V-safe symptom question

[Jean in Newcastle]

I am four days post first vaccination (Pfizer if it matters).  I only had what I consider vaccination side effects for the first night and day afterwards.  Then I've been fine.  But yesterday we went for a hike and last night I had a rough night and now am in a fibro flare.  But when I get the v-safe checklist today a lot of the side effect questions match how I feel in a flare.  Dh (an RN if it matters) says that it's not my job to diagnose myself (even though I'm 99.9% sure that this is fibro and not vaccination related) and to just put down yes to "achy joints, muscles" etc. etc. etc.  But if I do that, I will be skewing the CDC's results, right?  (And I know that I am just a blip in the thousands of people participating but still. . . )  What do you think? 

[Katy]

1 minute ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I am four days post first vaccination (Pfizer if it matters).  I only had what I consider vaccination side effects for the first night and day afterwards.  Then I've been fine.  But yesterday we went for a hike and last night I had a rough night and now am in a fibro flare.  But when I get the v-safe checklist today a lot of the side effect questions match how I feel in a flare.  Dh (an RN if it matters) says that it's not my job to diagnose myself (even though I'm 99.9% sure that this is fibro and not vaccination related) and to just put down yes to "achy joints, muscles" etc. etc. etc.  But if I do that, I will be skewing the CDC's results, right?  (And I know that I am just a blip in the thousands of people participating but still. . . )  What do you think? 

It’s not skewing results if you’re being honest.  🤷🏻‍♀️  

[Jean in Newcastle]

5 minutes ago, Katy said:

It’s not skewing results if you’re being honest.  🤷🏻‍♀️  

But the purpose is to log post vaccination side effects, right?  And I don't think that these are that. 

[Pawz4me]

I’d judge it on your normal. As someone with RA there’s not a day my joints don’t ache to some degree or other. But I know my range of normal. I’d check anything that was more than that. You know you. 

[Tanaqui]

It could be both things. Perhaps the vaccine has more side effects with people with certain conditions. They can only find that if people with those conditions don't second guess these things. If you're having pain outside the norm, better to tell the CDC.

[Junie]

(As someone with RA) I wouldn't report it.  I would just chalk it up to overdoing it.

[prairiewindmomma]

I'm feeling mixed on this.

I've been told by rheumy to expect to flare a bit with the vaccine....and that is a normal side effect for people with my profile.  

I would mention achy muscles and joints, because you really can't distinguish between the two. This is why it's so important to have very large reporting numbers of people---somewhere in the aggregate, it will all work out.  If it really is fibro and not vaccine related, then your data should fall into that 1-5% (totally made up numbers) of a less common reaction.

So....leaning with your dh on this one.

BTW, congrats on the vax!

[Jean in Newcastle]

17 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

BTW, congrats on the vax!

Thanks.  I was so happy when I got the notification that I was now eligible.  This is the one time that having multiple health problems has been in my favor! 

[Bootsie]

I would report it.  The CDC should look at the results compared to what would be considered "normal" incidence of aches, pains, fever, naseaua in the population. 

[Spy Car]

Jean, I also wouldn't check it if I were convinced that I was experiencing my "normal" as, like you, I would not want to skew the results.

If the aches were abnormal (for self) that would be another story.

I am so happy to know you have your first shot.

Bill

 

[Acadie]

I agree with your dh, that your job is simply to report symptoms, not to determine causation. It's possible vaccines are putting people with fibromyalgia, Lyme, any one of the number of other conditions into flares, so I think it's relevant. And I imagine v-safe is comparing data on potential side effects with the occurrence of those symptoms in the general population, so they will be accounting for that. 

[Farrar]

The whole goal of V-safe is to get a ton of data. I'd report it.

I get migraines. They're often triggered by allergies. Pollen is insane right now. I got a headache that became a migraine after my shot. It easily could have happened anyway. I still reported it.

[Jaybee]

I reported my headaches. But the last thing you can check is for other symptoms. So on that part, which allows for you to type in an answer, I typed in that my headaches could also be caused by allergies, because the pollen counts were high. I don't know how they compile the data, but it made me feel like I was answering more completely.

[Katy]

You can always be specific in the blank space. 

[SKL]

Hopefully they will compare what happens after the vax to what happens in absence of the vax.  They know that some things will happen to people regardless of the vax.  If people don't report because they think it could be caused by something else, then won't the research be skewed away from actual effects of the vax?