Age: 32.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Dysphagia, Dyspnoea, Ear discomfort, Electrocardiogram normal, Epstein-Barr virus infection
Clinical narrative: Symptoms:   Feeling of pressure in head that usually pulsates to the beat of my heart Ear pressure and extreme tinnitus  PVC?s (pre ventricle contractions - heart skipping beats or ?backfiring?) Palpitations Chest Pressure and pain - Feeling like I got hit in the chest with a soccer ball. Rushes of what I can best describe as a physical warm anxious energy that starts below both ribs and radiates up over my chest and heart area, down my left arm and sometimes into my neck/jaw, happening right as I?m about to fall asleep. I have these over and over again each night, always as I?m about to bridge the gap between being asleep and awake. I often jump up and sometimes even gasp for air. Most of the time my heart rate seems to stay the same. Once in a while though it will increase. These happen for hours until I?m finally able to fall asleep. It also sometimes coincides with a feeling of being dizzy or like you?re falling backwards. When I jump up from one, I usually have to open my eyes and center myself on the non-moving surroundings to feel stable. These sensations only happen when I?m trying to go to sleep and go away a few seconds after I am alerted by one. I have them every single night and they are usually accompanied by a buzzing sensation and pressure/weighted feeling in my head and chest. Feelings during the day of anxious ?lava? flowing in the area below both ribs. A feeling of extreme anxiety coupled with it. Its not a normal stomach ache or feeling of being nauseous, its what I best describe as that feeling you get when someone startles you or the feeling you get when you show up to class and realize today is the midterm exam you totally forgot about. I can physically feel anxious energy in the area swirling around that is uncomfortable and makes it hard to sit still. It often makes me feel the need to curl into the fetal position to alleviate it (I don?t usually do this, however, it just feels like that is my body?s natural response to handling it).  Extreme anxiety/panic attacks and agoraphobia  Tightness in throat muscles  Feeling of lump in throat or heart beating in throat  Hard ?thumping? heart. Not fast but hard. I can?t stand the feeling of it and can no longer sleep on my left side as it feels so loud pounding against my rib and the bed. This often coincides with the head pressure feeling and usually gets worse as the day goes on and isn?t very noticeable first thing in the morning. Sometimes at night if I lie down on the floor to watch a movie and then get up quickly my heart forcefully beats and my head throbs with pressure. Feeling of trouble swallowing food sometimes Chest/arm pressure and heaviness Dizziness that seems most noticeable when I move my eyes from one thing to the other or am scrolling on my phone. This usually feels like my eyes are lagging behind my head. I can no longer sit in the recliners at my house as the movement of them makes me feel unstable and even more dizzy. I had an episode on New Years Eve where I was sitting in the recliner and looked up quickly and all of a sudden my vision just started spinning and flip-flopped. This happened for a few seconds and caused me to panic and immediately check the pulse in my neck. I noticed PVC?s happening and my heart rhythm ?stuttered? and then corrected itself like 5-10 seconds later. I then had a normal panic attack where my heart rate increased rapidly and my blood pressure went up. I was able to get my BP down fairly quickly after this episode but it really shook me up.  Loss of hair. I noticed this a month after the second Covid vaccine.  Incredible sinus pressure (usually beats to heart as well) and clogged sinuses. I feel as though my nasal passages are swollen to the size of a pin. They often both get so blocked that I can?t breathe out of my nose but don't seemed to be congested. I notice this the most at night. I don?t have a history of any known allergies but I?m starting to wonder.  Upper teeth pressure. Often hard to carry on long conversations as I feel a pain/stiffness/pressure feeling in my throat and chest muscles. This sensation is very hard to describe and is accompanied by the head pressure feeling. Weird pains in body - especially upper chest, neck, collar bones, back, head (usually base of skull) and shoulders/upper arms. Neurological pain. Akathisia and inner tremors. These became very intense a few days after the Covid booster. Sometimes it feels like my muscles are writhing inside and I need to move them to make the feelings stop. I feel like I?m shaking on the inside and that they will progress to me having a seizure. That never happens and I usually don?t physically shake externally. Internal buzzing/vibrating/tingling sensation. This sensation is new and very disturbing and is there all the time. Sometimes it is worse than others and seems to get ?louder? when I?m more stressed out. This is most noticeably in my head and chest area as well as my arms. I do feel it everywhere though. This symptom has totally freaked me out. I notice it the most at night. I often feel like I'm plugged into an electrical outlet.  