I read an article by a travel writer really a very long time ago now, at least 6 months ago, about flying into Hong Kong during the fairly early stages of the pandemic and having to sit in a big hall airside for about 3 hours while he waited for his saliva-based test results to come back before being allowed to enter the country. What particularly struck me at the time was that it was a saliva-based test.

redsturgeon wrote:

supremetwo wrote:

redsturgeon wrote:Just checked my antibody levels one week after the OxAz vaccine. Used two different rapid lateral flow tests and both showed negative. Not surprised and will check again at two weeks.John

Are those blood or saliva?

Blood.

Tested positive antibody blood lateral flow here on 31Jan. First Pfizer vaccine was on 7th Jan.

Snorvey wrote:I had the Az/Ox vaccine yesterday around half 4.

I took a couple of paracetamol at around 10.30pm (even though I was feeling fine). Woke up at 3am feeling a bit achey, slept on and off till 7. Woke up with a feeling a bit like mild flu symptoms - aches (joints head etc), but nothing that a couple of paracetamol and a glass of cold water didn't sort out.

Feeling fine now. I'll probably take paracetamol for the rest of the day though.

Might be better not to.

Dr John Campbell on youtube was explaining the other day how a high temperature is part of the body's immune response to infection, or to a vaccine, and there is a school of thought that suppressing a fever with antipyretics also reduces the immune response, and therefore possibly also reduces the effectiveness of the vaccine shot you just had.

He was actually calling for research on this point as it is actually quite important. In the meantime he suggests not taking anything to suppress any fever following vaccination.

Well, this is strange. I had the Astrazeneca vaccine on 21 Jan. And no immediate ill effects at all, this being usual for me whenever I have my annual 'flu jab.

Anyway, over the last few days, say a week or so, I have become aware of an occasional ache more or less where the injection was done. Doesn't stop me doing anything, and I suspect nothing to do with the jab, but it is strange. I do not propose doing anything about it.

ten0rman

ten0rman wrote:Well, this is strange. I had the Astrazeneca vaccine on 21 Jan. And no immediate ill effects at all, this being usual for me whenever I have my annual 'flu jab.

Anyway, over the last few days, say a week or so, I have become aware of an occasional ache more or less where the injection was done. Doesn't stop me doing anything, and I suspect nothing to do with the jab, but it is strange. I do not propose doing anything about it.

ten0rman

I had the AZN jab 3 weeks ago.
At the 2 week mark I started to feel achey and had a headache. Still feel a bit yuk.
May be nothing to do with it, but my money is on a delayed reaction. Antibodies take a couple of weeks to appear, apparently.

UncleEbenezer wrote:A few days after my Pfizer, I've been suffering horrible cramp, which is not at all usual for me. Could be coincidence, or could be a side-effect. If the latter then I should upgrade from "slight" to "middling" side-effects!

More cramp today. This time as I walked out of Lidl this evening, with a fairly heavy backpack full of provisions. I was quite concerned for a while about making it home, but paced myself slowly and walked a shorter route than usual.

This is not something I expect at all. I wonder if I should report it?

UncleEbenezer wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:A few days after my Pfizer, I've been suffering horrible cramp, which is not at all usual for me. Could be coincidence, or could be a side-effect. If the latter then I should upgrade from "slight" to "middling" side-effects!

More cramp today. This time as I walked out of Lidl this evening, with a fairly heavy backpack full of provisions. I was quite concerned for a while about making it home, but paced myself slowly and walked a shorter route than usual.

This is not something I expect at all. I wonder if I should report it?

Tangentially, a brilliant and near-instant treatment for cramp is to drink a glass of tonic water. If you get cramp whilst out and about, buy some of those little mini-cans of Schweppes that supermarkets sell, carry one with you and drink it on the spot when cramp hits. They take effect and get rid of the cramp in around 60 seconds, quite remarkable.

My GP advised me to try this years ago when I was getting serious leg muscle cramps in the night and I find tonic water works brilliantly. My GP says the quinine is the effective ingredient. He said (IIRC) that cramp is caused by a failure or corruption of the of nerve comms between muscle and brain, and quinine has been found to fix it. They don't yet understand how or why, only that it does. This certain helped me and a couple of peeps I know too. Do report back if you decide to try it out!


(Poxy spell check interfering, plus a bit of minor editing for clarity.)

Mike4 wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:A few days after my Pfizer, I've been suffering horrible cramp, which is not at all usual for me. Could be coincidence, or could be a side-effect. If the latter then I should upgrade from "slight" to "middling" side-effects!

More cramp today. This time as I walked out of Lidl this evening, with a fairly heavy backpack full of provisions. I was quite concerned for a while about making it home, but paced myself slowly and walked a shorter route than usual.

This is not something I expect at all. I wonder if I should report it?

