California
Q: What was your life like before you got the vaccine?
I was an extremely healthy and active college student. I surfed and hiked nearly every day, I ate well, I was volunteering at a marine center and working towards my degree in marine sciences. I had absolutely no medical problems, and no history of such.
Q: What was your reaction, symptoms, & timeline?
I got my vaccine at my college. Within hours of getting my first dose, I experienced symptoms. As I was walking to class, my heart rate increased rapidly, my breaths were shallow, and I suddenly couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was going to pass out. I had to sit down immediately and call student health services. After taking some basic vitals, they told me everything was fine and I had a panic attack. I have never had a panic attack before and was foolish to believe them.
Every day since then I had a dull, yet constant aching in my chest. My heart felt extremely tight, full and heavy. When I breathed in, it felt like there was bubbling in my chest. All symptoms were far worse when laying down and trying to sleep. I did not sleep for nearly 3 days at one point, because of the pain and a real fear that I was dying. I suffered several more panic attacks within the first 3 weeks.
At 3 months, I was diagnosed with costochondritis (inflammation of the ribs essentially). It has now been 4.5 months, and my pain persists with ever changing symptoms from tight stinging, to sharp aches, to no pain for a day, and then horrible flares that last for weeks at a time.
Q: What is your life like now, after getting the vaccine?
My life is absolutely horrible. I won’t sugarcoat it. My entire life has been ruined. I cannot do anything without pain. I am in pain nearly 24/7. Making my bed irritates my costochondritis, I cannot exercise (and this is especially devastating having been an extremely active person my entire life), I cannot eat most foods as any inflammatory substance makes my costochondritis act up. I cannot handle stress, as this also makes it worse. I can’t sit, lay or stand for extended periods of time without the pain becoming worse. Existing is painful, and everything feels hopeless. No one knows if it will ever go away.
Q: Share your experience with any medical care and any diagnoses you have received:
After 12 days of unrelenting chest pain, I finally went to urgent care. Doctors could not figure out what was wrong with me. Within the first 3 months I’d had several EKGs, a ton of blood work, a chest x-ray, a CT scan, and a stress echocardiogram. Every single test came back normal except for an elevated d-dimer, which the doctor ignored. For three months I was left with no diagnosis, living in fear I was having a heart attack every single day, with no diagnosis. Doctors would laugh in my face and heavily imply I was stupid and crazy when I said that it was from the vaccine. One doctor even told me that if the next test came back normal, he didn’t know what to say and literally told me flat out to ‘stop searching for an explanation’ as if it would just go away and it was all in my head. The woman doing my stress echocardiogram however was very understanding and believed me, even saying that her father’s health problems got significantly worse after the vaccine and he ended up passing away. She believed it was the vaccine’s doing. My radiologist also commented after hours that she could not say her opinion regarding the vaccine as she risked being FIRED. She agreed with me.
Eventually, I got a new Primary Care doctor and she was amazing. She acknowledged my struggles and a correlation with the vaccine, and diagnosed me with costochondritis. She does not have a solution, but I am so relieved the problem is not my heart. Hopefully. Like many have said, doctors really don’t have any concrete answers. I’ve tried naproxen and prednisone, which both did nothing.
Q: Was your reaction reported, and what was the response?
It has not been reported. I get overwhelmed when trying to.
Q: Is there anything that has helped, and have your symptoms improved?
Yes, in the order of most to least helpful (they all help though):
Topical CBD oil
Anti-inflammatory diet
Hot showers
Backpod
To be honest it is very difficult to tell if I’ve had much improvement. My symptoms change often and some weeks I will feel good while the next it will be worse than it has been in months. My pains are worse before my period. I am able to sleep with little pain now, but I still can only sleep on my back and occasionally my right side.
Q: What do you wish others knew?
I wish that people would be open to hearing about those injured by the vaccine. It is extremely damaging to be called crazy, selfish and a liar by people and shunned/ ignored by society because I got injured by the vaccine which was supposed to help me and others. My mental health is awful and this does not help. I feel invisible, and blamed for having an adverse reaction to the vaccine. I have been laughed at by doctors, bullied by people online and more, because of this.
I wish our experiences were properly documented and fully accessible to everyone getting the vaccine. Doctors and vaccine companies are ignoring us, and honestly putting others in danger by doing so. I cannot understand how mandates are in effect when they can’t even figure out what’s happening to us.
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Real Not Rare does not diagnose medical conditions, offer treatment advice, treat illnesses, or prescribe medicine or drugs. Anything contained on this website or conveyed in the blog stories or groups, is not substitute for adequate medical care, diagnosis, and/or treatment from a medical doctor. It is strongly recommended that prior to acting upon any information gleaned via Real Not Rare or their representatives, you at all times first consult a physician. The views and opinions expressed are those of the individual being interviewed in each story, and do not necessarily reflect the position of Real, Not Rare as a whole.
