After some research, it appears the vaccine arrives as a liquid. I don’t know why, but it appears the undiluted vaccine can be thawed in a refrigerator for a few days, but you must use it within a few hours once you reconstitute it with the diluent.
So, that’s why, but I can’t tell you why that’s why.
Every time I need blood drawn, they can’t find an appropriate blood vessel in my arm and end up having to do it from my hand. The person drawing the blood is typically more nervous about it than I am.
LOL at me going on a 7-hour hike.
iirc, one of the theories to why this happens is that it’s a vestigial response to danger—once upon a time, in some percentage of seemingly life-threatening situations, enough animals did better by appearing to drop dead that a vasovagal response evolved into our ancestors and persists in some small percentage of humans today who feel faint mostly at needles and the sight of blood. I don’t know if this is true but it makes sense and obv it is still Plan A for plenty of animals.
anyway it has nothing to do with how tough or how squeamish or how anything a person is. Some people are just wired this way. And you’re right that if there’s a solution, it’s not:
BRAIN: ok brain, let’s use our reason and convince brain that what’s about to happen isn’t dangerous
BRAIN: oooo sharpy sharpy it thirsts for blood I’m out
since what’s making you faint is a drop in blood pressure and/or heart rate your best bet is to try to raise your blood pressure immediately before the shot. One idea is to clench all the muscles in your arm and torso like hulk. Do that until you feel your head tingle. Then relax. Then hulk out again once or twice. You’ll look like an idiot, and you’ll feel like a real idiot if you still also faint. But you might not. And at least then you’ll know.
The most important thing to do is to tell the practitioner beforehand so if you faint they know to give you the shot in a place where your head isn’t going to coconut conk from a distance, and that they also know what to do after to get your blood pressure going again
India has been added to a “red list” of countries from which most travel to the UK is banned, over fears of a new Covid variant, the health secretary has said.
B1.617 about to become a VOC instead of a VOI
The most likely reason is your age.
On the bright side, I definitely know I wasn’t injected with saline.
I used to faint from having blood drawn but after I started getting annual blood tests done as part of my physical with my doctor it just went away. So it seems like exposure can reduce this response (at least for n = 1 = me).
My guess is there’s no way you’re getting the undiluted stuff through an insulin needle. But who knows maybe it’s cold and thin somehow.
Yea i always tell them I WILL faint and then i wake up and there’s 4 nurses freaking out around me like they didn’t believe me or something.
One semi-interesting piece of anecdotal medical evidence regarding my second shot:
I had recently been to the cardiologist and he said my BP was crazy high. I told me to buy a BP monitor and start tracking it myself. Last week was the first week I was tracking (well, I tried the previous week, but I was a moron and couldn’t get a proper reading).
The day I got my second shot was the first day I started doing readings twice a day (I had been doing once a day, but in a follow-up call, the doc said he wants me to do twice a day, 3x a week and then send him the results after a month). The morning reading, while very high, was lower than it had been for a few days. The evening reading was about six hours after my shot and was the highest reading I had taken, by far, since got the BP machine.
I wish I could’ve recorded my BP when I had my vasovagal reaction - would’ve looked great!
EDIT: My reading around noon today was my lowest in a week, so progress?
I have two BP meters and they are all over the place. I actually think I get better results out of the cheaper wrist one than the arm one. I always try to drink a glass of water and relax first.
The crazy thing is even in the doctor’s office or giving blood the first reading is always like 20% higher than the second for some reason. I’m not convinced these things are super accurate.
Has he put you on BP meds? Not a doctor but wouldn’t be surprised by vaccine reaction boosting BP.
Part of me is certainly concerned that a home device won’t give an accurate measurement (or human error will cause it), but the results so far seem reasonable. Lower than when I was in the doctor’s office (twice this month), but still in the “holy shit, it’s almost time to go to the hospital” range. And I’ve been watching my sodium intake for a couple weeks now, so I won’t be surprised if it starts trending downwards.
No, not yet. Sounds like he wants to see what happens with diet and exercise first (have done the diet, need to get to the exercise). And yeah, I wasn’t too surprised at the higher BP reading, especially because I was already starting to feel shitty from the vaccine. Just thought it was mildly interesting.
Didn’t see your posts earlier, but your story is classic for vasovagal syncope. Everything from being sleepy to going to the bathroom to the description of your symptoms are classic for it. Wouldn’t worry about it.
edit: and scrolling down that seems like that’s a very unhelpful post from me… good luck with your bp, mine sucks ass.
I was curious so I looked up the Pfizer vaccine prep instructions. The saline gets added to the vial in which the vaccine solution arrives. I don’t understand how someone could get a 100% saline shot.
Idiocy. They probably just drew up from a vial of saline instead of vaccine.
That’s why I always taste my vaccines before the injection