I wish I could speak more openly about my whole story. I could write book and maybe one day I will, but for now, I need to stay anonymous for the fear of repercussions from my work place in the form of disciplinary action.
Prior to the vaccination I was fit and healthy. I was a Police Officer after all. I was on duty full-time working in a specialist unit with two other officers for almost three years and a total of over 10 years in the Police Force altogether. Throughout the entirety of my service, I rarely had sick leave. Outside of work I lived a very active independent lifestyle, I was on the go all the time, so my health was tip top other than for the occasional migraine.
I’m not anti-vaccine and never have been. I’m up to date with the immunisations preferred by the Police. However I had no intention of getting this particular vaccine. I conducted a risk/benefit assessment for myself and I decided I wasn’t in a high risk category for COVID complications. I have never had the flu in my life and my immune system was strong.
The only reason I got the COVID vaccine was because it was mandated. The mandate was issued under the Police Commissioner’s Direction, which meant that if didn’t get it, I would be stood down and ultimately terminated and possibly charged with serious misconduct. Some of my colleagues have been issued the paperwork.
I got the Pfizer vaccine towards the end of 2021. Immediately after I felt nothing other than the anxiety of having to get it under coercion. The next evening I was getting ready to go to bed and I noticed my heart having erratic heart palpitations. Straight away, I knew that the vaccine had something to do with this and I was concerned. I went to sleep and woke up fine the next day.
For the next few weeks I felt my immune system was compromised, just like you would feel when you’re about to come down with a sickness. This went on for about four weeks and I never got sick. It was constant headaches, my ears were blocked, intermittent sore throat, fatigue to the point I would often have to take nap during the day. I booked an appointment with my GP to get blood tests done as this was not normal for me. I mentioned that I had the COVID vaccine and he wasn’t interested in entertaining the idea that this had anything to do with my symptoms. He was dismissive and uninterested.
The following week I was rushed to hospital via ambulance after suffering symptoms similar to a heart attack. I was sitting down when suddenly I felt my heart rate skyrocket. I had shortness of breath and difficulty breathing with chest tightness and extreme dizziness. My limbs felt heavy with numbness and pins and needles. I was white as a ghost and cold sweating profusely.
In the ambulance, I told them I believed it was from the COVID vaccine. They didn’t comment. My blood pressure was 184/90. They ran an ECG which came back fine. On arrival at the emergency department, I was ramped for over an hour. They ran tests, bloods, ECG, and all came back clear. They brushed me off as someone having an anxiety attack. I told them it wasn’t anxiety and that this result was from the vaccine but they weren’t interested and discharged me with paper work requesting my GP refer me to a cardiologist.
I was then ordered to take time off work whilst I had medical testing. My GP didn’t refer me to a cardiologist, instead he gave me paper work for an echocardiogram and a 24 hour Holter monitor. The results came back clear on the echocardiogram and they weren’t too concerned about what they found on the Holter monitor. I laid low for a couple weeks, the less I did, the better I felt, but I had to return back to work. I didn’t last that long as I knew my body was still in fight or flight and my health was declining rather than improving. Meanwhile, the Police Force Commissioner had mandated the second COVID vaccination and I was being pressured to take the procedure. My intuition was 100% against putting anymore of this vaccine into my body, I didn’t want to know what a second vaccine would do to me after what I had already experienced from the first.
Something was already seriously wrong with me, so because of the way I felt, I was unable to work. I stopped working and while I tried to do as little as possible, I still had daily chores, which to a normal person wouldn’t be a problem and was never a problem for me before. But with my condition, doing the washing felt like running a 10k marathon.
Since I stopped working I had a few heart attack like episodes which landed me in hospital on both occasions. It was one evening, I had just eaten dinner and within 10 minutes of eating dinner the heart attack episode came on harder and the pins and needles were all over my body. I was afraid for my life thinking I was having a heart attack. Once again I was taken to emergency in the ambulance and I told them this was from the vaccine. Once again they had dismissed me. However, this time I knew about POTS after speaking to a Telehealth doctor. He had described my symptoms to be POTS, so I was able to tell the treating nurse that I thought I had POTS from the vaccine. They dismissed the vaccine as being the cause and told me it was probably anxiety. Even though I arrived in an ambulance, they made me sit in the waiting room, they took me in for an ECG and then sent me back into the waiting room. The results came back clear and I continued to wait for several hours to see a doctor. No one was there to help me and eventually I just walked out and went home.
After this hospital visit, I had come to the conclusion that the medical establishment wasn’t able to help me and it was a waste of my time. They were not interested in helping me and no one took me seriously. So any episodes I had after this, which were many, I just suffered alone unable to function as a normal person, hoping I wouldn’t die. This was my reality for many months. Symptoms I was experiencing over this period were headaches, migraines, extreme fatigue, dizziness, heart palpitations, internal and external tremors, my eyes felt like they were shaking in my skull, involuntary head and body tics, blood pooling in my limbs, pins and needles, shortness of breath, intermittent chest pain.
I later saw an immunologist who at least recognised I had physical issues but denied straight up that this had anything to do with the vaccine. He referred me to the public cardiologist and the cardiologist I was previously referred to brushed me off with a prescription of Metoprolol, which is a medication used for POTS, but he said I didn’t have POTS. He said he would arrange a tilt table test, but I still haven’t had one. The public cardiologist requested me to wear another 24hour Holter monitor prior to seeing him, so when I saw him he diagnosed me with POTS, ‘likely induced by the COVID vaccine’ and put it in writing. He has been treating me non-pharmacologically with high salt high water intake and exercise.
It took me almost a year and several doctors brushing me off with a diagnosis of anxiety to finally get a proper diagnosis. The doctor also told me that he had been seeing quite a lot of POTS from both COVID and the COVID vaccine.
This brings us to the current day, I am now experiencing swelling, (oedema), in my extremities. I haven’t had an episode in several months but I’m still experiencing an intolerance to physical activities, fatigue, migraines, blocked ears, minor dizziness, vertigo, tics, blood pooling, extreme pins and needles, interrupted sleeping patterns, shortness of breath, bouts of nausea and joint pain. I’m sitting at about 60% of my old self as I still struggle physically a lot.
Even with a confirmed vaccine injury, my workplace has not been supportive of my return to work as they still want me to be fully vaccinated or I’ll face disciplinary action.