Age: 58.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19, COVID19
Symptoms: Vertebral artery dissection
Clinical narrative: On 04/21/2021, 12 days after I received the vaccine, I woke up with my entire left side feeling numb and I had a headache. I felt like I had pressure on my chest and I was really lightheaded. I got up for a little while and I felt like I was going to faint. I felt like I needed to eat something and I was very weak. I drank some juice and ate an orange. I was having a hard time swallowing and at times slurred my words. I realized that something serious was going on because I had pain like when I went through chemo. The base of my spine has been hurting every day since I received the vaccine and I have had headaches since as well. I was having heart palpitations and felt super weak. I didn't go to work for 2 days. That was 04/21 and 04/22. On 04/23 I had to do a zoom conference for work, for an hour, and my eyes starting hurting really bad like my eyes had been open for 24 hours. The light from the computer screen was really affecting me. At 5pm I did a tele-video appointment with the NP. She told me that she wanted me to go urgent care because it was the closest urgent care to me. After going to Urgent Care on 04/24, the doctor wanted me to go to the Hospital by ambulance. At the hospital the performed an EKG, CTA and MRA and they said that everything looked fine. They couldn't validate that my pain was from Johnson and Johnson vaccine. I was release at 10:30pm PT, I called Dr., my Oncology surgeon, and he referred me to Neurology doctor. I got an appointment with Dr., 04/27, and she ordered a CTA and an MRA. I had the scans completed on 04/28, with and without contrast. The radiologist found something. I was sent back home, but I was told that right vertebral artery was completely excluded. In January of 2020, there was a CTA performed, and I didn't have any numbness and my vertebral artery still have a steady flow even though there was a tear. It also showed that I had more stenosis in my carotid artery. I have now been referred to a new Neurosurgeon. Dr. never saw me because they couldn't view my records. The doctor told me to take Crestor and 81 mg aspirin. I did not feel that those medications helped at all. If anything, I felt worse. on 05/15, I was in the passenger seat of my grandson's car and I ended up throwing up and there was blood coming out with the vomit. He took me the Hospital. I had a video appointment on 05/11, with an NP, and she told me to up my aspirin to 325mg and continue to take Crestor. She referred me to The Stroke Neurology Group and she referred me to get a CTA. She also referred me to a GI doctor. On 05/15, against medical advice, and was taken by ambulance to another hospital. I stayed there until 3AM 05/16. They performed an MRA, a CT, Stroke Angiogram, they MRI with and without contrast, a chest x-ray and a lot of blood work. They also performed are lactate test and at first it came back as 2.5, which made them think I had an infection, but they re-tested and it came back as 1.5 which they said to be normal. The results from the hospitals. On 05/19 I went to see a Cardiologist, and she took me off of Crestor and put on pravastatin. She order an echocardiogram and a treadmill test and an EKG. I did see a GI doctor and they told me that the aspirin that I was told to take is what was making me throw up blood. I do have a neurology appointment on 06/11 and I have an appointment with the neurosurgeon on 06/16. My last heart test came back normal.