Age: 76.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Vaccination site cellulitis, Vaccination site erythema, Vaccination site pain, Vaccination site swelling, Vaccination site warmth
Clinical narrative: Left arm from elbow to fingers, elbow red and swollen; an oval area that just all of a sudden kind of popped out/sore to the touch; 9 different places on her body that would just pop out with redness; skin will feel very swollen; skin will feel very swollen, warm to the touch; skin feels very hard or firm; Right Side at the injection site swelling; right side at the injection site, redness; right side at the injection site, warm to the touch; unusual tiredness; swelling on the side of the face on the jaw area on the right side; Sciatic Nerve pain; cellulitis/swelling, redness occurred from below the injection site all the way down into the fingers; the arm was just slightly sore; The inflammatory process has involved joints, muscle, and nerves she believes; This is a spontaneous report from a contactable consumer (patient). A 76-year-old female received bnt162b2 (PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 mRNA VACCINE), dose 1 via an unspecified route of administration, administered in arm right on 28Jan2021 (Batch/Lot Number: EN5318) (at age 76-years-old) as dose 1, single for covid-19 immunisation. Medical history included rheumatoid arthritis from 1986 and ongoing 35 years. Concomitant medication(s) included infliximab (REMICADE) taken for rheumatoid arthritis; methotrexate taken for rheumatoid arthritis; prednisone (PREDNISONE) taken for an unspecified indication; and naproxen sodium (ALEVE) taken for an unspecified indication; all start and stop date were not reported. Historical vaccines included yearly seasonal flu vaccines (probably a year ago) and shingles vaccine. Patient had no problems at first, the arm was just slightly sore on Jan2021, nothing to be concerned about at all. Then about 10 days after, on Feb2021, she developed on the right side at the injection site, swelling, redness, warm to the touch, her arm was probably 50% larger than it normally was. The swelling, redness occurred from below the injection site all the way down into the fingers. She went to urgent care, and they seemed to think she had cellulitis on Feb2021, so they put her on antibiotics and she came home and grabbed a medical book and cellulitis only occurs if she has a scratch or cut and bacteria enters. So the question was could she have gotten bacteria at the injection site? She did improve with antibiotics. Starting Feb2021, she experienced unusual tiredness, swelling and redness which is warm to touch originating from the injection site extremity (right arm) and eventually scatted to her stomach and left elbow. She started having bad sciatic nerve pain from Feb2021 which resulted to her use of walker for mobility. Patient developed a swelling on the side of the face on the jaw area on the right side on Feb2021. She went to see her HCP, to discuss the possibility of her arm being cellulitis, her HCP said that would be highly unlikely with swelling, just to put ice packs on it and he did not know why it was like that. Its been 6 months since she's taken the vaccine, she had probably had 9 different places on her body that would just pop out with redness, the skin will feel very swollen, warm to the touch most of the time, and then sometimes the skin feels very hard or firm. These would occur from Mar2021 and is ongoing and persisting. Patient had one spot that occurred between her hip area, the left side of her body, the left side of the leg from her hip area to knee, about mid way there was an oval area that just all of a sudden kind of popped out, it just happened, and again it was red, sore to the touch, and firm. She confirmed it started and ended in May2021 and she has recovered completely.  She reported this past week on 2021, she's been dealing with swelling again, she thought it was going to end, she's dealing with this issue this week that occurred on the left arm from elbow down to her fingers. Everything was better except at the elbow, it's red and swelling.  She confirmed it began in Jul2021 and is ongoing, but has improved. Her sciatic nerve pain that started about the same time on Feb2021 as it all started but it was not that bad, she could still get about and do what she needed to do, but it has gotten worse, she's using a walker in the last 3 days. It was ongoing, and had worsened. She reported at this time, that seemed to all be kind of muscle related and now though she's been having issues with sciatic nerve pain on the right side of the body,  that has increased, it happened about same time as what else was going on. She thinks that nerve might be inflamed because of a reaction. She has just started having to use a walker to move around in the house 2 days ago because the sciatic nerve pain is so significant. On 2021, inflammatory process has involved joints, muscle, and nerves she believes. Actually at first, when the swelling was occurring almost every week or two weeks at different parts of her body she called but it would say the call volume was too high and to call back later. One time when she talked about unusual areas on the body, it was on her stomach, right below her waist, she had an area about 4-5 inches, it was an oval shape, it was a couple inches wide. Patient stated it began and ended in Mar2021 and has recovered completely. Patient was very healthy, she just had a yearly physical, her cholesterol, and her numbers were fantastic, her kidney function, her liver function, she takes these drugs so they test her very carefully and everything came out great, her hemoglobin was 13. She wanted to get a picture of what was going on, when she got home and looked at it and she would think, this is the healthiest person in the world. She requested the rheumatologist to do blood work- did request this time a SED rate on Jun2021 be done to check the inflammatory situation and thought it would be elevated and was totally surprised it was in range, so whatever is going on that she thinks is a inflammatory process, it isn't showing up. The first visit to the physician's office was when her arm was swollen and warm to the touch and very red, she would not say double in size, but 50% increase in size, that visit was to an urgent care. The other two visits have been with rheumatologist and HCP. She had concerns, the Kaiser institute put out a newsletter saying that those of them that have autoimmune might experience a inflammatory process, so to consult with physician which she did. She doesn't know if Pfizer is seeing anything like this, or if there is any direction she can be given. Outcome of the events redness swelling arm and sciatica was not recovered, for events tiredness and inflammation was unknown. Patient recovered from cellulitis/occurred from below the injection site and arm was sore on 2021; from injection site swelling, injection sit erythema, injection site warmth, swelling on the side of face on Feb2021; from skin feel very swollen, skin feels very hard, and skin warm to touch and sore to touch on May2021.