I didn’t really want to get the COVID vaccine in the first place, but from what I was hearing in the mainstream and with mandates being introduced into my workplace, I thought that it was the right thing to do. Not in a million years would I ever have thought I’d be sitting here telling you my story.
I got my first Pfizer vaccine on 6th October 2021. As I sat down for the compulsory 15 minutes waiting period, I immediately started experiencing an adverse reaction.
It started with a hot flush and my palms started sweating. I was lightheaded and I started hyper-ventilating. I told them and they took me into the back room, where they took my blood pressure and my blood oxygen. They then told me I was fine and I could go home.
Later I felt nauseous and had a lack of appetite. I was very tired but I couldn’t fall asleep that night. I had constant nightmares all night long and a splitting migraine which was to last another week.
The next day I went to work. I was very fatigued all day long and not feeling well in general. Later that day my period came. It was one and a half weeks early. Following this, my cycle became every two weeks for the next three months, which takes me up to today.
For the next week I started getting more adverse symptoms, but I still hadn’t made the connection that this was from the vaccine. My symptoms included gastro, bladder dysfunction, swollen lymph nodes and blurry vision. There was one moment when I was driving to work and noticed I couldn’t even remember what the road sign meant and I realised I was also experiencing memory loss.
I started feeling a pressure in my head, which felt like someone was squeezing either the left or the right side of my brain. Sometimes my whole brain feels like it’s on fire and then I start to feel a painful pressure at the base of my skull and at the back of my head, where it connects to my spine.
When it happens, I start to lose control of my bodily functions and cognition. I then go into a seizure like state, where my whole body doesn’t stop having spasms. While this is happening, it’s like I want to escape my body. If you picture a rubber band being pulled out and snapping back in, you can kind of imagine my state of mind when this is happening.
At this point I still hadn’t quite connected the dots and my condition continued to worsen. I started experiencing heart palpitations and chest pains and I knew it was time to go to the hospital. There they ran blood tests and asked me if I had a history of anxiety. I replied, “Yes”, but explained what was happening to me was different.
They didn’t take me seriously, gave me Valium and sent me home. I felt humiliated and defeated.
Long story short, I took the next couple of days off, trying to get into any GP I could, to try and figure out what was going on with me. Everyone was booked out. I decided to go to my mum’s house and I haven’t left since.
Eventually I managed to get into a clinic where I was given Xanax and started acupuncture, because I couldn’t sleep. I was starting to be unable to hold a conversation, I wasn’t able to prepare food or eat it and I lost 15kg in a short period of time. All of my symptoms were still increasing, and it wasn’t long before I had another seizure like episode. This one was the worst.
I was afraid of going to the hospital and being admitted as a mental health patient, because of the way they had treated me previously. I decided against it and the next week, I went to the doctor again, where I had an MRI on my brain and was given anti-depressants. I was given the all-clear on the brain scan and I took the anti-depressants. After a few days, I ended up in urgent mental health care, due to the anti-depressants giving me akathisia.
Akathisia is a movement disorder, characterised by a subjective feeling of inner restlessness, accompanied by mental distress and an inability to sit still. Usually, the legs are most prominently affected. Those affected may fidget, rock back and forth, or pace, while some may just have an uneasy feeling in their body. The most severe cases may result in aggression, violence or suicidal thoughts.
Out of this whole ordeal, there was one nurse who I want to thank for pulling me aside to acknowledge that everything I was going through was from the vaccine and assured me I wasn’t going crazy.
Still to this day I have not been officially diagnosed with anything that has been associated to the vaccine. I was lucky to have found a doctor who has given me some relief and helped me improve my symptoms by 30%, but as we speak I’m going through another flare up and sitting at about 15% of my normal self. I’m currently using alternative methods on top of everything, to try and heal, but nothing is really working for me right now.