My name is Helen, I am 45 years old and live with my husband and three children aged 16, 12 and 10. I am originally from northern England. I’m a full-time mother and prior to the vaccination I was an active traveller taking my children with me to various countries and places around Australia. I was living my best life, enjoying the daring side of life with activities such as bungee jumping.
My health has always been great, I have only had circumstantial bouts of anxiety in later life, as I was a panicky driver. I took anti-anxiety medication for this but it was only a means to get from A to B without worry.
I got the vaccine because my husband and I were going into a business partnership with another couple on the border of Queensland and NSW. The COVID vaccine was mandatory to cross the border.
I was sceptical due to how quickly the vaccine had been rolled out. I hadn’t done much research but the whole world was getting it and it seemed like the right thing to do. I wanted to continue a normal life and travel. It’s ironic that I have not been able to leave my bed for five months now.
I got the first Pfizer vaccine on the 24th August 2021 in my left arm at a Gold Coast pop-up car park clinic at Broadbeach. I was knocked for six and spent a week in bed with extreme fatigue. I was back to normal after the fatigue subsided. I got the second Pfizer vaccine on the 14th September 2021 at the same location. I was fine, experienced no side effects and life was completely normal.
The booster was soon required, and I went to get it on the 16th February 2022 at the Gold Coast Convention Centre. This time I received no information about my vaccine. No records or batch number. I did not feel anything immediately and was fine for a couple of weeks until I tested positive for COVID on the 16th April and noticed a sharp decline in my health from then on.
My appetite vanished and even though I wasn’t eating, I had continuous diarrhoea. I was coughing a lot and often was breathless. I had pain in my joints, muscles and also in my chest. Thinking it was long COVID, I went to my GP and she put me back on anti-anxiety medication and recommended taking vitamin C, probiotics/prebiotics and magnesium, none of which helped and I struggled with the size of the tablets. The only real response I received from the GP was that there was no data on long COVID in Australia, so there was nothing she could do. I found this strange as in the UK, long COVID is a common diagnosis.
My health deteriorated to the point I couldn’t string sentences together or find my words. At times I experienced severe confusion. I was so fatigued, I felt as if I could sleep for forever.
On April 30th is when my health really began to decline, my legs would give way, and I required help to use the bathroom. I experienced intense convulsion-like leg and full body spasms where I couldn’t control the jolting movements. I was fully conscious during these, and they were very painful when happening in my legs but excruciating when progressed to full body. It comes and goes and suddenly and feels like my legs just don’t work.
On the 2nd of July I walked downstairs and suddenly could not breath. I panicked, the more I did so, the more I couldn’t breathe. I literally couldn’t catch my breath. My husband took me to Gold Coast Emergency Department. I made such an entrance and was sat in the corner whilst they tried to find out if I still had COVID. My husband had to fill out my paperwork as I was bent over in tears shouting for help. Thankfully they took me through to a ward bed where immediately I lost consciousness. I stayed overnight to have blood tests, an ultrasound of my abdomen along with a chest X-ray. All results came back clear.
I was sent home the following day with no diagnosis, just under the conclusion that my tests showed a normal heart and clear lungs. My GP followed up with a phone call confirming that everything was fine, I could barely talk during this consult.
One week later, on July 9th, the same situation occurred a second time. I felt like I had no breath and went into panic. Due to the lack of answers at Emergency, my husband took me to John Flynn Private Hospital instead. I stayed there for thee nights, having blood tests, a CT scan, abdominal X-rays, a heart scan, colonoscopy and gastroscopy. Again, all of my results returned clear. The doctor came to discharge me, again stating that because all my tests were clear, “It’s not cancer, you can go home”. I began to cry as I wasn’t there for cancer screening, I was there because I thought I had long COVID and literally couldn’t draw breath into my body.
Since April I have difficulty walking and have not left the house much at all. I have to plan it if I want to go out, taking four days to build up my strength and then a few days in bed to rest afterwards. My vision has also been affected, like I can’t focus and have to cover one eye in order to read.
I put video footage of my convulsions on Facebook a month ago and a friend saw it and took me to naturopath, as I have had no help from the medical doctors. I’ve been seeing the naturopath for four weeks now, the end of August was my last one. Since then I can’t control my legs and I have difficulty walking, I have not left the house much and any time I do, I have to plan it – it takes me four days to build up and a few days to rest afterwards. Devastatingly, I had to cancel my trip back to England for my best friend’s wedding which I had been planning for a year.
I have some friends who were critical sceptics of the COVID vaccine from the beginning, adamant that something was deeply wrong about this vaccination programme. Even so, vaccine injuries were only brought to my attention a week ago and upon reading about it, everything began to make sense. I finally had some answers as to what was going on with my body. I had no idea that I was vaccine injured.
My naturopath is treating me with Chininum Arsenicosum tablets, NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine), Magnesium Restore and a post-COVID liquid which tastes horrid. I’ve also cut out dairy and eat as clean as possible. If you told me six weeks ago I’d be drinking green juice daily, I wouldn’t have believed you. I believe these remedies are indeed helping. I began taking them two weeks prior to my last convulsion attack which was the most intense (perhaps due to detoxing effects?) and I haven’t had another attack since late August although my legs still give way on occasion.
I have had no diagnosis or treatment from the healthcare system, not even a basic explanation. I do have more blood tests arranged through my GP, but nothing ever came up on those before, although I will take them out of interest. It’s outrageous to think these doctors swore an oath to help patients, yet leave them with none. I feel lucky that I have a roof over my head and thankful for my current position as I can’t even fathom people who have less and are suffering like me. Earlier this year, my husband and I renewed our vows in Hawaii. The memories of that are what has kept me upbeat, knowing that I’ve actually done something worthwhile this year.