Insomnia. I have trouble falling asleep and trouble staying asleep.  Inner itching. This one is also hard to describe but it felt as though my brain and face were itching on the inside.  Feeling of costochondritis (I?ve never been diagnosed). This comes and goes.  Paresthesia  Sometimes I can?t laugh hard as it feels like it is putting too much stress on my body and my muscles are tensing up and I will erupt into a seizure. This one is another bizarre symptom, and I know how crazy it sounds. It is also one that is hard to describe.  Sensitivities to extreme temps  Irregular menstrual cycle after booster. I had my period twice in December. Pulsating (to beat of heart) pressurized choking feeling in throat. Sometimes it feels like all this pressure is building up and there is no way and nowhere to let it out. This is what makes it hard to talk sometimes or feel like I?m choking and that my heart is blocking my airway. It is very hard to lie down when this happens as the heart-smothering feeling intensifies. This sensation makes it feel like it is hard to breathe.  Muscle twitching Muscle stiffness and feeling of inability to relax muscles. I often joke when this symptom is present that it feels like I have rigor mortis.  Brain fog Vision problems - blurry vision sometimes  Depersonalization and derealization Trouble breathing. Feeling like I am unable to get a deep breath Increased blood pressure   Timeline:  November 19th 2021: Covid Moderna booster at 5:00pm. At midnight I went to the bathroom and felt very dizzy and strange.   November 20th 2021: I was lying in bed watching tv when I felt my heart start having PVC?s and ?backfiring? or skipping beats. I felt the pulse in my neck and could feel my heart rhythm was stuttering. I panicked and jumped out of bed. It felt like it took a solid minute before my heart rhythm corrected itself. My heart started beating very fast and I had a severe panic attack. I was on the floor shaking. My blood pressure was elevated to about 145/100 and it took an hour to get it back down to normal.   November 22nd 2021: Went to work at 8:00am and had chest pressure/pain and felt like someone had kicked me in the chest with a soccer ball. Had a panic attack and drove myself to the ER where they did an EKG and blood work and said that everything looked fine. The doctor told me he sent the ekg over to a cardiologist for review as well as he always does, just to be sure. When I looked at the EKG in chart that night when I got home, I noticed that it said ?probable left atrial enlargement? at the top. I didn?t understand why they sent me home and told me I was fine. I asked my PCP and she said that the machine interprets the test and writes things in at the top that aren't always accurate. She also reviewed the ekg and told me that it was fine and that my ?p waves look beautiful.?   November 26th 2021: Go to the ER for feeling dizzy and chest pain and head pressure. They completed bloodwork, ekg, chest x-ray, urinalysis, CT scan of head, and found nothing.   November 28th 2021: Can?t sleep due to intense restless leg feeling and akathisia.   November 29th 2021: Call out of work and get in to see my doctor. Begin Short Term Disability. I make a plan with my doctor to try and reinstate a low dose of Lexapro despite my beliefs that these medications have an iatrogenic effect on me.   November 30th 2021: Take .5mg of Lexapro for the next 3 days and feel an increase in my symptoms. I stop the medication after 3 days. This is around the time that I notice a new buzzing/tingling/vibrating sensation in my body. My tinnitus has gotten worse now also.   December 31st 2021: I?m sitting in the recliner and move my head/eyes and all of a sudden my vision just starts spinning and flip-flops and my heart feels like its rhythm is messing up and skipping beats. This is described in greater detail above in the symptoms section.   January 21st 2022: Went to cardiology to have heart monitor put on. This will monitor my heart for 3 days.   March 15th: Resting heartrate starts dropping this week. It is usually at about 46-47 but drops suddenly down to 45 for a day then 44 for another day then down to 43 and 42 and stays down in this area.   March 18th: Feeling of breathlessness begins. Feeling like I can?t get a satisfying breath in.   End of March: Go to the ER twice in a week for feelings of breathlessness.   April 5th: Diagnosed with autoimmune disease that affects dopamine receptors and blood brain barrier disruption,as well as antibodies to lyme and two types of EBV.   May 10th : Mom tests positive for Covid. I have symptoms. Tickle in throat that progresses to feelings of being unwell. I can tell I am getting sick.  May 12th: Test positive for Covid. Develop a significant increase in PVC?s. Go to the ER.   May 27th-29th: Wore Ziopatch heart monitor.   June 8th: Get results from heart monitor back. This shows a significant increase in ectopic heartbeats :premature beat originating in the lower chambers).