Age: 53.0
Sex: M
Vaccine: LYME, LYME
Symptoms: Hearing impaired, Laboratory test abnormal
Clinical narrative: I work for the local power company and I also live on a small farm where there is a high rate of lyme disease. At my work we have a safety paper passed out several times a year. sometime during ? that out company said that the line workers that are out in the woods were the high lines are should look into getting the LYMErix vaccination. I thought if my company said that soem of our workers should receive the vaccine that it was safe. In November both of my dogs were diagnosed with lyme disease. I then asked my doctor to vaccinate me in light of this. I told him I already have ankylosing spondlytis I don't need any worse arthritis from lyme disease. I got the first of 3 shots in 12/27/01 the next shot was 1/28/02. Sometime soon after this I had some flu symptoms that went away in 3-4 days after this I started to have pressure in my left ear and loss of hearing. I went to my doctor he said you must have water behind your ear drum. He said to wait 10-12 days and it would go away. About 3 days later I had worse symptoms and some dizziness. I went back and he said he would not give any prescription. I told him that I heard of a radio celebrity that went deaf in a few days. He answered me I didn't have that so I went home and waited about 14 days each day I got worse. When I got back to the doctors after this wait I could not even hear out of my left ear. He sent me for an audiogram and the hearing specialist was paniced. I was put on prednisone reducing the dose each 2 days. When I got down to 3 tabs a day I started loosing hearing in both ears and severe vertigo. I was put on IV prednisone for about 5 or 6 days. And sent to a hearing specialist with CAT scan pictures and MRI pictures. I spent about 9 hrs at the hospital. He said that my immune system has somehow gone haywire and is attacking my inner ears. So I have to stay on high dose of prednisone to keep my hearing or he said he could kill my inner ears and I could get a cochlea implant or I could go on methaltrexate to suppress my immune system to try to get off of the prednisone. So I went to another specialist and he said the same thing. So I went to a immunelogist and he get me up with a program to take methaltrexate to reduce the prednisone. I kept asking why I got this and even asked about the lyme vaccine. They said I would never know. I have been on steroids for 1 year+3 months and methaltrexate for about 11 1/2 months. During this time my arthritis has changed from stiffness in my back and neck to my shoulders, hips, knees, wrists, ankles where I can't sleep more than 2-3 hrs a night. About 3 weeks ago a nurse who is head of the dept of health was at my farm and said the LYMErix had rumors of making people ill. So my daughter looked on the internet and found many people had autoimmune reaction set off where the body attacks its own tissue. I believe that this has happened to me. I have been healthy except for ankylosing spondlytis. Never smoked or drank alcohol. About 2-3 weeks after the second shot my life has changed for the worse an is getting worse by the day. Permanent autoimmune problems.