Georgiana Sweetman
What was your life like before you received the COVID-19 vaccine?
I had several medical issues that medical folks are now blaming for my current state, but was able to function - get up, shower, dress, drive and move around with the assistance of a rollator.
Describe the symptoms and the timeline of the reaction.
Initial symptoms beginning the day after the booster (3rd) vaccine shot were similar to my previous COVID and influenza vaccine symptoms - flu-like body aches, head and neck aches, joint pain, overall feeling of weakness and fatigue. However, compared to a bad flu vaccine reaction in my history (four days) or the second COVID shot reaction (four days), the booster reaction was much more severe and long-lasting (four weeks). I was not able to eat or drink very much during that period. I finally began to feel better and was beginning to move around the house, but fainted and fell on February 19 leading to an ED visit to repair damage to my mouth and chin. I suffered a CVA on February 25, was admitted for five days and then released into home care. Since then I have been working to overcome spasms in my arms and legs that have led to more falls, brain fog, continued weakness and fatigue. Immediately post-CVA there was some improvement in the area of hallucinations and partial mobility to be able to get from the bed to the bathroom. However, the larger picture is that I am now mostly sleeping with a few hours each day of very limited activity such as eating and watching TV.
Describe the solutions that helped your symptoms
The one solution that I can contribute is that I requested a prescription for Gabapentin in an attempt to address the spasms and tremors in my arms and legs as well as sleep-talking. This medication has been successful even though my medical team has indicated that it would not be. My spasms and tremors most closely resemble myoclonus-like symptoms. Medical folks would normally treat this with a benzodiazepine but Gabapentin seems to have a much more reliable and consistent mitigating impact. Don't know why. I should also mention two other points I believe are very important: 1 - I think there may be some critical difference between the initial two shot series of the Pfizer vaccine and the booster shot. My medical team now indicates I should not have any further COVID vaccine shots. 2 - I believe the fact that I was on blood thinners (Xarelto and aspirin) for a previous AFIB condition likely minimized the severity of my stroke. If further suspect that a healthy diet has prevented my symptoms, current state and prognosis from being even worse than it is (not that the medical folks can provide a prognosis).
Which solutions were not helpful?
There were very few solutions proposed by my medical team. They are not aware of therapies that are useful to combat vaccine related issues. To be honest, they are not interested in discussion of my symptoms being related to the vaccine at all. We did try some physical therapy sessions, which were not very successful due to my lack of energy and stamina.
What would you like others to know?
There don't seem to be any methods or tests that can confirm vaccine impacts and that are being recommended by doctors or supported by insurance coverages. I was able to get a D-Dimer test to check for evidence of clotting at my own expense, but would further like to have tests of IgG levels, cytokines, C-Reactive proteins, and some auto-immune indicators. I would like to know if there are spike proteins in my bloodstream or impacting my brain. These data points would greatly assist me in figuring out my future plans for medical treatment and monitoring. There may be other tests/blood panels that you know of that might be helpful as well and I would love to learn about those and try to arrange for them on my own time and at my own cost if necessary. There is virtually no way to confirm a vaccine cause for my CVA since it was six weeks removed from the vaccine date and there are other medical conditions that are easy for medical folks to point to as possible causes without evidence. I would like folks to know that this has impacted my level of confidence in the medical profession overall, other vaccine programs, and the government agencies responsible for health policies.
