Age: 41.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Nausea, Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, Vaccination site pain
Clinical narrative: Dizziness; Nausea; loss of appetite; inability to eat; didn't feel good at all; felt sick; symptoms of POTS and MCAS exist and the vaccine took it to next level; symptoms of POTS and MCAS exist and the vaccine took it to next level; symptoms of POTS and MCAS exist and the vaccine took it to next level; hurt at her injection site for a month; This is a spontaneous report from a contactable consumer (patient reported for herself). A 41-years-old female patient received BNT162B2 (PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE, Solution for injection, Lot Number: ER8727, expiry date not reported, NDC 59267-1000-1) via an unspecified route of administration, administered in left deltoid on 25Mar2021 10:45 am (age at vaccination: 41 years old) as dose 1, 0.3 ML, single to protect herself and to protect others (covid-19 immunisation). Medical history included postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) from Dec2017 and ongoing; mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) from Dec2017 and ongoing; vestibular neuronitis from 2008 to an unknown date; vestibular migraine from an unknown date and unknown if ongoing; Meniere's type symptoms from 2019 to an unknown date wherein she was diagnosed by ENT she was on the cusps hat would be similar to having prediabetes and not diabetes as the number was not there to have diabetes but she needed to stop eating sugar anyways. She could not definitively say she had Meniere's because her testing on an unknown date did not indicate that level. She was on the cusps. Concomitant medication included midodrine taken for an unspecified indication, start and stop date were not reported. Patient previously took flu shot on unknown dates as immunization. Patient did not receive prior vaccinations (within 4 weeks). Patient wanted to report adverse reactions with the vaccine. She has a few doctor that she would like to include. She gave consent for Pfizer to reach out to any of the providers. The adverse reaction was that she had major dizziness and the dizziness never stopped since 25Mar2021 11:00. It continued through March, April and May. Somewhat subsided in June. She has had nausea, dizziness, loss of appetite, and the inability to eat because of the nausea, all since 25Mar2021 11:00. She would characterize that as loss of appetite. It was now symptoms that come and go. It was back again. The vaccine was administered on 25Mar2021. She got dizziness the day she received the vaccine, 25Mar2021, and it got debilitating on the next day, 26Mar2021. It has improved. Some days she didn't feel it at all. Then somehow it came back. It was more like a nausea. This extreme nausea that was only alleviated when she was laying down. The loss of appetite has improved, but she was still having issues. Another symptom she knew people complain of was sore arm. It hurt at her injection site for a month since an unspecified date in 2021. Patient reported that in 2008 she was diagnosed with vestibular neuritis and later was treated for vestibular migraines. She was able to wean off the medication and manage the vestibular migraines for the most part as they waxed and waned. She was in good health. With POTS she has good blood pressure and her cholesterol was fine (dates unspecified). Her comorbidities could have contributed to her experience. With MCAS being a degenerative disease, it hurt her. It was almost like draining a battery. She could never get back to 100% again. She felt like taking this first shot was a roll of the dice. What she was reading in articles was the vaccine was working but it was downplaying the side effects. If comorbid conditions were only effecting a small portion of the population, she felt like she was being punished for fear of moving forward with second dose. Her appointment was at 10:30AM. She probably didn't get it until 10:45AM. The dizziness, nausea, and loss of appetite started about 11:00AM. The problem with chronic illness was those symptoms of POTS and MCAS exist and the vaccine took it to next level (25Mar2021). They let her leave after 15 to 20 minutes. She thought maybe it was an initial reaction and thought she would be fine. She just wanted to leave because she didn't feel good at all. She didn't go into anaphylaxis, but she felt sick. They had driven 40 minutes out of their way to get the vaccine. She just wanted to go home.  