Anna Dabas, Psychologist

First Dose of Pfizer on 10/01/21

Q: What was your life like before you got the vaccine?

I work as a psychologist. I was seeing 20-25 clients a week via outdoor nature therapy. I had no health issues. I’m a single, hard-working mother. I had just gotten back into dancing before vaccination, attending events 2-3 times a week, from ecstatic dance to free-form dancing in the dark. I can admit I was over-worked, but I was physically and mentally healthy.

Q: What was your reaction, symptoms, & timeline?

About 5 minutes after my vaccination, I felt a tingly feeling creep up my body. Once it reached my throat, I felt a little constricted. I took off my mask and walked away from the people I was sitting near, as I needed air. I didn’t feel right. I walked to the opposite wall and started feeling dizzy and as though I was going to faint, so I sat on the ground. The nurse and doctor immediately took my into a treatment room out back. I can’t differentiate between what was panic and what was side effects for the next hour. I needed someone to come pick me up from the doctors as I couldn’t drive. It was a horrible and scary time. For the next few days I felt very flighty. I couldn’t think straight and I was on edge. My body felt strange, but I assumed I was just in some kind of weird panic mode. From about day 3 to week 3, I had constant pins and needles in my hands and feet, feelings of numbness in the left side of my face, cold tingles in my chest and scalp, cold tingles inside my body especially inside my chest, weak muscles, tightness in my neck, racing heart out of nowhere, dissociation and panic attacks. Some days my legs would feel progressively weaker and the tingling would get worse. But I could always walk fine. I was experiencing times where I would suddenly have a pressure feeling creep up my neck and into my head. My head felt like it was very swollen and I had pain between my eyes. My vision would go slightly blurry. I would feel dissociated and on edge at the same time. The left side of my face and left arm would feel numb and tingly and/or twitchy. I was terrified every time it happened. I believed I was going to have a stroke. I’d be left with a headache for hours afterwards. I thought it might be severe panic attacks, but they continued even after I learned to not panic during them. By about week 3 I started getting heart pains. It really hurt and scared me. It was a heart pain I’d never had before in my life and would last about 5 minutes. I would get a small fright, eg a phone ringing while I was dozing, and it would feel like my body would be shot with Adrenalin and my heart was being squeezed. It also felt like a bad bruising feeling. I nearly went to ER multiple times. By week 4 I was getting on/off numb feet. I also started feeling a cold/hot feeling on my feet, arms and face. My scalp felt like it was sunburned. I started having pin prick feelings all over my body. My joints were sore and I was getting cramps in my hands. I had a throbbing pain in my thigh and random mild pains down my leg. The head pressure and headaches continued to scare me so badly. At one point I felt like my ears were going to burst. It is hard to describe, but I felt like my brain was expanding but shrinking at the same time, because the pressure was so strong but it also felt like my ears were distant from my head. I have never experienced any of these symptoms like this in my life before this. I was genuinely terrified about what was happening to me. I wasn’t sleeping well either, despite feeling so exhausted.

Q: What was your life like after you got the vaccine?

Immediately after my vaccine, I was foolish enough to have clients/work lined up. I was thinking I’d just be tired and have a sore arm. With my first client after vaccine, I had to end the session 20 minutes into it, as I kept repeating sentences and couldn’t think clearly. I wasn’t able to take in what my client was saying. For the next 5 weeks I drastically reduced my workload. The hardest part was the unpredictability of it. I kept thinking I would be okay, and then I’d see a client and end up having a head rush followed by panic in the therapy sessions. One time I had a spasm/shock in my cheek in the middle of session, which sent me downhill. I had to leave. I completely broke down after that session on my way home. Other times I would find myself with intense head pressure and a general feeling of dissociation and panic that would come out of nowhere. It was horrible to be running a therapy session and then the next minute be felling like I was about to have a medical emergency. My work severely suffered. I was cancelling so many clients at the last minute because I would have a flare up out of the blue. In the minimal number of clients I did continue with, I would tell them at the beginning of the session that I had a slight headache, so that I had an escape route up my sleeve if needed. I was lucky that I had very understanding clients. It felt like my Adrenalin was a constant in the background and my fight/flight response was ramped up and out of my control. I have heard this happening to many others. It is a shame that we are then labelled as “just anxious”. I truly feel that my nervous system was affected by the vaccine. I truly hope the research into this is being done. I haven’t danced since my vaccine. Probably one of the hardest parts is not being believed. Being seen as anti-vax, paranoid, anxious or “it’s all in your head” has been so difficult. I reached out to other psychologist colleagues during this time, but they didn’t want to enter into a discussion about what was happening to me. Everyone is too scared of being seen as anti-vax. Maybe they genuinely don’t believe me. I was happy to find support groups and realise that I wasn’t alone! I was amazed to see we are all having similar reactions. Very validating.

Q: Share your experience with any medical care and any diagnoses you have received:

I have seen 5 different doctors in the 5 weeks since my vaccine. 3 of them didn’t want to listen to me. I phoned a Telehealth doctor at 2am one morning. After telling her I had cold tingles on my scalp and chest, pins and needles in my hands and feet, and numbness and twitching in the left side of face, she first ruled out stroke symptoms then said it was anxiety and I needed to meditate and sleep more. Another doctor prescribed me Valium and said it was anxiety. When visiting another doctor after strong heart pains, I went through all my symptoms with him. My resting heart rate was 129 and my blood pressure was off during the consult. I was happy that he wrote an ER referral, but only after telling me that it was likely anxiety. A fourth doctor believed me, but admitted she had no medical knowledge about what was happening to me and couldn’t help me. I was lucky to eventually find a great doctor who understood these side effects, as she had been researching them. I didn’t visit ER because the symptoms would come in unexpected waves. I’d be okay one minute, and not the next. I had belittling experiences with doctors not believing me and all my tests were coming back clear. I was afraid to go to ER and be shamed for “over-reacting”, so I pushed on. One GP literally wrote “has been googling online” in my ER referral. The gaslighting has been so damaging.

Q: Was your reaction reported, and what was the response?

I haven’t reported yet as I don’t have a full picture. I am 5 weeks post vax. I will definitely be reporting my side effects.

Q: Is there anything that has helped, and have your symptoms improved?

Acupuncture, magnesium, zinc, vitamin D, herbalist, taking time off work, and support from the friends and family who do believe me. I have also found tremendous support and validation in the fb groups set up for those who are experiencing these issues post vax. I am 90% back to normal now, and just hope for no more flare ups.

Q: What do you wish others knew?

That neurological side effects are real. I hope for more data and transparency so that if people find themselves in this situation, they will be believed and supported, both medically and personally. I also wish my government was more compassionate and understanding. My current doctor supports me in my decision to not risk having another dose. I have seen the severity of neurological issues in others and I fear that will be me if I do this again. I feel like a toed a line. But I am not eligible for an exemption.

#WeWantToBeHeard #RealNotRare