My name is Luisa and prefer not to use my full name when sharing my story. Below is my story.
It has taken a lot of thought and courage to write this post, mainly because of what people might think. Then I realise that by staying silent I’m doing the exact same thing that the government are doing. They have stayed silent and gagged the media and medical staff to stay quiet. This post isn’t political as I have never been into politics and never really had any strong views on anything political. This post is personal and it’s about awareness.
It is personal because I am telling you what my experience has been after having my first Pfizer vaccine in July. This will give insight to many people who have not had a reaction to the vaccine and what it is like for someone like me who has suffered side effects. If, like most people, I hadn’t had an adverse reaction, I would’ve been completely oblivious to what is actually happening in the medical field and with the mainstream media.
I am experiencing first hand the gaslighting by doctors, (luckily not all), and realising that the media never talks about the many people, like myself, who have had reactions. What angers me most is knowing that people like me are insignificant to the government. Their plan is to vaccinate as many people as possible. Anyone who doubts or is hesitant about the vaccine, could potentially affect their plan. Also, people speaking out about their injuries are a threat to their plan. The government has betrayed us. They told us, the media told us, doctors told us that the vaccines were SAFE and EFFECTIVE. What they have failed to say, is that they are NOT safe and effective for EVERYONE.
Because of this threat that we pose to the government, I and many others like me, have not been taken seriously when presenting symptoms to doctors.
Vaccine rates were quite low when I got my first Pfizer vaccination. The doctor I was seeing told me that my symptoms weren’t related to the vaccine and that I was having anxiety or that I may be experiencing menopause symptoms. I was having heart palpitations, fatigue, muscle weakness in my legs, loss of appetite and feelings of disassociation. When I got heart palpitations or fatigue, I would also feel a wave of heat come over my body. I told my doctor, that before the vaccine, I wasn’t feeling any of these symptoms and that apart from vertigo, I was perfectly healthy. I wasn’t on any medication and led a pretty healthy and very busy life. The vaccine had changed everything.
By the third week post vaccine, things just got worse. I was so afraid as I have never felt anything like this before. The muscle weakness in my legs got worse. There were days where I thought I may not be able to walk. My legs felt like spaghetti. I also developed muscle weakness in my arms. I continued to have no appetite but would force myself to eat. I could hardly eat or drink and when I ate, it had to be very plain food.
I was getting the most unbearable and debilitating chest pain, that would last up to three hours. I would then get an hour or so of relief before I got another episode, which could last another few hours. I would feel this heaviness in my chest, like an elephant was sitting on it. I would feel breathless and feeling like I couldn’t breathe. These episodes could also last up to a few hours. I would feel a pain in my arms which felt like a rubber band was squeezing tight around my muscles. I had a few episodes of leg tremors and internal tremors around my abdomen area.
I had adrenaline surges which felt like butterflies in my stomach and chest. It was like my body was in a fight or flight response. These episodes would come on randomly throughout the day and could last up to two or three hours at a time. It honestly felt like something was eating away at me from the inside and that I was slowly deteriorating. I lost seven kilos in two months, due to having no appetite. My fatigue was so bad, and at times I felt like I was near fainting. I would also feel this horrible burning sensation under my skin. It was in my arms, back, chest, abdomen area and legs. At times I would also get random muscle twitches on my face, hands, arms and legs.
During the days and weeks of pain and suffering I had never felt so alone and abandoned by our medical doctors. No meds could relieve my pain.
Over time, as more people were getting vaccinated, doctors were seeing more people with similar symptoms. At the beginning I was being told my symptoms were not related to the vaccine. But later I was told that I was having a strong immune response to the vaccine. I was told they couldn’t help me and that it could take weeks or months for my body to heal. What made things worse was that all the blood tests, chest x-rays, heart ultrasound, echocardiogram and MRIs were unremarkable. This was just like people with long COVID and other people who had had a reaction to the vaccine. They were also not showing any signs of inflammation or having any abnormal test results.
I had to turn to Functional Medicine doctors, Chinese Medicine doctors and naturopaths to help me with my symptoms. I was taking a cocktail of supplements and herbal teas. I also found a group of other people suffering with the same symptoms as me and found it provided a lot of much needed support. I discovered from others, whose doctors were more helpful, that our symptoms were related to our nervous system and that our body’s immune response was to attack our nervous system.
I told my doctor that I needed something for my nerve pain and he put me on Endep (amitriptyline), which is an antidepressant, but is prescribed off label to treat nerve pain. This helped with some of the pain and also helped me to sleep at night, as I hadn’t been sleeping well, due to the pain. I also told my doctor that my resting heart rate was elevated, so he put me on propranolol, which is a beta blocker. This helped lower my heart rate.
I went from a healthy, busy, 47-year-old mum to someone who was now taking two types of prescription meds and was unable to go to work and or look after her family. Doctors couldn’t help me and the government had turned its back on me. I’m being told I can’t get a medical exemption, so I face the possibility of losing my job. I’ve never felt so alone and abandoned by our health care system. I feel like I was left to suffer.
It has now been almost five months post-vaccine and although I feel 95% better, I’m still not back to my normal health. I still have an elevated heart rate and continue to take propranolol. I am now also taking mirtazapine to control the adrenaline surges. One of the side effects of mirtazapine is that it increases appetite, so my weight has returned to baseline since taking it. I still have relapses recovering from the vaccine. Just like recovery from long COVID, this isn’t linear. This vaccine has affected me physically and mentally. Although I still want to be fully vaccinated, I can’t go through with another one and risk the same reaction.
The government needs to provide better support to people like me. They should compensate us for the loss of income and all the medical costs. The current vaccine claims scheme criteria is very limiting on who can make a claim. We should also be granted exemptions from having another vaccine due to our adverse reactions. The fact that I am being told to get a second one is inhumane and shows a lack of care and is an act of negligence.
If I had a reaction to any other medication, I would be told to stop taking it. If several people were getting sick from a new medication, the government would normally recall the product. Why is this any different??