First Dose of Pfizer 4/14/21 Lot #EW0169
Eureka, California
Q: What was your life like before you got the vaccine?
Life was amazing. I was recently engaged. :)
Q: What was your reaction, symptoms, & timeline?
Woke up the following morning with feelings of weakness/numbness on right side of body, from head to toe. Very uncomfortable feeling in right torso. Twitching of right eye. As the days went on, I developed severe neck pain and pain in right side of my face. Tinnitus in right ear. Unusually cold right hand and right foot. Strange "electric-current-type" sensations that come and go. Twitching around the body that seems to originate below the surface of the skin. Insomnia.
Q: What is your life like now, after getting the vaccine?
Simultaneously the best and worst months of my life. The best because I was engaged to an amazing man (despite all the challenges, we managed to get married in September). The worst because my body seemed to have turned against itself. I was a previously healthy, active individual with no prior health conditions. It became clear that something neurological was going on. Terrifying. I questioned whether or not I would make a good wife, and wondered if I should call off the wedding. I wondered if I should sell my house, to alleviate medical debt. While I am lucky to have wonderful support from my husband and a few family members, I felt totally unsupported by the rest of the world. I got the shot not for myself, but for "other people", and the "other people" seemed to prefer pretending that I (and people like me) didn't exist.
Q: Share your experience with any medical care and any diagnoses you have received:
1st stop was Urgent Care (4 days after the shot). The doctor there continually interrupted me when I spoke, and suggested my symptoms were due to stress. Next stop was my PCP. She ordered an MRI, to rule out stroke, but it came back clear. Was referred to local neurologist. Neurologist ordered an MRV, but it came back clear. At follow up visit, the only additional help offered by the Neuro was a shot of steroids in my head, which I declined. She showed no interest in trying to figure out what was happening. All three of these docs told me it would be safe to get the 2nd shot, even though zero explanation was provided as to what was going on. Amidst all this, I found a Functional Medicine Doctor here in Northern California. She has been excellent. The only doc to allow enough time during our visits to discuss symptoms, help me manage them, brainstorm/research what could be going on, and help me navigate the complicated medical system (which I'd purposefully and successfully avoided up to this point). She advocated for me to get blood work done and to get a referral to UCSF Neurology. No diagnosis yet, but autoimmune inflammatory polyneuropathy, atypical GBS, and CIDP are on the list of potentials.
Q: Was your reaction reported, and what was the response?
I myself reported adverse reaction on VAERS because I could tell the doctors weren't going to do it for me. I also reported adverse reaction on CDC V-Safe. They didn't call me for 3 months. When they did, they surprisingly helped me fill out a second VAERS report over the phone. I received email confirmation of the 2nd VAERS submission. What I also received within the hour was a phone call from a robot telling me how to sign up for my second shot. Had the world gone crazy? When I received another check-in phone call 3 months later, I was told there was no record of the VAERS report submitted 3 months prior.
Q: Is there anything that has helped, and have your symptoms improved?
CBD tincture has helped immensely, with pain/twitches/insomnia. Also, eating an anti-inflammatory and low-histamine diet seems to help keep symptoms down. Lastly, the various supplements recommended by my Functional Medicine Doctor (e.g. Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Magnesium, NAC, CoQ10, ALA) may be helping, too.
Q: What do you wish others knew?
There is risk involved with these vaccines that we are not being made aware of. We need to demand TRUTH and INFORMED CONSENT. There are various other preventative and acute treatment protocols for Covid that are proving to be effective. Why are we not using these protocols on a larger scale? A public health policy that relies solely on these vaccines is fraught with error. Under Emergency Use Authorization, there is no liability for vaccine manufacturers, and relying on our government to help, if something goes wrong, is laughable.
