I’m 42 years old. I have two children and a husband of 17 years who has been a massive support for me through my whole ordeal. I’ve worked in pathology for 21 years and I teach group fitness in a gym. I was also doing five-to-seven hours a week of intense bodybuilding prior to the Covid lockdowns (during which the gym closed and prevented me from returning until I was double jabbed). I’ve never been into drinking, smoking, or drugs and I’d only take Panadol if I was desperate. A few years ago, I was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease in the ear (which gave me vertigo and hearing loss in my right ear). This was managed with Serc, twice a day, and I keep my daily sodium below 1500 mg. Other than that, I was hardly ever sick prior to the jab.
I didn’t want to get the jab because I’ve been involved with the HPV vaccine and it took close to 10 years to be approved. To see a jab so significant passed in so little time had me concerned.
I put it off as long as I could because around this time lawyers were working to remove the mandates. But after five weeks off work, the financial strain hit as I am our household’s sole income earner.
I got the Pfizer jab on the 29th of September, 2021 (left arm). Initially, I had a sore arm but no other symptoms presented immediately. Two days later, I suddenly had sharp chest pain and shortness of breath. I told my husband to take me straight to hospital because I knew that this was the Pfizer jab. This was my first admission to Ryde hospital. I mentioned I had the Pfizer jab two days prior, but they brushed me off. They did an ECG, chest X-ray, and bloods. The results came back normal and they said, “It sounds like you have Covid.” They made me do a swab, which I didn’t want to do as I’d been at home for five weeks off work in lockdown. Once discharged, I had to go home and isolate for four more days until I got the results, which were negative. I followed up with my GP who is a supportive doctor. She admitted that the chest pain is from the jab and referred me to a cardiologist so I could be cleared to have the second jab. Through the next four weeks, I felt like my symptoms were gradually improving, and so my GP recommended I get the Astra Zeneca instead of the Pfizer. I got the Astra Zeneca jab on the 3rd of November, 2021 (left arm).
Again, I was fine initially with just a sore arm. But three days later, I was teaching a cycle class and started getting chest pains. My heart rate was high and I felt like it was skipping beats. My gym manager tested my oxygen (which was quite low) and told me my heart rate was quite high and said he would feel better if I admitted myself to the hospital.
At Concord hospital they took me more seriously. I explained to them what had happened. Their bedside manner was better and they were on to me straightaway with an ECG, X-ray, blood tests, and a blood clot test. All came back normal, but I still had tachycardia with chest pain. They asked the hospital cardiologist to come down and he did a beside echocardiogram. The doctor verbally diagnosed me with pericarditis. He told me to take Nurofen and that my symptoms would resolve over a few weeks, but this was not written in the discharge papers. For the next week, I followed the doctor’s orders. On the 13th of November, I got a bad pain in my right calf, which immediately I thought was a blood clot. I went back to Ryde Hospital and they kept me overnight. They did all the same tests and repeated them several hours later. All this time they hadn’t given me anything to manage my pain. They left me in the waiting room with a cannula in and took me in and out for tests. At one point, I was feeling unwell so the nurse said to come into the consultation room. I was left there all night long with no food and no drink. No one observed me. In the early hours of the morning, they said that I was all clear and sent me home with nothing.
On Friday, the 19th of November, I was at work when I got severe nine-out-of-ten chest pains and convulsive body shakes. My colleagues called an ambulance and I collapsed while waiting for it to arrive. The paramedics were lovely and sympathetic and I was taken back to Ryde Hospital. I was there for 12 hours. The nurse was sympathetic, but the doctor was extremely rude and dismissive to it being jab related. He said if it was a jab reaction, it would have happened straightaway, even though I had initially told him it did start straight away. The hospital ran more tests but they all came back normal. That night, I met another lady in the bed opposite me who had had Astra Zeneca 11 days prior. She had all the same symptoms as I did. (If you see this, please reach out to me whoever you are). On the 16th of December, I woke up in the middle of the night with shortness of breath and a racing heart (160 -180bpm). I told my husband that I couldn’t breathe and he called the ambulance. While waiting, my whole body started violently shaking and I was unable to control it. The ambulance arrived in 10-15 minutes and I requested they take me to Concord hospital where they took observations and ran more tests.
I was put in the waiting room as they were overrun with patients in the ED. They only took me into a room for testing before I had to return to the waiting room. The level of care at this hospital was much better and I had three nurses constantly keeping an eye on me. The tests came back negative (to no surprise). Once again, the doctors didn’t want to admit that it was jab-related. I was discharged with papers to say I was all clear and to follow up with my GP. I followed up with a GP visit. All he said was to keep taking the same medication until my next cardiologist appointment.
My cardiologist appointment was on the 20th of December. He did an echocardiogram and I was diagnosed with pericarditis for the first time. I felt he was the first one to take me seriously and it was nice to have someone sympathetic to my situation. He said, “Those bloody jabs. I’ve seen so many people like you in the last 12 months.” He also said some of his other patients had recovered in 6-12 weeks, but I was in the group of people where it was unresolved. I was prescribed colchicine tablets for six months, steroids for seven days to help with the pain, and high-dose Ibuprofen for three weeks. He also booked me for a CT scan to check my capillaries and arteries at Macquarie University hospital to be done on the 13th of January, 2022.
I followed the protocol, and, after a few days on the steroids, I thought I was slowly getting better. But on the 7th of January, I was just going about my day and suddenly felt like I was having a major heart attack with radiating pain down my arm, back and into my jaw. My husband called an ambulance. They arrived and looked after me; they have been wonderful every time. The whole way to the hospital, I had an irregular heartbeat which they kept under control. When I arrived, I told the doctors I have pericarditis. They reacted dismissively and questioned my diagnosis until I told them it was my cardiologist who had diagnosed pericarditis. They ran more scans as well as an ECG and an echocardiogram. They heard a ‘crackling sound’ in my heart, which was inflammation.
Every couple of weeks, I was constantly tachycardic (it was hard to keep my heart rate under 100). It was the 2nd of March when I saw an immunologist. He didn’t do any testing and prescribed Verapamil to slow my heart rate. I looked at him and asked if I had to be on this for the rest of my life. He flat out didn’t answer. He didn’t have any other suggestions and I was in tears and feeling defeated because of what my life had come to.
I was on Verapamil for two nights. It gave me insomnia, muscle cramps in my legs and the chest pain intensified x10. I went back to my GP and she told me to stop taking the Verapamil straight away. I then felt like I was having better days, but the pain would come and go. My GP cleared me on the 13th of March to resume light exercise. I found out at this appointment my reaction hadn’t been reported to the TGA. My GP said, “You can report it. There’s a link to the TGA website.”
I hadn’t been teaching the high intensity classes at the gym since my first admission to hospital. I’d been doing the classes where I could just instruct. I started to do three days of exercise a week to ease my body back into it. On the 12th of April, someone asked me to cover a dance class. I thought it’d be fun and easy but my heart felt otherwise. It was thumping through my chest and I struggled to dance and talk at the same time. At the end when I’d checked my heart rate, it’d peaked at 198 bpm. On the drive home, about 20 minutes after the class, I had chest pain radiating to my jaw again. I pulled over and called my husband and said where to find me if he had to call an ambulance. I was trying to give my self-reassurance but also asking “Is this a heart attack?” at the same time. After 10 minutes, I calmed down and I drove home.