Age: 32.0
Sex: M
Vaccine: FLU3
Symptoms: Drug administered at inappropriate site, Injected limb mobility decreased, Injection site pain, Injection site reaction, Musculoskeletal stiffness
Clinical narrative: Received a flu shot in the upper left arm, much higher (in the shoulder) than it should have been given.  When the needle was put in, I was told to relax although I already was.  I realized later that whatever resistance she felt while giving me the shot was because the needle was in my shoulder. I returned to my work area (the flu shot was given at my place of work, made available by the company) and I began to feel soreness in my left shoulder at around 2:00 PM. I left work at 3:30 PM and was home by 4:00 PM, with the soreness increasing.  My wife arrived home at 5:15 PM, at which point I said "I don't know if I'm being a wimp about this flu shot, but it really hurts".  Being a former Marine and rugby player, I believe I have a high tolerance of pain and deal with it well. At around 8:00 PM that night, I began to realize that there was really something wrong because the pain was intense and I couldn't lift my left arm above my head.  I've gotten flu shots my whole life and never had any issues.  This was the point at which I compared my pain to the same as experiencing a shoulder injury I suffered in 2006 while playing rugby. That night, I woke many times with pain shooting into my shoulder when I attempted to move.  When my alarm went off, I was unable to turn it off with my left arm as I normally do.  When I got in my truck to leave for work, I attempted to close the door with my left arm and immediately recoiled in pain.  I had to use my right arm.  I was also uncomfortable while driving, no matter what position I put my arm in I felt aches or pain. When I arrived at work, I went to see the company nurse and told her what had happened and the pain I was in.  She told me to go back upstairs and let the people who were administering the flu shots know and ask them what I should do.   I returned to the area where they were giving flu shots because they were scheduled to give them again that day as well.  I spoke to the lead nurse there, and she filled out a "Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System" sheet with me.  When we were done, she told me that it was up to me whether I wanted to see a doctor or not.  I asked for a copy of the sheet she filled out and still have it, but I found out later that she had given her copy to someone else and it was never filed, faxed, or emailed anywhere (which is why I'm doing this online now).  On the sheet that nurse filled out, she noted that "Injection site  visibly higher than deltoid muscle". I told her that I was going to see how my shoulder does through the weekend (this was Thursday morning, I received the shot on Wednesday).  On Monday, I still had a lot of pain so I decided to push through till Wednesday (10/16) and see how it was then.   On Wednesday, I still had pain so I decided to wait it out through the weekend again.  That Sunday (10/20), the pain became too much and I decided I needed to talk to someone about what to do next.  At this point, the stiffness of my shoulder and the pain in the morning when I wake up was almost unbearable.  The shoulder would loosen up a little during the day, but at night, during the night, and in the morning was awful.  I tried calling a person that I was given a number to in order to figure out what to do next, but I left 2 messages and my calls were never returned.  At this point I made a doctor's appointment (10/22), and got in at 3:15 to see my doctor.  She examined me shoulder and said it was a possibility that the needle got into my supraspinatus tendon and caused an issue.  I told her my pain was on par with my previous shoulder injury, and she said I needed to get my shoulder moving more because I was at risk of getting "frozen shoulder".  She said to contact her in 2 weeks if it doesn't get better, which will be 11/5.  Right now, I'm doing my best to keep my shoulder moving but the pain has not subsided.