Billie Bacon

About 2 weeks after my second Pfizer shot on February 6, I began experiencing extreme stiffness, weakness and pain in my shoulders and arms, especially upon awakening. I literally could not pull myself out of the bed. I improved with movement but it worsened greatly if I was immobile for just a few minutes. The symptoms soon spread to my neck, my hands, wrists, hips and legs. By late April, I was so bad that my husband had to help me to the bathroom in the middle of the night and, literally, lower and lift me from the toilet. I could barely walk and could not bend my legs at all. I was so weak when I first awoke that I could not lift a coffee cup with my hands. I went to my family doctor, a rheumatologist and an orthopedist. Because my tests for inflammation were always normal, they had no idea what was wrong. I had begun researching the symptoms myself and was a textbook case for Polymyalgia Rheumatica. But all of the doctors insisted, emphatically, that I did not have PMR because my blood tests were normal. They also insisted that the vaccine had nothing to do with my problems. Their onset was just a coincidence. Finally, in July, I awoke and could not move at all. My husband had to lift me out of bed, dress me and maneuver me into the car. We went to the emergency room. Again, they had no idea what was wrong but prescribed a 10 day regimen of prednisone-beginning with 60 mg per day and reducing by 10 every two days. I immediately felt wonderful, and all symptoms disappeared. Unfortunately, they all reappeared as soon as I finished the prednisone. In August, we went to Mayo Clinic in MN. They did every test imaginable for 8 days, and diagnosed my condition as Polymyalgia Rheumatica. Of course, they would not say it was caused by the vaccine. I was started on a yearlong regimen of prednisone, and it has worked so far. I am on 5 mgs at present and pray each month as I reduce dose by 1 mg that my symptoms don’t return. I know this disease was caused by the vaccine and have actually found one reference online that the COVID vaccine can cause PMR. It has been a very stressful year for me and for my husband. It would help if doctors were allowed to admit the cause and if I could hear about others who have had the same problem from the vaccine.