Yesterday was my fourth and final Novavax trial shot. Berck got his last week. That night he reported that his whole back hurt and he felt terrible, although that was a pretty good excuse to not have to drive home from Serrano’s. Also, he couldn’t sleep on his arm.

The fourth shot felt about like the third one, hurting going in. Then my muscle felt like it was hurting a little bit while I waited for the 30 minutes before I could leave. It felt like I had worked out really hard at the gym.

Then last night I woke up around 2:30 a.m. with my arm hurting really badly and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I had told my boss that I would plan to work from home the day after my shot just in case, but then yesterday I got an e-mail saying there would be mandatory COVID testing at work today. So I dragged myself out of bed and headed to work. My low back and neck and shoulders all ached, and felt lousy. I worked until 11:15, when the testing nurse showed up. She asked me my name and then asked if I had any symptoms. I told her I’d had my second (real) shot the day before and felt pretty lousy. And she answered that I couldn’t be tested because I might present a false positive. So I clocked out for lunch and drove home.

Even though I’d had two cups of coffee that morning, I crawled into bed and fell asleep. The cat was happy to have a napping partner. I slept lightly for a couple of hours and then felt a lot better and went back to work.

So I’m fairly certain I had a placebo the first two shots and the last two were the real thing. Berck is too.

I’d say I’m pretty relieved to now be fully vaccinated, although I don’t know if anyone knows how long it takes after the second (fourth) shot to be fully activated. I’m not proud, just relieved.

My next appointment for the vaccine trial is in December. They will be continuing the study for another year after that to take my blood and study the long term effects.