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To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? That is the question.
Transplants | Last Active: Jun 28, 2021 | Replies (313)Comment receiving replies
Hello all, I am a four year liver transplant recipient in may doing very well also have very controlled diabeties. My transplant team in Rochester sent a message out saying it was safe and important for us to get the vaccine. I received my second dose last friday, the only side effect I experieced was a sore arm for 24 hours...might have been lucky everyone is different. I will have labs done next week will let you know if there is a issue. Hope this helps best of luck to everyone. STAY SAFE!
Replies to "Hello all, I am a four year liver transplant recipient in may doing very well also..."
@believers1, Your post slipped past me, and I want to be sure reach out across the miles and welcome you to Mayo Connect. I am also a transplant recipient, liver/kidney 2009 at the Mayo Rochester. I have received both the 1st and 2nd doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and my very mild reaction was almost identical to yours. I got my 2nd dose on Feb. 26, and I had my routine (3 month) labs drawn yesterday. I didn't think to ask if I needed to follow my routine schedule or not. Anyway my labs were in line with my usual, non vaccine labs.
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Hi, @believers1 Welcome to Connect!
I did eventually get word from my transplant center, Mass General, also and they made appointments for any transplant patients who wanted the vaccine to come there and get it, so I did that. I had my second one (Pfizer) on February 14th, no problems. They followed up with extra lab work appointments and my lab tests showed no variation from their usual numbers. They too are stressing the importance of it for their transplant patients despite it not being as effective on us as it is on people not taking immunosuppressants. No one knows yet just how effective it is on us so we do still need to take the same precautions that we have been taking. Hopefully at some point "herd immunity" will be reached and then things will finally be able to have more semblance of normalcy.
I didn't have a sore arm, but I did have fatigue. Whether or not that was actually from the vaccine or from something else is not clear but I definitely had no side-effects of consequence.
JK