COVID shot and scars

March 18, 2021 6:56 PM

I get keloid scars easily. I have a 2 inch-long keloid scar from a vaccine shot I received on my left arm. Once, an insect bit me on my left arm and now there's a raised scar. Needless to say, my left arm is pretty scarred up.

My question is, can I get the COVID shot at a site that's not my left arm? I believe getting it on my wrist or thigh would reduce the chance of scarring. I've been eyeing vaccine sites in NYC that are clinics or hospitals to increase the odds that there's a nurse onsite who can administer it on a different body part.

Also, I had COVID a year ago so I'm not too concerned about the health risk now.

posted by kinoeye to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

forgive me for asking the obvious, but could you not easily get it in your right arm?
posted by music for skeletons at 7:06 PM on March 18, 2021 [4 favorites]

Best answer: The best option is: your right arm.
You can't get it in your wrist. The locations for IM injections are: deltoid, followed by gluteus, followed distantly by thigh. (Thigh tends to be reserved for self-injection needs or emergent needs like for epinephrine.)

You may eventually be able to find a private office that will do a gluteus administration, but it's not an option in the clinics I've been volunteering, because of hygiene issues. It's also an area that can cause nerve issues if the person administering doesn't do gluteus frequently.
posted by cobaltnine at 7:15 PM on March 18, 2021 [4 favorites]

I don’t know about any other body parts, but I was given a choice which arm to get the shot in.
posted by brook horse at 7:39 PM on March 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

I was also given a choice and I got it in my right arm.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:17 PM on March 18, 2021

Just wanted to throw this out there re: keloids. You can ask your physician or your NP to put a steroid shot in the keloids to shrink them. It’s better to do it soon after they appear but even done later it helps. If it takes more than one shot you wait 6 weeks and do it again.
posted by serendipityrules at 8:30 PM on March 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

You could also look into methods for keloid prevention. Found on my provincial government's health website:

To prevent keloids after a minor skin injury, start treating it right away. This may help it heal faster and with less scarring. Using the following tips to treat the area may help prevent keloid growth.

* Cover a new wound with a thin layer of petroleum jelly, such as Vaseline, and a non-stick bandage. Hold the bandage in place with tape so that there is even pressure on the wound. Wash the area with soap and water every day.
* After a wound is healed over, use a silicone gel bandage. Keep even pressure on the area. This may prevent keloid growth. Keep the bandage on the skin for 12 to 24 hours a day for 2 to 3 months. (It takes 3 months for a keloid to grow).
posted by keep it under cover at 11:52 PM on March 18, 2021

Just wanted to throw this out there re: keloids. You can ask your physician or your NP to put a steroid shot in the keloids to shrink them. It’s better to do it soon after they appear but even done later it helps. If it takes more than one shot you wait 6 weeks and do it again.

Just adding in that in my experience, this was excruciating. I did this for over a year to treat keloids formed after a road traffic accident and 0/10 would not recommend. Pressure bandages hurt less, take longer and can be self-administered.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:24 AM on March 19, 2021 [3 favorites]

Best answer: FWIW: I had the same nurse for both shots and she strongly encouraged me to get the shot in the dominant arm. She indicated this would reduce duration of pain and symptoms, due to the increased use of arm (relative I to non-dominant), and resultant faster circulation and dispersal of vaccine.

Also: the needle is shockingly thin, perhaps the thinnest I can recall being stuck with. I'd think that this would reduce your risk of scarring, relative to other vaccines. You're only getting 50 or 100 micrograms of fluid with Pfizer/Moderna, respectively.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:07 AM on March 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Wearing my purely speculative biologist hat, so take this line of thinking with several grains of salt: a quick PubMed search suggests there's an inflammatory component to keloid formation in addition to the physical trauma. Vaccines are literally designed to cause localized inflammation (to tell the immune system "hey, look over here! an antigen! you don't want to miss this!"). Furthermore, the COVID vaccine protocols have been designed and rolled out to have the shortest interval possible between shot 1 and shot 2 (which is basically a booster), because pandemic, but it's likely fine (albeit untested on these vaccines) to do a longer interval between shots. Some of my colleagues have been deliberately getting both shots in the same arm to ensure that they maximize localized inflammatory/immune responses (some b cells hang out in the draining lymph node that first saw antigen, so some of our immunologist friends think there's value in hitting the same arm again to trigger a more rapid & robust response 3 weeks later). But this is both speculative and likely overkill. If you're trying to avoid keloid formation you could talk to your doctor about potentially doing alternating arms (or arm/buttocks) and spacing the shots out by a few more weeks. Or going with the J&J vaccine so you don't have a second shot to worry about. Both of those strike me as reasonable, but I'm not at all an expert on keloids and not a doctor.
posted by deludingmyself at 9:17 AM on March 19, 2021

Anecdotally, I also keloid easily as an African American. I got both shots and neither has caused any scarring. It's a tiny, tiny, tiny needle.
posted by simonelikenina at 3:23 PM on March 19, 2021 [3 favorites]

It is a genuinely tiny needle. I'd recommend getting the vax, def. wear a short-sleeved shirt, maybe shorts. The folks administering the vax will know, or be able to find out, how to address your concern. You should be able to call ahead. It's been a crazy-stressful year, you don't need more stress about the vax.
posted by theora55 at 5:11 PM on March 19, 2021

Response by poster: Thank you for your answers, everyone. According to my research, the Pfizer vaccine has 1/3 the volume of the Moderna vaccine, and the same efficacy. It seems that there's a reaction called the 'Moderna arm' (a sort of red rash that goes away) that is less common with the Pfizer shot. Also, the J&J shot seems to require a larger needle than Moderna or Pfizer. Hopefully I come out fine.
posted by kinoeye at 8:36 PM on March 21, 2021