Jesse

I got the first Moderna vaccine on the 30th of September 2021 (as that was the only one I was allowed to get due to my age). They told me at the most I’d get a sore arm so I didn’t think much of it. However, the next morning I woke up feeling extremely sick, to the point where I felt as if I couldn’t move without physically being sick. That lasted for about a week. 

I got the second Moderna vaccine on the 28th of October 2021. The next day I felt sore everywhere to the point where it was hard to move, and I kept having hot and cold flushes. This lasted for about a week. I began to recover after a lot of rest, until the 1st of November when I started to have a really bad reaction to dairy. I was either choking on my own phlegm to the point where I was struggling to breathe, or I had continuous acid burps and felt sick in the stomach.

My mum and I worked around that obstacle by either having Lacteeze tablets when something had dairy in it, or by wiping it out completely. 

For a couple of months things began to go back to normal. That was until the 23rd of February 2022, when I woke up with stabbing pain in my chest every time I took a breath. I had stabbing pain in my stomach as well as continuously feeling sick, and experiencing shortness of breath. 

I chose to push through these issues by still going to school and work. I found alternatives to make it easier, especially when walking around school. I wore a backpack to each class, so that I wouldn’t have any pressure on my chest.

Mum took me to see our GP, to see what the cause of my issues were. My doctor told me that my chest issues were most likely caused by a condition called costochondritis. He prescribed me anti-inflammatories, and told me to try them for at least two weeks to see if I had any improvement. However, he wasn’t sure what was causing the stomach issues so he gave me a referral to get an ultrasound done on my lower abdomen. 

About three days afterwards I went and got the ultrasound done (which came back clear), and because I was in so much pain my mum took me to the local public hospital. We waited for about 3-4 hours until we eventually were seen by a doctor. We explained my situation to them, so they stated they were going to do a couple of tests. They did an ECG and a blood test, and gave me some Panadol and Nurofen thinking that would ease the pain. The tablets did absolutely nothing, but because the ECG and blood test came back clear they sent me home.

Two weeks had passed, and the anti-inflammatories had no effect. I was still feeling extremely sore, and I had to miss out on more days of school. I saw my GP again and he gave me a referral to get a handful of blood tests done, as well as a lactose and fructose test. The results came back for all three tests as normal. I also got told that my iron levels were really low, so I had to get an iron infusion done. A friend then suggested that we see a Chinese Medicine Practitioner. From the time of making the booking, I began to have sharp pains in my arms and legs on and off.

We eventually visited the Chinese Medicine Practitioner and explained my situation to him. He said that he believed my symptoms were a reaction from the vaccine, so he gave me a choice between two Chinese herbal medicines, powder or tablets. I chose the tablets, and tried them for four weeks. 

Meanwhile, one of Mum’s friends suggested that we speak to a nurse in Perth who was going through a similar situation to me. We discussed with her what had been happening, and she referred us to a GP close to where we live. We visited him and he explained that my symptoms were due my immune system having an over-reaction to the vaccine. He gave me a referral to get some more blood tests. There were five vials worth of blood, and all of the tests came back clear.

The doctor suggested that I take a long list of vitamins, including: Vitamin C, Vitamin D oil, Glutathione, Curcumin, Taurine, CoQ10, Black Seed Oil, Spirulina and Pine Needle Oil. A few days later my symptoms got worse. I woke up at about 2am with my entire face in complete agony, I was getting extremely hot and cold in a short period of time. It took me ages before I could get back to sleep. 

Later that day, Mum took me to the Monash Children’s Hospital. When I was seen, they took my temperature. I had a fever, even though I was feeling quite cold. Mum and I explained my situation as well as the tests we have had done (including the covid test which came back clear). They said they don’t believe in rapid tests, so they did their own covid test as well as an ECG and a blood test.

Whilst waiting for the test results, they said they needed the bed and put me in the waiting room again. It was quite a while before they took me to another room, which was within the ICU. We were there for six hours before they brought over the mobile x-ray – they wouldn’t take me to get the X-ray as they were still waiting on the results of the Covid test. 

A long time after they did the chest x-ray, they tried telling Mum and I that my symptoms were due to anxiety, as all the tests had come back clear. We tried to explain that it’s not due to anxiety. They responded by saying “we’re not saying it is.” At the same time, they tried telling Dad that because I have autism, I feel more pain than everyone else does. This is completely false, as autism only has an impact on my social skills and my learning, not my health.

Our GP referred us to see a gastroenterologist to get a gastroscopy and colonoscopy done. Both tests came back clear. Not long after that my left wrist began to twitch which eventually spread down to my elbow (the longest my arm has twitched for is ten hours). The day after I got the gastroscopy and colonoscopy done, I went to the shops with my mum and had a look around. Suddenly, my left foot began to hurt, so we went home and I rested. Out of nowhere from my ankle to my toes, my left foot was hurting so bad that it felt as if I had fractured it. It was so extreme that I could barely put pressure on it. I eventually ended up using crutches so I wasn’t putting pressure on my foot. 

Mum told the nurse about what had been happening, so she referred us to an immunologist she had been speaking to in Perth. They suggested for me to be on higher doses of vitamins to kill the spike proteins from the vaccine. 

I then visited the Chinese Medicine Practitioner again, and, since the tablets were not working, he prescribed me a powder to try for four weeks. Afterwards, I visited the other GP again, and he referred me to see a cardiologist. 

When I saw the cardiologist, they booked me in to get an echocardiogram, a 24-hour Holter monitor and a stress echocardiogram. About a week later I went with my mum and brother to a local music festival to get out of the house. I was walking from one stage to the other with the crutches, but then my right foot started to hurt. The pain then spread up my leg, then my right wrist began aching, where it felt as if I was internally bruised to touch. Two days later I saw the Chinese Medicine Practitioner again, and he gave me acupuncture and a stronger dosage of the powder to try for three weeks. 

I saw the other GP the day afterwards and he prescribed prednisolone for the twitching and has referred me to get updated blood tests, as well as an MRI of the brain.

Due to all of this I’ve had about five weeks off of Year 12 because I can’t physically walk around the school, and I’ve missed out on work for over a month now.