Nicole Shiffrar
What was your life like before you received the COVID-19 vaccine?
Describe the symptoms and the timeline of the reaction.
My first shot was December 29, 2019. I work in healthcare, so was going to be required to have this, so just decided to have it as I had never had a reaction to any other vaccine prior to this one. I had very severe muscle cramping post 1st shot of Moderna (Lot #011J20A), this lasted for several weeks. Just as it seemed to have gone away, I received my 2nd shot of Moderna (Lot# 030L20A) on Jan. 26, 2021. That evening I had my 1st of many severe migraines, and started feeling tingling in my face around my nose and lips.
Over the next 4 months I had pretty much daily migraines, some very severe, and the facial tingling/paresthesia's increased in intensity gradually. By June of 2021, I finally was seen by my primary care doc because my episodes of facial paresthesia's became very painful with burning sensations and my face was completely paralyzed on both sides for about 30 minutes, so went o my doc the next day. She started my on prednisone for my face stuff as nobody knew how to help me. A few weeks later I started having terrible difficulty breathing and low O2 levels in mid 80's. I was given breathing treatments, inhalers, meds and nothing was alleviating symptoms. I was tested 3 separate times for Covid and they did chest xrays and ct and those were normal. After 2 weeks symptoms subsided, but I ended up on Augmentin because my inability to breathe gave me atelectasis in my left lung. Towards the end of breathing issues, my vision in my left eye started to skip when I would look side to side. My left eye stopped moving correctly altogether and I was forced to wear an eye patch for the next year until I qualified to have strabismus surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. I was tested for EVERYTHING under the sun, they thought it was Graves Disease or Myasthenia Gravis, but it turned out to be neither. I have had an elevated D Dimer and Eosinophils, and slightly enlarged red blood cells and that is about it. A cause for all of my troubles since Covid shots has never been determined. My eye will never be totally perfect again and my facial parasthesias still come back. The only thing I have been able to do that works is a dose of prednisone and then 4-6 months later they come back again. I just started having them again 3 days ago.
