Louise
Hi, my names Louise and I’m Covid Vaccine Injured.
Prior to the vaccine I had numerous health issues M.E./CFS, Fibromyalgia, Asthma and Chronic Pain. I was classed as disabled but if I thought that was being disabled, I was in for a shock!
When Covid hit, I was immediately classed as vulnerable. I had to shield from my family, it was awful. When I heard in the news that they had produced 2 vaccines (Pfizer and AstraZeneca) I was over the moon. They said if we got the vaccine it would stop Covid spreading and we would be safe from catching it and life would return to ‘normal’. How wrong they were for me and thousands of others.
On 10 th February 2021, I had my first vaccine. I was so excited. I was given the Astra Zeneca and told to expect flu like symptoms for about 48hrs, sore arm etc. Which I did. Three or four days later I was absolutely fine. Eight days later and the palpitations I was having were awful – they made me feel dizzy and sick, so I went to see my GP. She sent me to the hospital the next day for an ECG. All ten seconds of it showed nothing. This same day, I thought to myself, my speech doesn’t seem right but anyone I asked said it was fine. Two days after the ECG, I had a full blown stammer! Not linking anything to the vaccine, the GP thought it may have been a TIA or stroke so sent me for a scan – it was normal.
Absolutely stumped, my GP done an urgent referral to Neurology. In April 2021, the neurologist diagnosed me with Functional Neurological disorder (FND). I was given a website to look at and sent on my way, with an appointment to return in August. That wasn’t good enough in my opinion but there was nothing |I cold do about it. I was being left with severe communication difficulties and palpitations that were preventing me from leaving the house as I was getting very light headed and falling all the time.
Fast forward to 5 th May 2021, my second Covid vaccine. I’m 7 days I would be protected from getting Covid, shielding would hopefully end and I can physically see my family again. This was exciting, but I was still worried I still had the severed Stammer. I had none of the flu like side effects I had the first time round either so it was great. Two weeks later though the falls got worse, still had the palpitations, stammer but more things were happening as the days went on.
On June, I had a bad chest infection that required me to stay in hospital for 14days IV antibiotics, even during these 14 days the symptoms kept coming. I now had tremors, spasms, and Tics ! Yes tics. I actually couldn’t take this any more. It clicked in the hospital that it could be the vaccine but no one would listen. I was feeling awful, I cried for days because the symptoms were horrific. I didn’t want to be here any more.
I got discharged, I called the speech therapist to say why I’d missed my appointment abs told her I’d gotten so much worse since my 2 nd Covid vaccine and I was struggling to get through the day. I thought I would be better off dead. I couldn’t put my kids through watching me struggle like this. Dependent on them. She contacted the Neurologist and I was seen again a week later. She was still adamant about her FND diagnosis but would speak to her colleagues and see if they could find out what’s going on especially since my scans were all fine. I continued to cry, struggle and get some sort of life back hit it was hopeless. I was called back to the neurologist in August.
I went back to the neurologist on the 16 th August 2021, and she asked me how I was. To cut a long story short, I said I’m struggling I’m almost positive the vaccine has caused all this. She then told me and my son, that they had taken my notes and added them to a study they had done from January-July 2021 and the official diagnosis she was now giving was ‘functional neurological disorder triggered by Covid-19 AstraZeneca Vaccine’ I asked for it to be out on my record that the vaccine caused this and she was happy to do that. I also asked if there was any medication, injection or treatment that would reverse these symptoms, and I was advised no! I said I need to get better as my son gets married in 6 weeks, she said sadly I don’t think you’ll now be better for that, I’ll send you some information on how to cope on the day.
By now my symptom list had grown so much. I had palpitations, stammer, tremors, tics, spasms, drop attacks, migraine, tinnitus, numbness & tingling, dizziness, word thinking issues, memory problems, coordination and cognitive issues, insomnia, my respiratory condition had deteriorated fast, reactions to medications, blurred vision, Lack of depth perception, rash on legs, muscle weakness in legs, difficulty climbing stairs, 24/7 internal vibrations, difficulty reading, interpretation & writing, noise and light sensitive to name a few. . . .
I’ve now had 7 neurology appointments and we are no further forward. I’ve asked for testing for GBS (as I suspect I had this in June 21 whilst I was in hospital), Srojens and MCAS. I was told that because I doubted her diagnosis (only the FND part) she would send me to a Long Covid clinic to see if that neurologist could come up with anything else incase she was wrong. That neurologist literally just said I think you do have FND and that was it. No option of other tests nothing. A total waste of an appointment.
Today, I still have all the above symptoms and more. I have learnt how to cope with them, although most days I struggle to get out of bed. I rarely leave the house except to meet a friend for a short walk. I don’t go out myself unless I’m having a really good day and even then it’s the local shop for food as I have real problems with social anxiety due to my speech, tics and tremors.
When I eventually managed to scan over the leaflet I got with the AstraZeneca vaccine it says if any neurological symptoms are noticed within 14 days to consult the hospital. My GP did, but because no one made that connection the chances of me Joe getting better are slim to none. This is now my life, I sit and look at the same 4 walls every day, I have no money because I have to lay for a lot of my own therapies (NHS give you 10 sessions and that’s it). My respiratory condition has deteriorated so much, I was recently admitted to hospital with pneumonia (and some pleurisy) I’ve had to cash in what little pension I had to pay for tradesmen to come in and finish decorating the house for me as I’m not fit to do it and sitting in a building site wasn’t good for my mental health. So thanks to AstraZeneca for the lovely gift that keeps on giving day after day, for ruining my life, taking away my social life, my ability to go to gatherings, cinema, shopping and all the normal thing a mother, grandmother and friend would do. This isn’t a life worth living, this is existing in hell. Do they care? Absolutely not, will they help? Absolutely not!, will they look further to see what else is going on, absolutely not! All I can say is if it wasn’t for my fantastic GP (who’s hands are tied as to what he can authorise) I wouldn’t be here today. He is the only one who gives me time to talk and express how I am feeling, the others talk over me. To them I’m not worth listening to.
I have contact me MSP to ask for help, but I hear nothing back. If it wasn’t for my kids, I’d 100% not be here today. I don’t want to live like this. I don’t want to be a 1/3 if the person I was. I want to be the fun loving, outgoing, happy go lucky person I was. It that so much to ask? I know if it was their family affected by the vaccine, they’d fight tooth and nail to have them treated, so why not do the same for me?