2 years ago

2.78K

Christina LaBette
Pfizer 22nd april 2021
Very Severe Ongoing Adverse Reactions

I received my 2nd Pfizer vaccine on April 21st, 2021. On April 22nd, 2021, I was admitted Code Stroke to Ascension. Since then, my life has been turned upside down. It has been traumatizing and terrifying. I know this is a long post, but it is only a summary of the last 290 days of my life.

I will never forget the first time it happened. I felt really off, like my heart was about to come out of my chest, as if I was going to pass out. I looked in the mirror and the entire right side of my face was drooping. I couldn't raise my arm above my head. I tried to wake Damon my husband (who can sleep through a tornado) and when I wasn't able too, I called my parents. I told them I loved them and to make sure that Autumn knew she was the light of my life and how much I loved her. I told them I am sorry I am dying on them. Next thing I knew, my parents were in my house, and then I was in my dad's car at the ER. Then I remember being swarmed by doctors, nurses, and staff. They told me that I was having a stroke, but I was going to be okay. I don't remember much after that until panicking in the CT machine and freaking out about what was going on. I have a lot of memory loss during that time. I know that they told me I ended up not having a true stroke, but a mini stroke and that meant a stroke was imminent. They released me the next day.

It happened again not even twelve hours after being released from Ascension, so my dad rushed me to McLaren. I was again admitted Code Stroke and they did further testing and had me see what I feel was their top inpatient Neurologist. He was awesome and spent time with me and he was the one who came out and told me he felt I was having a reaction to the vaccine. Over the next few weeks, I seen him time and again as I was admitted multiple times to the hospital. He assured me each time that my vitals were stabilizing, that my body was reacting to the vaccine and he would order more testing and give more recommendations and tried a few different meds while I was inpatient. He was the one who diagnosed me with HMD, caused by the vaccine. He referred me to his partner for outpatient, who tried everything he could but was unable to help. He still is trying to help with referrals and anything he possibly can. Those two doctors were the first ones to help me, and for quite a while, the only ones who tried.

As I was dealing with all of these stroke like symptoms, vision problems, speech problems, memory issues, horrible pain, and unexplained neurological deficits, I started having chest pains, high blood pressure, high heart rate, and couldn't breathe. I was taken to ER to rule out a heart attack. I started seeing my parent's cardiologist and his nurse practitioner. Test after test and they said my heart was good. In November, I ended up hospitalized with pericarditis and pleural effusion. That was scary. After six weeks of being on medication and monitored, they said I could discontinue those medications and restart the medications I was on for the HMD. I dealt with worsening symptoms and way more HMD attacks being off of the medications. After all of that, they told me that this is secondary to something neurological. Well now, nine and a half months later, I have some leaky valves and calcification that were not there in the beginning, due to my heart having so much stress on it. But they assure me it is not life threatening or at any stage to have treatment of those issues. I cannot let my heart rate exceed 140, so I am basically stuck in bed unless my heart is having a good day, which is not very common.

It was hard being in the hospital on Christmas Eve, Autumn fearing I wouldn't be home for Santa or for her to open her gifts. Not knowing if I was having a heart attack or if my body was shutting down. I couldn't breathe, I had the worst chest pains I had ever experienced. My blood pressure was extremely high and my heart rate wouldn't come below 130 so Damon took me to the ER. This has caused much anxiety to my daughter as well. She shouldn't have to be worrying if her Mom is going to be okay, if she is going to lose me, if I will live. It is affecting her and I worry about her and try to hide what I can from her.

Things are constantly changing. I keep having new symptoms, some worse than others, some tolerable. There is constant fear and concern of what may come next, what happens if I can't get any kind of function back, or what if this ends up killing me. The news doesn't tell the public about the large amount of us who have been injured by these vaccines. They don't want to scare people into not getting vaccinated. I can understand that, but people have the right to know, the right to informed consent. We cannot sue for medical bills or medical treatment. We are stuck with the bills, the life altering consequences.

