Age: 55.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Insomnia, Magnetic resonance imaging, Neck pain, Oxygen saturation, Pain
Clinical narrative: Her blood pressure can be normal for two solid days and then have a reading of 170/110. Her blood pressure was about that high when she got to ER on 10Apr2021, in spite of Propanol.; Her heart started flipping around in her chest; a little localized pain to her right arm where the injection was given; whole body was aching; Caller was so ill she barely ate or slept for three solid days.; Caller was so ill she barely ate or slept for three solid days.; After the vaccine, her joints ached to move. To move her elbow was 10x worse than normal. To get up and walk on her knee, to use that joint, was 10x harder and hurt 10x worse than usual; left knee and left elbow were inflamed; Very dehydrated; aching something terrible, like all of her joints; pain in her neck; Herpes outbreak; Really dizzy and felt weak; Really dizzy and felt weak; her mouth was extremely dry, had a weird metallic/chemical kind of taste; her mouth was extremely dry, had a weird metallic/chemical kind of taste; horrendous burning on the left side, just on the lower part of her rib cage and encompassed the whole top of her stomach; This is a spontaneous report from a contactable consumer (patient). A 55-years-old female patient received BNT162B2 (PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 mRNA VACCINE), dose 1 via an unspecified route of administration, administered in Arm Right on 31Mar2021 15:00 (Batch/Lot Number: EW0150) as single dose for COVID-19 immunisation. Medical history included 2 time breast cancer survivor: The latest cancer (second time) was in February of last year, she lost a quarter of her breast again to six 1mm atypical lobular hyperplasia tumors all together in her right breast. Operated on a year ago. They did follow up scan in Sep2020. She was cleared for one year. Osteoarthritis: Patient had several places in her back, but the MRI's shown osteoarthritis was more prominent in her neck. On 18Sep2019, she was injured in whiplash type car accident. Neurosurgeon did complete MRI on all three sections (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar) two weeks after accident. He just redid a second neck MRI and the osteoarthritis is worse, lots of bone spurs. She does have osteosclerosis/arthritis, mainly in her spine, but she also has Carpal tunnel and a bad knee. Degenerative disc disease was diagnosed long ago. Spinal stenosis was diagnosed long ago. She had a previous surgery, 18 years ago, a fusion at C5 and C6 in her neck. She had injured both her left knee and elbow in past from falling down/tripping because of her vision. Sprained Elbow over extended backward, messed-up joint. Fell on left knee: No surgery but did mess up the joint but were inflamed. Borderline diabetic/pre-diabetic started in 2016, she was trying to control with diet. The patient had a little acid reflux, a little chronic pain. She contracted herpes when she was 27 (in 1991). Concomitant medication(s) included propranolol (PROPRANOLOL) taken for blood pressure measurement from Jan2020 to an unspecified stop date; fluorouracil (FLUOROURACIL) taken for skin cancer, start and stop date were not reported. Propranolol: can take one in morning if not too late, sometimes have to wait until 1100 or 1200 and then as needed if later in day or evening have sudden rise can take second one or half of a tablet. Started taking Propranolol after noticing a drop in Potassium and other minerals/electrolytes. She went into kind of an a-fib event with very low potassium, determined have sinus tachycardia secondary to something else. Sometimes, her blood pressure is 100/72, so she can't touch it. She kind of has to use it throughout the day as needed. Her blood pressure goes up and down because of her sinus tachycardia. Her normal blood pressure was considered low normal. Fluorouracil: She was not doing full body treatment (she has done full body before and those are wicked). She was only spot treating a couple places on her face, left arm and right top of shoulder (not where the vaccine was given). In current spot treatment. Battling basil cells and squamous cells since age 32. Been taking about 23 years now and currently in treatment for a couple that tested positive for basil cell. The patient previously received flu shot in sept of 2017, first ever had other than vaccines for school as a child and she got so sick with the Flu in Feb2018 for 10 days, she about died. She never took the flu shot again. Other than that, she has never had any other vaccines unless as a child. The patient had no Prior Vaccinations (within 4 weeks). Family Medical History Relevant to AE(s) was none. The patient received their first dose Pfizer Covid Vaccine on 31Mar2021 and was due to have second shot. The patient had immediate side effects, as well as had some after getting home for at least a week or better. She had immediate reaction and was made to stay in the store for 30 minutes to monitor. The facility has it set up where you go across to another area just across from the Pharmacy once you received the vaccine, and there was a lady there that puts a 15 minute timer on chairs and makes you sit down. The lady just stood there and monitored everyone, making sure no one was having any problems. As soon as the caller sat down, the caller said to her girlfriend who was sitting in front of her, "oh my God, I don't feel right." The lady monitoring everyone asks the patient if she was feeling okay. The patient responded no, and that she was feeling really dizzy and felt weak. The lady pulled over another chair and made the patient