Last week, I received my second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

Dose number two was definitely different compared to dose number one.

How so? Let me start by going over the fatigue I felt. It started to hit me around 9 P.M. on Tuesday evening, several hours after I received my shot. I just felt sleepier than I normally do at that time, and as a result, I went to bed as early as I could.

I woke up a few times in the middle of the night because of the pain that I felt radiating throughout my upper arm. I couldn’t believe how sore it felt! In fact, the site was so tender that sleeping on the left side of my body was a no-go – I didn’t want to do anything to increase the ache in my arm. Other than that, the only other disrupter to my sleep was feeling a little chillier than usual, though that was quickly fixed with the addition of another blanket.

So that was how I fared overnight. What about the morning? I slept later than usual, only rousing to turn off my alarm and drink a bottle of water (I’d heard that staying hydrated would help). I got out of bed around 10:15 A.M., only because I couldn’t sleep anymore and wanted to try to get some work done. But when I stood up for the first time, I recognized that my body was achy, like it was trying to recover from an intense workout I’d done the day before. It was nothing too terrible, but definitely noticeable.

I ate a small breakfast and logged onto my work computer, convinced that I could power through my soreness and grogginess and work the rest of the day. Boy, was I wrong. By the time I got out a meeting that went from 12:30-1:30, I was incredibly tired. Pressure had built in my head and behind my eyes to the point that they were very heavy, and I was so cold that two blankets and a cup of tea were doing nothing to warm me up. My mom (bless her) retrieved a heating pad for me which helped me get warm enough to comfortably fall asleep and take my first nap of the day.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was a cycle of waking up, trying to get out of bed, realizing I was too fatigued to do anything other than lay around, and either succumbing to more sleep or snuggling with my puppy and my parents’ dog. By the time I went to bed (for real) that night, I was starting to wonder whether I’d wake up feeling the same, or if my symptoms would subside come morning.

And guess what? I was 100% back to normal the next day! The moment I opened my eyes, I knew that I was back in commission. The only side effect I still felt was soreness in my upper arm, but even that went away about 48 hours or so after I got the shot.

The very best part (besides being fully vaccinated, of course) is that my blood sugars were not seemingly impacted by the vaccine. Maybe they ran slightly higher than usual, but I’d chalk that up to my lack of movement throughout the day rather than blame it on the shot (I wasn’t feeling well enough to go on my daily walk or do my exercise circuit; that, coupled with laying around all day, meant that I’d run a little high whether or not I’d just been vaccinated).

So yeah, I was mentally and physically tired the day after I got my vaccine, and my arm was a bit sore. Those side effects were more than worth it. Now that I’ve received both doses of the Moderna vaccine, I’ll continue to mask up and practice social distancing in public, but I’ll also now gather with fully vaccinated family members and friends to make up for lost time…and do so with far less anxiety and fear now that we’re all more protected.