Tangentially, a brilliant and near-instant treatment for cramp is to drink a glass of tonic water. If you get cramp whilst out and about, buy some of those little mini-cans of Schweppes that supermarkets sell, carry one with you and drink it on the spot when cramp hits. They take effect and get rid of the cramp in around 60 seconds, quite remarkable.

My GP advised me to try this years ago when I was getting serious leg muscle cramps in the night and I find tonic water works brilliantly. My GP says the quinine is the effective ingredient. He said (IIRC) that cramp is caused by a failure or corruption of the of nerve comms between muscle and brain, and quinine has been found to fix it. They don't yet understand how or why, only that it does. This certain helped me and a couple of peeps I know too. Do report back if you decide to try it out!


(Poxy spell check interfering, plus a bit of minor editing for clarity.)

Hmmm, Thanks for that (if it works ...)

Now that you mention it, I recollect once being asked to get a bottle of tonic for someone, who explained it would have been difficult for her. If she mentioned cramp explicitly I've forgotten, but it would certainly explain asking me rather than going herself.

Snorvey wrote:

Snorvey wrote:Cheers for that Mike.

I don't really need to take Paracetamol, it is really very mild. So I shall soldier on without.

Edit: Just to say the nurse and the leaflet they give away at the end says paracetamol can be taken to reduce the side effects of the vaccine.

Well a bit of a fevery night, but with no paracetamol taken. Feel fine this morning though.

Jabbed (Astra/Oxford) at 11:30am yesterday, was fine for most of the day but then developed cold shivers at around 11pm. Went to bed with a hot water bottle and felt comfortable, woke up in the morning feeling somewhat groggy/heady, but by midday I was back to feeling fine again. Speaking with some 'medics' who had already been vaccinated weeks ago and it seems that the first 24 hours type issues before getting back to normal is quite common.

Has anyone else had anything 2 weeks later?

ten0rman wrote:Well, this is strange. I had the Astrazeneca vaccine on 21 Jan. And no immediate ill effects at all, this being usual for me whenever I have my annual 'flu jab.

Anyway, over the last few days, say a week or so, I have become aware of an occasional ache more or less where the injection was done. Doesn't stop me doing anything, and I suspect nothing to do with the jab, but it is strange. I do not propose doing anything about it.

ten0rman

Hm. I had the Pfizer vaccine on the 4th Feb.

Usual minor upper arm ache. But I've still got it, 5 weeks on. Doesn't stop me doing anything, but definitely a side-effect. Not too happy about having a second jab. I shall be using the yellow card system.

FWIW I heard an 'expert' say on R4 last night that in general the Pfizer vaccine produces little or no side effects after the first dose but there is sometimes a bigger reaction after the 2nd and with the Oxford AZN one it is the other way round.

My neighbour had his first Oxford job recently and had quite severe flu-like side effects. We thought that might be showing that it was working well but the expert says that is not the case; it is just one's personal immune response.

It might be worthwhile if this thread were retitled First Dose, and another thread started for Second Dose?

V8

Bouleversee wrote:FWIW I heard an 'expert' say on R4 last night that in general the Pfizer vaccine produces little or no side effects after the first dose but there is sometimes a bigger reaction after the 2nd and with the Oxford AZN one it is the other way round.

My neighbour had his first Oxford job recently and had quite severe flu-like side effects. We thought that might be showing that it was working well but the expert says that is not the case; it is just one's personal immune response.

Correct. It's info from the Zoe Covid-19 symptom tracker project which is now also collecting a lot of data about vaccine side effects as well. They did a webinar about a week ago where they covered this. Unfortunately it's another hour-long marathon and I can't remember at all who presented that bit of the data or when in the session it was but if anyone wants to hear it "from the horses mouth" and has an hour to spare the link is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoCDpIK ... hannel=ZOE

- Julian

Snorvey wrote:

Bouleversee wrote:FWIW I heard an 'expert' say on R4 last night that in general the Pfizer vaccine produces little or no side effects after the first dose

Maybe it's because.....

Just read a short piece from a hospital consultant - 'As I reported on here at the time, he said he was seeing large numbers of vaccinations being done using ineffective (in his opinion) batches of Pfizer vaccine. Batches made ineffective by the handling instructions being breached, but the vaccine being administered regardless.

His view was that the Pfizer vaccine is so unstable and it's handling so critical that it will eventually cease to be used. Batches in his hospital are getting regularly and inadvertently spoiled by minor breaches of the handling instructions which unskilled staff think inconsequential, and he thinks this will become clearer as the stats on each type of vaccine accumulate.


Hat tip to Mike4

I just posted a link to the Pfizer handling instructions on another thread. It's double jeopardy, not just the cold chain but it needs to be diluted and then mixed very, very carefully without actually shaking it so that's another thing to potentially go wrong. Details here - https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/i ... ummary.pdf

- Julian