The patient did not require emergency room but the events required physician office visits. She went to the doctor's office. She had a virtual call with withheld and they prescribed Phenergan for nausea and dizziness. She talked to her ENT and had a visit with him as well. She was also seen at the nurse practitioner's office. She did not she her nurse practitioner, but one of her colleagues for dizziness. Not one of them could advise for or against the second dose. That told her that the doctors don't want to take the liability. They have to abide by health code. They were afraid to take on liability if they advise the second one. Not one of them could tell her. She was emotional. Her take away was that she was a guinea pig and they will report it back to them. It has taken years for vaccines to be vetted and they couldn't tell you what will happen. One doctor said she was covered 80% which was better than nothing. They were staying on neutral ground. Someone in her position needed answers. People with symptoms with comorbid conditions have no answers. She was living in limbo every day. Someone should advise her to take the vaccine. She knew the risk and took the risk but she did not understand the level of the risk. People with Mast have been masking before mask policies were mandated. They have been social distancing before it was a word. If she had known that for the Mast Cell community she would have said that they wanted to protect other people, but they have been protecting themselves a lot longer than before COVID hit with wearing mask. The people with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome have a named (Withheld). He wrote an article about the people with Mast. His conjecture may be true that people with MCAS and POTS all have the symptoms of those COVID long haulers which are trouble breathing, tachycardia, and low blood pressure. That is POTS in a nut shell. Somehow they have been prophylactically treating themselves and not knowing it. With COVID symptoms they talk about cytokine storm and the body's mast cell. People who have Mast Cell Activation Syndrome have a good treatment protocol. They could have had it and not know. They live with pain at base line. What could have been COVID, they could have thought it was just a flare. They were treating everyday with antihistamine which was not a cure. They were treating with Cromolyn Sodium and histamine stabilizer. It would be a cluster fuck if that population got COVID and that was why caller got vaccine. She also realized that she was already taking medication for Mast Cell and Cytokine Storm. She was one step ahead of people who haven't had to take an antihistamine in their life. Those were her thoughts. She was tired of her population being overlooked and paired down to a statistic of people who have COVID vaccine and were not going to die. The people that experienced this was a small population and they didn't realize how debilitating these side effects were and how permanent can be. It was not being discussed in the articles and it was being overlooked. It saddened her. She was in this population and was trying to do the right thing. People with Mast Cell take over the counter antihistamines like Allegra and Zyrtec. They were prescribed histamine stabilizer like Cromolyn Sodium and also compounded antihistamine Ketotifen, taken orally as well. People with POTS were already taking Propranolol or Midodrine, if on the other spectrum, to stabilize their blood pressure. She couldn't speak to what's happening in the lungs. They could easily get that fixed. POTS and MCAS are rare disease. There was a population of 20,000. withheld is a football MVP and his wife has POTS. They use his platform to discuss POTS. If the vaccination companies were going to make vaccines they need to include chronic illness groups. People were being overlooked. It was sensitive and needed a better treatment plan. Patient clarified that she was just speaking generally about people with POTS and Mast Cell. She did not have NDC, lot, and expiry to provide for antihistamines, histamine stabilizer, Cromolyn Sodium, Ketotifen, Propranolol, and Midodrine. Those medications were specifically tailored for individuals. For her, she was just on Midodrine. People with this condition have to take something that slowed down heart rate and also raised blood pressure. Some people have to do both and it was a delicate balance. One doctor said she was covered 80% which was better than nothing. Then there were fillers in medications. She was asking if this was a reaction to fillers in medications or if she did react to filler in the vaccine or to the vaccine itself. She didn't know. She probably won't have answers until postmortem. She wasn't sure who she should go see to get tested for a reaction. She asked if this was a reaction aside from the deactivated virus. She reacted fine to the flu shot. She was not antivax. She knew this was completely a different beast. No further details provided. She declined transfer to another hospital. She wanted to confer with colleagues. She helped monitor a MAST cell activation group of over 15,000 people. They have shut down vaccine talk. Therapeutic measures were taken as a result of the events dizziness, symptoms of POTS and MCAS exist and the vaccine took it to next level, and nausea. The patient was recovering from dizziness, loss of appetite, and inability to eat. The event hurt at her injection site for a month was recovered on an unspecified date in 2021. The outcome of the other events reported was unknown.   Follow-up attempts are completed. No further information is expected.