Age: 60.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19, COVID19
Symptoms: Paraesthesia oral, Photopsia, Swelling, Swelling face, Swollen tongue
Clinical narrative: I recently retired after 37 years and now stay and provide significant weekly care for my elderly parents.  Because I am a primary caregiver for my parents, and have been throughout the months of the pandemic, I explored various potential paths to ethically and appropriately get in line for a vaccination.  When I took my mother in for her second vaccination at the Health Department in late in March I was able, while my mother was waiting, to converse with a county public health care worker about options and avenues for me to obtain the vaccine as well. She could see, clearly, that I was a caregiver for my mother, so she took down my name and number, and she called me the next day to say that I could, as a caregiver, proceed to sign up for their next clinic vaccination day that would be happening on Thursday, April 1st.   I arrived for my noon vaccination time at the Health Department before 12 on Thursday, April 1st. I proceeded through the check in line and screening questions, and arrived at vaccination site #1 at 12:05 where I was promptly given the Moderna vaccine (lot #026B21A).  Within seconds of the injection, I knew that I was having a reaction. My heart immediately began pounding, my tongue swelled and the room disintegrated into swirling flashes of color. I looked into the kind eyes of my vaccinator and remember distinctly saying to her in those first few post-injection seconds that, I was, ??sorry, but I think that I am having a reaction.?  The vaccinator then took me over to the nursing site coordinator who proceeded to check and record my vitals. I do not have that sheet with the vitals that she recorded, but I do remember that my heart rate and blood pressure measures were high. I sat as she continued to monitor me.  After 20-30 minutes, as best I can recall, my vitals were not improving, but remained elevated and even seemed to be trending higher. Also, the swelling and tingling in my tongue was worsening and seemed to be spreading to my lips and face, and down to the base of my neck.  I began to feel dizzy, like I was going to faint, so she had me lay on the floor with my legs elevated.  Additionally, it was becoming more difficult to breath because of the pressure in my neck. She had earlier and initially offered me Benadryl for the symptoms I was experiencing but I did not previously have good luck with Benadyrl the one time I took it, and also was unsure if I would have been able to swallow it. At 12:40 she thus gave me an injection of epinephrine (3mL) in my thigh and an ambulance was called. I was transported to the ER at the hospital. (Please note that the nursing site coordinator provided top-notch, high quality care through-out my entire emergency medical reaction experience, and I am very grateful and appreciative of her professional and caring response.)  In ER they monitored my blood pressure and pulse, and other aspects of my heart rhythm, as well as the swelling and tingling that continued in my tongue, lips, face and forehead.  I met with the Dr., and worked with RNs during my time there where they continued to monitor me for a number of hours. By about 4:30, when my vitals had returned to normal and stabilized for over an hour, they released me from the hospital. Since my release from the hospital, late in the afternoon on Thursday, April 1, I have noted only a few, relatively minor persisting symptoms which have included tongue, lip and face numbness and tingling. Also, I have noted, from time to time, some periods of continued heart rate elevation, though wonder if it is more of an almost ?PTSD? type of reaction than a pure physiological response, since, for example, just retelling this story right now is causing my heart rate to rise as I recall what happened.  Needless to say, this vaccination induced medical event, explained above, made for a surreal and frightening day unlike anything I have ever experienced.  Processing of it, and grappling with its implications, from concrete to existential, is seeming equally daunting, and it is here where I have a range of questions for which I am seeking assistance and perspective from the CDC:  The most concrete types of vaccination questions first: They indicated I should not try to obtain the second dose of the Moderna vaccine but that I should consult and maybe it could be given to me in a hospital setting? I welcome thoughts and feedback on how to proceed to become ?fully vaccinated.? What about another vaccine?  What about the additional boosters now being discussed for the new variants? Will I need to consider a ?cave dwelling? of some type for myself in the future since I will not have the vaccination card that is being discussed as ?the ticket to travel? in the future?  Will there be special cards for folks like me who tried but for whatever strange immunological reason was not able to take the vaccine? Increasingly complex, bigger picture questions next: Would any type of ?reach-out? to Moderna be in order? Or, do you, at the CDC, reach out to Moderna for me as a result of this VAER? Are they studying people like me?  My sense, from what little reading I have done, is that what happened to me, though severe, is rare, though definitely want the producers of the vaccine to know about my experience. Bordering on existential questions: What does this mean for me and my life going forward? Should I meet with Moderna, or some type of allergy specialist to better understand what may have happened, and what I will need to watch out for in the future? As everyone begins sharing vaccination cards and experiences, what should I say? I don?t want to scare others away from doing what is needed to save lives by sharing my experience, and don?t want to fuel the ?anti-vaxers.? What about the lingering disquiet and unease that something I sought to help and protect me seems like it might have/nearly killed me? The pandemic has already shaken and taken so much in so many of our lives.  Immunization seemed to promise to give back some of what the pandemic has taken, yet, feeling now that ?normal? is not only more distant but possibly will not be achievable for folks like me, rare though we seem to be?