I’m 29 years old and I work full time in operations and administration. Prior to the vaccine, I was healthy and active, going to the gym regularly and eating really well. I’m definitely more into natural health, and don’t even like taking Panadol. I’ve never had any medical issues, aside from asthma as a child.
I didn’t want the vaccine, but work was forcing us to do it otherwise we’d be terminated. From the beginning, it just didn’t feel right and I had my doubts because the vaccine was introduced so quickly, with no long term data behind it.
I booked an appointment with my regular doctor and asked for Pfizer. My whole family had Pfizer and no one had an adverse reaction so I thought it’d be safe. I took a friend with me for support and I was reasonably relaxed. I had the Pfizer in my left arm on the 21st of October 2021. I didn’t feel anything immediately following.
For the next few days, I had no symptoms but Tuesday 27th of October (6 days post vaccine) whilst sitting at my desk at work, I started feeling really weird. I had a lot of pressure on the left side of my back like someone was squeezing my chest from behind. At first I thought it was anxiety, but it was a strange feeling as if my heart was really heavy.
I continued to work through the day and when I returned home, I told my mum what happened. I told her I’d take myself to the doctor in the morning if I didn’t feel any better. Initially, when I woke up I didn’t have the feeling, but within 5 seconds of standing, the sensation in my chest came back. Also, this time my whole left arm was weak and I couldn’t hold my phone in my hand and started having heart palpitations. I began to freak out but I wondered if I was overthinking and I went to work anyway. When the sensations didn’t go away, I told my manager I needed to see my doctor, as I believed I was having a reaction to the vaccine.
I went to my regular GP and he did an ECG. He printed the record of my heartbeat being a little lower than normal and wrote a referral (querying pericarditis) and said to go to the ED immediately. I went to Midland Hospital ED and they took me to a bed as soon as I arrived. The nurse performed the ECG and took the results to the doctor. They both returned telling me they would do a blood test to confirm, but the ECG showed mild pericarditis. The nurse said it’s known to be caused by the Pfizer vaccine.
I was crying because I was shocked and scared, but the nurses were very caring. When the doctor came, he gave me a prescription for Colchicine-500mcg. I took this for a week but it didn’t really help my symptoms and I wasn’t keen to take any more medication than necessary, especially if they weren’t helping me feel better. The ED doctor said if my symptoms persisted, I should see my GP.
After the ED visit, I returned to my GP and he said to wait and see how I was in 6 weeks. He gave me a medical certificate for a week and I took some time off work. The symptoms subsided for a while but in the weeks following, the pressure in my chest and heart palpitations returned when I tried to sleep. I also had irregular menstrual cycles, missing two months completely. Eventually it returned but the irregularity lasted for around 3-4 months.
One day after returning to work, the pressure in my chest was so intense I felt I needed to go back to the hospital. I returned to the ED at Midlands Hospital and they took me in straight away. Another ECG was done but the results came back normal. They gave me a prescription for ibuprofen (400mg) and sent me home.
In the weeks following, I was still experiencing the pressure and squeezing sensations in my chest so I went to see another GP because my regular doctor was unavailable. She sent me for an echocardiogram and a blood test. The tests all came back normal and she gave me more colchicine. I didn’t take it as it didn’t work for me the first time. She also gave me an exemption, but only until the 22nd of March, and gave me a referral for an immunologist, which I was to attend via a public hospital. At the time of writing, I still haven’t heard back from the hospital who were supposed to contact me to arrange the appointment.
One month before the borders were due to open in WA, and with the deadline looming for me to return to work, I was really worried about not having any answers. I went back to the doctor to ask her to follow up with the immunologist but she decided I should see a cardiologist. The cardiologist told me it didn’t sound like I had pericarditis. I told her I was prescribed clchicine and she said they absolutely should not have given me this medication as it’s not for heart patients. I was so annoyed and upset by this.
She performed an ECG and said everything appeared normal and gave me a heart monitor to wear for 8 days, and a referral for another blood test and another echocardiogram. When I returned my heart-monitor, the receptionist told me I would receive a call from the cardiologist. I didn’t receive any follow up and I’m still waiting on my echocardiogram and results from the CT scan.
I went back to the GP to ask her to follow up my results and extend my exemption past the 22 March, but instead she suggested I get the Novavax. I was shocked and said, “Are you kidding me? I’ve been telling you about my adverse reaction to Pfizer all this time and you are telling me to get another vaccine!?”. I cried and said, “I will lose my job, I’m mentally drained and I’ve spent so much time and money trying to find out what is going on”. She said she was really sorry but couldn’t do anything about it.
I went to two other doctors and they also told me to consider the Novavax vaccine. I told them both, “These vaccines are clearly unsafe and causing a lot of problems for myself and so many others”. Their response was always the same – that they couldn’t do anything about it.
Recently, I phoned my cardiologist to follow up on my test results as I still didn’t have them, and I wanted some answers. I decided to make an appeal to her via email explaining all I’d been through and that I had nowhere else to go. The receptionist called me to say the cardiologist would contact me next week and get all the results from the hospital. I’m now waiting on the follow up telephone consultation with the cardiologist.
Currently, I have the Pfizer post vaccine symptoms every day. I have chest pains and heart palpitations, but I’ve worked out that if I hold the left side of my chest and press down on it I get some relief. I’m out of breath really quickly, and this comes and goes. I also have shooting pains from my left side (kidney area), weakness in the arms and next level depression and anxiety.
My injury is affecting all areas of my life and I feel like I’m at a dead end trying to get the answers I need, but I’m also trying to get on with my life. Some days I feel good. I find eating healthy and going back to the gym once or twice a week is helping, even though my symptoms still persist. I have been taking Floradix (iron and vitamin supplement) which also seems to be helping. Thankfully, I have a lot of support for my friends and family.