Age: 21.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: TDAP
Symptoms: Activities of daily living impaired, Muscle contractions involuntary, Myalgia, Sciatica
Clinical narrative: Dear Dr. I received a Tdap in your office on 10/28/2008. On 10/29/2008 I started a 6-1/2 week course of severe, progressive large muscle belly prolonged contractions which would work its way out of one group over the course of 2-3 days while starting in another, usually involving 2-3 at one time. It was debilitating. I could not clean, sit, engage my muscles, go anywhere, do anything. I had read the vaccine sheet and felt due to my numerous allergies I was having a reaction to the latex or some other ingredient, so was taken BENADRYL, anti-inflammatory of ibuprofen 600 mg 3 times a day, and massaging, using heat and thought it would just run its course. Each muscle belly involved became harder to massage out and came back more quickly. I finally decided to live, as we had canceled a trip 3 weeks earlier, figuring I could hurt and massage there as easily as I could here. We went on travel 12/14/2008. It was a big mistake as the trip was miserable. I ended up having to aggressive massage a new muscle group, the inner thigh muscle down to inside the knee, which had worked me up as a new mass of muscle involvement at 4 a.m. that day, and I had massaged it out for 2 hours before we left. It was a problem most of the time in the car, and I was working up a sweat massaging about 50 minutes at a time, getting total relief once massaged out, but then would lock all back up again within 3 minutes. It was a agonizing day and night and we ended up in the ER the next morning. As we understand it, there is no test for tetanus, and this is an unusual presentation, and none have been reported like this to the CDC, so they really did not know what to think of it, but did rule out everything else. They put me on clindamycin, one of the drugs of choice for tetanus, and muscle relaxant of VALIUM. I have had such progressive good result in 5 days of antibiotic with 5 days left to go, all muscle bellies relaxing and no longer tender, no new involvement and finally starting to feel human again, being able to do normal things like decorate my tree, etc, that we are convinced it was indeed a reaction to the Tdap and a variant of tetany reaction. I still have faint posterior thigh/ischial tuberosity involvement causing mild sciatica from contraction and a little difficulty with sitting, but even this morning is subsiding quite a bit more and I can sit easily. Each day of antibiotic is helping immensely, and I am only using the VALIUM at night and may not even tonight. It is such a relief after 6 1/2 weeks being brave and trying so hard, trying to sit for work as a transcriptionist, and spending 4-5 times a dy massaging such large muscle groups with everything I had for 45-50 minutes at a crack was exhausting, getting total relief, but only briefly before all currently involved muscle groups locked up again. To explain in detail would take pages, but I think you get the drift. I am hoping 10 days of clindamycin 300 mg 4 times a day will be enought, but the reaction went on for so long and was so involved, I may be calling for an extension if this does not completely eradicate the symptoms, not wanting to deal with a recurrence. In any case, please mark my chart. I refuse all further immunizations and all further vaccines, and I also believe this should be reported as an Adverse Reaction to the Tdap. Thrilled to be feeling better!! Have a Very Merry Christmas! Stay safe, warm, dry, happy, healthy, and secure in God's Love and and Healing Grace!