P.G. – Ohio
Describe the symptoms and the timeline of the reaction.
" I was active and healthy before receiving the first shot of the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine. I did have environmental allergies and some food additive allergies and was a little overweight. My first shot was early in the day on March 20, 2021. I had only slight tingling down my shot arm in the first half -hour. By 5 hours later, the tingling had traveled down my left side to my toe and into my head and neck. My hands were cold. Pain in my head and neck went along with this. By 2 am, the pain was enough that I wanted to take Ibuprofen but had be instructed not to take any anti-inflammatory medication for 48 hours. I managed to make it 24 hours before taking it. After that, and for the next two weeks, all I could do was sit at the kitchen table and read a book on a book lift due to the pain in my upper body. My arm weight was enough to make the pain worse while sitting up. It felt as though a large hand with spiked gloves on was holding me by the scruff of the neck 24 hours a day. This was while taking large doses of prescription Ibuprofen. The pain kept me from looking up/down or left/right and from talking. I could not cook for myself, I could not sleep much, I could not be touched from the base of the neck to the base of the skull. I had milder pain and tingling in: my leg the all the way down to my foot and arm on the shot side. I had odd sudden pains in my torso that would come and go in moments.
At the end of week 1, I attempted to do some light work where I lifted a 2 lb. lid off and on the barbecue several times for about 15 minutes. Within 15 minutes of that I started getting so nauseous, partly from pain, partly from neck muscle tension, that I took prescription anti-nausea meds. The meds did not work. I threw up and remained nauseous. Being a weekend and knowing that I was likely going to need IV anti-nausea meds, I went to the ER. The ER helped with the nausea via IV and I got a prescription for melt-in-your mouth nausea pills. I continued to use those off and on for most of 2 months. All of my basic blood tests came back normal. They sent me home with a prescription for a muscle relaxant and said that they did not know what to do about adverse reactions to the mRNA vaccines. The muscle relaxant did not seem to do a lot for the problem and I had side effects with it. As a result of taking the muscle relaxant, I had to use Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate) in a fairly large dose to alleviate side effects. That evening, I experienced a large tension relaxation in my neck. I have used magnesium supplementation daily since that day. At the end of the second week, I read about PEG allergies. Though the reports online were of very serious reactions, my past experience with allergies led me to make a change in my medications by taking out anything containing PEG or propylene glycol in case my reactions were less immediately deadly allergic reactions. This meant stopping the Ibuprofen. I replaced it with Aspirin. I also took a first-generation allergy pill. Within three hours, I had some pain relief and a lot of allover body fluid reduction. By morning, the pain relief was enough that I could move around a little and do some very light cooking. I continued with PEG allergy eliminations in environment and body products. Two weeks later, rashes I had had for 8 years disappeared and have not returned. Somewhere in the first month, both hips started hurting regularly and sometime in the last month, I have started having muscle pains in my thighs.
Today is July 5, 2021. Between the two week point and the 6-week point, I had very slow improvement such that I could do some cooking and only a small amount of activity with my arms. At the six-week point, I seemed to have a sudden increase of pain after a meal. I looked back at my food allergy tests to see what things were listed as Equivocal/low. I took all of those out of my diet. I then improved a bit more over about a 2-week time period. Any exercise beyond short, slow walks causes more nerve pain throughout my body about 2 hours after the exercise. I have not continued to improve since that point. I fluctuate a lot. I am now going to attempt to implement a Low Histamine Diet for 1 month in hopes of finding some more relief. My chest wall has become very pain sensitive to touch in the last month or so. The doc diagnosed costochondritis. I have not been coughing. I have also had ringing in my ears since the beginning of this but it seems louder lately. Since the beginning, I have a much-reduced appetite and am losing weight but not too rapidly and it is occurring in a controlled manner.
My family doc has not been sure what to do. I have seen a neurologist who did very basic movement tests and cleared me of any structural damage to my brain. She ordered an MRI of my neck but the insurance is insisting that I complete 6 weeks of physical therapy before they will cover it. I cannot even touch my own neck, let alone do PT. I will go to the PT people and have an evaluation so that they can tell the insurance that they cannot help me. I will be seeing an Immunologist/Allergist in mid Aug.
I have not been told to get the second shot but I have been pretty clear with everyone that asks about it that I won’t do that until I understand and have a solution for my reaction to the first.
P.G. - Ohio"
