Age: 71.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: PNC13
Symptoms: Rheumatoid arthritis, Vomiting
Clinical narrative: This is a spontaneous report from a contactable consumer. A 71-year-old other ethnic group female patient received PREVNAR 13 in the left arm on 17Aug2015 in the morning at 0.5 ml single because of pneumonia risk. The patient medical history was not reported. The patient's concomitant medications were not reported. The patient previously took a pneumococcal vaccine (manufacturer unknown, not Pfizer product) 5 or 6 years before this report with no reaction. After the vaccination on 17Aug2015, every joint had excruciating pain including knees, hands, shoulder, wrists, ankles and she felt hot joints. The patient experienced autoimmune reaction to the vaccine on 17Aug2015 at 18:00. On an unspecified date, every joint was inflamed including knees, hands, shoulder, wrists, ankles. She could not sleep, could not walk, could not stand, could not use her hands and could not hold steering wheel. After the vaccination, the patient started having knee pain that evening. Although vaccine was free, she spent a lot of money and doctor's visits. Body reacted and every single joint became inflamed and could not walk or stand. She could not use her hands. She could not hold steering wheel. She was having excruciating pain. She was crying because of the pain. Knees began to hurt first for about a week and a half then the shoulders started. Everything hurt just lying in bed. The patient felt like she aged 10-20 years after vaccine. She was also unable to get flu shot because of autoimmune reaction to PREVNAR 13. She went to see doctor about two weeks after the vaccination and she was prescribed CELEBREX (Expiry Date 30Aug2016), she took one 200-mg capsule every day took on 31Aug2015, and it did nothing for the pain. She also saw an orthopedic surgeon during this time because knees were hurting; they just looked at her like why was she there. Two and a half weeks later, she was told to have an autoimmune reaction to the product and she was placed on steroids (prednisone, manufacturer unknown) on first Thursday in September 2015. The doctor said it may have been a bad batch. Pain went away immediately after starting prednisone. The patient took prednisone for 11 days but she did not remember the dosing, it was several times a day dosing.  She was also prescribed hydrocodone/acetaminophen (manufacturer unknown, 5-325) at 1 tablet every 4 hours as needed for pain, and she took it on weekend because not sleeping. The swelling came down and she felt fine. She was in so much pain. The patient did blood test to determine if the problem was inflammation and not infection, it was done on 03Sep2015. Another doctor said she could not stay on steroids, he thought eventually body should except vaccine; but, she needed to see rheumatologist. She came off the steroids and a week and a half later every joint in her body became inflamed again. On 27Sep2015 knees started hurting and a week later was in excruciating pain all over body, pain was worse this second time. Again she called the doctor for steroids the next Sunday (unspecified) on his cell phone,  and she started to receive hydrocodone/acetaminophen on 04Oct2015 because she was having pain and not taking steroids unable to contact doctor. She reported experiencing nausea and throwing-up with this product. The patient stopped taking hydrocodone/acetaminophen and did not plan to start taking it again. It took a day and a half until Monday (unspecified) to feel better. On Tuesday (unspecified) she was seen by doctor and started on steroids again and the pain went away. She was referred to the rheumatologist on 15Oct2015 who prescribed methotrexate (manufacturer unknown, 2.5mg) at 4 tablets once a week. She took on 20Oct2015, on 27Oct2015 and on the day of this report (third dose) for rheumatoid arthritis. She had also to take folic acid (manufacturer unknown, 1mg) at 1 tablet a day by mouth, because methotrexate depleted folic acid. She was seeing a rheumatologist and this was all because of PREVNAR 13 and she wishes she had never gotten it. She stopped second round of prednisone on 01Nov2015. That day she had no pain, but she started noticing pain in knees in the last two days before this report. Pain was worse during second round, felt like she was going to fall over, joints were inflamed again. She was taking 10 mg prednisone then doctor said she could go up to 15 mg because the 10 mg was not working. It helped a little bit. Then she eased down to 10 mg, then 5mg. She judged how she was doing by how she walked down the stairs. The patient also received celecoxib on 01Nov2015 and on 02Nov2015. It did nothing for pain. The patient did not plan to resume product. She will be having a bone density test because of methotrexate. The outcome of all events at the time of this report was not reported.