It feels like a big deal. I had never had heart issues and it felt like my whole system was unstable. Hard to describe really. I don't know how serious it is, however. The cardiologists just tested my heart, saw that there was no blockage and the blood flow was strong and told me to rest.
edit to add: On the second dose of Pfizer, I felt a minor version of this for about an hour in the middle of the night after a morning shot. No other symptoms beyond a strong immune response.
Noticeable but not significant heart pain beginning approximately 4 hours after getting the first vaccine.
Speaking with medical professionals, they said symptoms should improve with time, and they have nearly completely across the 1.5 months since.
Unsure if worth noting, but I had very strong immune responses to both the first and second doses.
It felt like the mRNA took hold in both my arm, _and_ my heart. Which given the proximity and paths between, is not entirely surprising.
It felt like the vaccine entered my bloodstream and was taken up, in part, by the heart. Which then started making spike protein and soliciting an immune response.
I'd really love to learn more about this, but haven't been able to find any good resources. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'm all ears!
The location of injection site was spot on. However, I'm unsure if there are other factors at work beyond specifically location
I was referred to a cardiologist, had a holter monitor, ECG, and stress test. None of those turned up any issue.
Going by what I've read about this online I suspect I may have had myocarditis from a case of COVID, but I think that would only show up on an MRI, not the tests I got. Luckily the palpitations and chest pain have mostly gone away over the past couple months.
In relation to speculation about COVID and myocarditis cases elsewhere on this page: I doubt my case will be reported because the association between COVID and heart problems didn't seem to be on the radar of any of the doctors I saw.
https://www.salk.edu/news-release/the-novel-coronavirus-spik...
Derek Lowe has a post that discusses this.
In short from what I remember, the vaccine is administered in the deltoid, so most of the spike proteins should remain there. Some may travel throughout the body, but overall it is much much less than a natural infection.
That’s why I’m curious to compare myocarditis rates after vaccination to those after infection, because from what we know, natural infection should result in a higher rate of myocarditis than vaccination.
If the problem is inflammation then that seems entirely plausible... I thought that an immune response was exactly what inflammation is
I don't think we have the data either way to be sure the spike protein is completely harmless, though obviously how dangerous it is is bounded by the fact that many people experience no ill effects. (That is, it obviously can't be super-ultra-deadly, because it's not killing everyone instantly. How dangerous it could possibly be is bounded by the fact that many people have received the vaccine.)
It's also anecdotal, but I have a existing heart condition and experienced no such side-effects post-dose (on either dose (Moderna)).
Whatever the result, I can't say I really regret taking the vaccine because it _is_ somewhat rare, and the long term side-effects of COVID are just as unknown as these vaccine side-effects. I like knowing that I'm much less likely to be a transmitter of a disease that could be fatal to others.