put her legs up and she went and got the pharmacist. The pharmacist and additional pharmacist who gave vaccination to the patient also came over. The pharmacist instructed someone to go get a "pulse ox finger reader thing", which was placed on the patient's finger. The pharmacist asked if patient felt anything else which the patient was. As soon as the her feet were put up and the lady went to get the pharmacist, she noticed her mouth was extremely dry, just like a dessert, and she had a really weird taste in her mouth. She clarified it was like a metallic kind of taste, or a chemical kind of taste. She has never tasted anything like that- she was not sure what to compare it to other than it just wasn't right. The pharmacist monitored the pulse ox after it was placed on her finger. Her oxygen level was good at 98 and her heart rate was good in the 80's. The timer was turned to 30 minutes instead of the original 15. All of this took place within the first 5 minutes after the patient sat down. The pharmacist instructed the lady to keep a close eye on patient and to keep the pulse ox on her finger. She kept her feet up the entire time. She couldn't have anything to drink after, the Pharmacist said no, and said if she had any further issues, to call 911. She made it through that 30 minutes. She held onto her girlfriend's arm going out of the store because she felt like her legs were kind of weak and rubbery. She didn't seem to be as dizzy, but the caller still had a real dry mouth and weird taste. States her girlfriend who drove was her neighbor and the patient doesn't drive. When the patient was dropped off at her place, a couple hours later, the patient was being cautious and on guard. Drinking water seemed to alleviate the dryness some in her mouth and kind of got rid of that taste. But then, she noticed horrendous burning on the left side, just on the lower part of her rib cage and encompassed the whole top of her stomach-literally was between belly button and bottom of breast, just that center area of her trunk, from rib cage to rib cage. She explained the burning started on her left side and moved across like fire toward her other rib cage. The burning lasted probably about 5-10 minutes. She tried not to panic and asked herself if she had eaten. She received the vaccine at 1500 and she had eaten lunch. She hadn't been sick or anything from lunch. She doesn't have any stomach issues that would cause intense burning. Caller has a little acid reflux, but wasn't burping or anything. This was just like instant, "on fire" pain that went from left to the right, right through the middle of her trunk area. Then, the burning went away about 5-10 minutes later. She ate dinner and carried on with evening. She noticed the next day, 01Apr2021, maybe late morning (10:00 or 11:00, before lunch), she had the same burning feeling again in the same spot. The left bottom part of her rib cage had real intense burning that went across her mid section from left to right, in between belly button and bottom of breast. Again, the burning lasted about the same, 10-15 minutes. It burnt so bad caller didn't eat lunch. She also noticed when getting up that next morning, 01Apr2021, she was aching something terrible, like all of her joints. She had a little localized pain to her right arm where the injection was given. However, she had no rashes or swelling. She was breathing okay- she was keeping an eye out on that, especially since having immediate reaction. The burning feeling in her stomach area, ribcage to rib cage, was off and on for about 3 or 4 days. She felt like she was dying because her whole body was aching. Her joints were hurting when she got up or down, sat up or got down, get up to walk. She does have osteosclerosis/arthritis, mainly in her spine, but she also has Carpal tunnel and a bad knee. She clarifies anywhere she had previous injuries kind of got inflamed to the max. It was hard to sleep. She clarifies her neck was inflamed. She had a previous surgery, a fusion at C5 and C6 in her neck. Her last MRI 2 years ago showed osteoarthritis. The pain in her neck began the following day, 01Apr2021 and is ongoing. She is going to get a nerve block because it is so bad. States the pain is persisting, definitely hasn't improved even with rest. She clarifies after the vaccine, everything was hurting 10x worse. Also, her left knee and left elbow were inflamed- she had injured both her left knee and elbow in past from falling down/tripping because of her vision. After the vaccine, her joints ached to move. To move her elbow was 10x worse than normal. To get up and walk on her knee, to use that joint, was 10x harder and hurt 10x worse than usual. She noticed the pain/aching the following day, 01Apr2021 upon getting up and down. If she leaned over to look at her phone with her head down, it was like "wow what's going on with my neck". She is used to having a little chronic pain, but not like that. If she could get by with two Tramadol a day, she isn't hurting that bad. She has never been on anything stronger than Tramadol 50mg or Tylenol #3 for her neck, even after surgery 18 years ago. She goes back in forth between Tramadol 50mg or Tylenol #3. If she could go that long without going to a pain clinic and or being on a higher dose/stronger, this was not a good ride. She took two Tylenol Extra Strength in the middle of the day and also taking her prescription, Tramadol one 50mg, twice a day (in the morning and at night), and she could not get this pain under control for 3-4 solid days. She doesn't normally hurt like that. She didn't want to take more Tramadol (she is only prescribed it twice daily) so she took two Tylenol mid-day to get through the pain. She was on Propranolol, has sinus tachycardia and she can't take Ibuprofen or any other the counter (OTC) anti-inflammatory drugs. She has to get it by prescription and she only gets when she needs it which isn't very often. Generally, the Tramadol keeps the pain enough where caller can function. Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, must have caused major inflammatory issues that she usually doesn't deal with. She doesn't lift things- she is 55 and hurt. She doesn't get out and do jumping jacks. The vaccine laid her up. She felt like she was dying- that's how sick she for about 4 or 5 days. She couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, couldn't move, she couldn't function. Every time she moved, it hurt. If she rolled over in sleep or got up, it hurt meaning her neck, her elbow, left knee and wrist hurt. She states she has carpel tunnel and doesn't like to have surgeries unless she has to. She was just aching all over. She was too sick to eat and too sick to sleep. She was so ill she barely ate or slept for three solid days. She got very dehydrated. She had to go to the hospital to get rehydrated, that's how bad it was. She clarifies she went to the emergency room and they checked her blood work and all. They rehydrated her and sent patient home. The patient left a message for her doctor, and the doctor called her and advised the caller to get Gatorade zero- she has to watch her sugar because she is pre-diabetic. She started bouncing back. About the 5th day, she started to sleep once she got rehydrated and past the worst of the pain/inflammation in her joints. Then, she went into a herpes outbreak which she had not had in probably 5 years. She had to deal with this for another 10 days. The herpes outbreak began maybe about 3rd or 4th day after receiving the vaccine. She started feeling like she was going get a blister and did. She didn't take any antiviral drugs, she never has, she always just let her body fight it. The outbreak has been gone for a few days. The dry mouth and weird metallic/chemical taste tended to subside later that day on 31Mar2021, after she drank some coffee and lots of water as she was trying to wash it down. That symptom did subsided the following morning, 01Apr2021. She believes this has resolved completely. Every now and then, a couple days following, she may have had an odd taste but she kept eating and drinking and it finally went away. Just following this event, she had one of those swallowing tests where they went down her mouth with a tube, and she was having trouble swallowing at the same time. She states when she gets sick like this and is experiencing untreated pain, it's hard for her to sleep and eat, and that's how she got so dehydrated. Finally by 10Apr2021, she was so dehydrated her doctor sent her to the emergency room. Following feeling dizzy and weak right after the vaccination, she had a couple dizzy bouts. However, this could have just been her dehydration or her blood pressure coming and going/low blood pressure events. They say she has sinus tachycardia secondary to something else going on, but they don't know what it is. So, she can't always get up and take Propranolol. Sometimes, her blood pressure is 100/72, so she can't touch it. She kind of has to use it throughout the day as needed. Her blood pressure goes up and down because of her sinus tachycardia. Her normal blood pressure is considered low normal. She had a couple of little off balance/dizzy spells but she laid down and then it subsided. She took her blood pressure and it was low when these spells happened. Her blood pressure can be normal for two solid days and then have a reading of 170/110. Her blood pressure was about that high when she got to ER on 10Apr2021, in spite of Propanol. She went to the ER and she called her doctor and did a phone visit prior to going to emergency room. She went to the ER on 10Apr2021. The doctor did a phone visit with patient on 08Apr2021. That's when the doctor told her to go get Gatorade zero. The patient also sent neighbor after the carnation instant breakfast mix and milk to get something in stomach and tried to get herself rehydrated. By 10Apr2021, patient was too far gone, she had been really sick and was too dehydrated. Her heart started flipping around in her chest, and because she is prone to having low potassium (she couldn't check at home), she called into the office and the doctor told her to go into the ER in which she did on 10Apr2021. She explained her blood work came back okay while in the ER. She was given two bags of fluid and released her as being dehydrate and they rehydrated her. The patient stated that, just that it was really bad experience and obviously something about her body didn't like the vaccine, whatever it was. She would like to follow up but she was going to talk to doctor on 06May2021, did report to doctor about the burning in her stomach. She has never felt anything like that ever. It was really in left of her side, kind of tucked where patient's in lower rib cage area. The patient doesn't feel too comfortable about the second shot especially with inadequate pain. She was scared to death to go through this again (with the second dose). The patient was due to see the doctor and wanted to wait and reschedule second dose Pfizer Covid Vaccine, if the doctor thinks she should get the second dose after she speaks with doctor. Outcome of event had a weird metallic/chemical kind of taste was recovered in Apr2021; aching something terrible, like all of her joints, pain in her neck was not recovered and all other events was unknown.  No follow-up attempts are needed. No further information is expected.