I’m 43. I care part-time for a couple of my family members, so I have my hands full. Prior to the vaccine I was fairly active, going to the gym, swimming, and general exercise. I try to stick to a healthy diet, and I’ve never had any physical problems. However I have dealt with a major depressive disorder.
I didn’t want to get the vaccine because I felt that it was rushed through with no long term studies undertaken and made me feel uneasy. However, because of my role as a carer and the constant repeating of the narrative I felt if I didn’t get it, the people I was around would be put at risk and I didn’t want to do that.
I got the Pfizer jab on 1 November 2021 in my right arm. My only side effect was a slightly sore arm until four days later on the Thursday night. I was watching TV and suddenly out of nowhere my heart started beating irregularly like it had never done before. I went to lie down for about an hour, waiting for it to calm down and pass. I struggled to get to sleep that night because I was scared that I wouldn’t wake up if I fell asleep, not really understanding what was happening to me.
The next morning, I woke up breathless and could only move around very minimally or I would feel like I was going to fall over or pass out. It was something I’d never experienced before and it made me feel very weak and fatigued. I pushed through the day, taking rests as I needed them. Other symptoms I started to experience were nerve pain in my arms, kidney pain, frequent urination, and high blood pressure. Basically, I couldn’t move without it affecting my heart rate significantly.
In the same week that I had the vaccine, I had a phone consult with my GP and I notified him of my symptoms. I mentioned that I’d had the vaccine and he didn’t seem overly concerned about it and just told me to rest and take Panadol.
For the next six weeks, the symptoms continued. Around week four or five, I went and saw another GP at a different clinic, he ran tests, ECG, finger prick glucose, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation. The results came back clear and he didn’t give me any answers. I left empty handed. At this point I was feeling annoyed. The impression I was getting was that he didn’t want to believe I’d had a reaction to the vaccine, not because he was being dismissive but because he was too scared to say what he really thought.
The next thing I noticed was my menstrual cycle was not normal. My period was totally gone for two months and then it reappeared heavier than usual and followed with another cycle two weeks late and then a two week period of heavy bleeding. Still to this day it is irregular. In my whole life, I have never had this issue.
Currently I am still without answers as to what is really going on with me. I am still experiencing brain fog, forgetfulness, and my cognitive ability is declining. I can be carrying something and the signal from my brain to my hands glitches and I will instantly drop whatever it is that I’m carrying. Fatigue, weakness, kidney pain and breathlessness also persist on and off. I still get heart aches and arrhythmia and I have had to adapt to not living the life I used to. If I push myself too hard, I fear something bad will happen to me.