Since April 22nd, 2021 (289 days ago), I have had roughly 75-80 days that I did not have one single appointment to see a DR, for a test, for treatment, or was in a hospital. I now have tachycardia, POTS, fibromyalgia, still recovering from pericarditis and pleural effusion, I have kidney stones from the medications, HMD, possible MCAS, and who knows what else this vaccine has done to my body. I have PTSD from all of the worries and fears this has caused me.

I live with constant lung pain, thrush (from medications), constant chest pains, numbness, dizziness, feeling like I'm drunk all of the time, extreme exhaustion, pain all over, speech and memory issues, brain fog, visual disturbances, feeling unwell all of the time, high/low blood pressure, high heart rates. I suffer with lightening pain in random places throughout my body, nerve pain, passing out, almost passing out, being unsteady on my feet. I constantly feeling sick to my stomach

Living with POTS sucks. I struggle to get up out of bed and walk 10 feet to the bathroom without my heart rate skyrocketing to 130-140. I can be laying down and my heart rate will be 88 and I sit up or stand up and it jumps to 140. I have to stay hydrated to help keep my blood vessels functional so that I don't pass out when I stand up. It's hard to try to get physically active when I have to worry about collapsing or falling because my blood pressure plummets and heart rate skyrockets. Constant dizziness and all the fun that comes with it has been rough.

I can't be left alone because of the instability of my health. What if I collapse and no one was around? I recently collapsed outside and thankfully Damon had just come over to where I was. If he wasn't there, I would've hit my head on the brick of the house as I lost all control of my body in a standing position and collapsed. Falling from standing, as Damon says, is very serious. We have the constant fear of when I could collapse again, what if no one is there to know I collapsed, and what if I hit my head. I'm unsteady on my feet, I have balance issues due to the weakness and vertigo.

I can't drive because I can't function or concentrate. What happens if I drive and I have a horrible attack and can't brake or can't function to pull over? I have driven maybe a handful of times in the last six months.

I have struggled with depression, wondering if I am going to make it through this alive. I have had to deal with the constant fear of not knowing if this is going to kill me. I worry that I will leave my daughter without her mother. This is terrifying, a nightmare. Anxiety and fear have taken over many of times, but I push through the best that I can.

I spend most of my days hidden in my bedroom, where it is dark as night, with a fan going for white noise to try to tune out some of the horrendous ear ringing that comes and goes throughout the day, to distract me from the bright light that I once loved. I sit in quiet most days hidden away from my family. Autumn will come in and cuddle with me and talk to me and sometimes I can even muster watching tv without it triggering some kind of attack. Those are the good days.

This has consumed my life. I understand that this vaccine is too new and no one knows how to fix us and most are denying the vaccine can even cause these injuries. I finally found a support group where there are many others like me who have been injured by the Covid vaccines. Very few have recovered at 80% or more and many have continued to worsen as I have. I know I am not alone in this journey, that there unfortunately are many others like me who are suffering from the vaccine. I have found strength through this support group, guidance and hope.

My husband has become a caregiver - Over the last 290 days I have had to endure:

36 ER Visits, admitted multiple times
1- 10 day hospital admission Diamond Chicago
46 CT Scans
6 MRIs, have one upcoming
4 MRA's/MRVs
6 EMGs
51 EKGs
1- 14 day heart monitor
1 48 hour EEG
4 ECHOs
3 EMGs
1 heart cath
2 nuclear stress tests
1 physical stress test
1 picc line, lost count on IVS and # of pokes to get a good one
63+ blood draws, not including being poked multiple times for IVs or missed veins
30+ xrays
40+ different medications given/tried
2 nerve blocks
1 round of 31 injections of Botox
15+ and counting different specialists
At least 1-2 doctors visits a week since April 21st. Sometimes I have appointments 3-5 days a week, whether it be testing, imaging, medication changes, ER follow ups, etc.