Age: 28.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Electromyogram, Fatigue, Gait inability, Hypoaesthesia, Immediate post-injection reaction
Clinical narrative: I am twenty-eight years old, young, healthy active girl. I have always been into fitness and yoga. I live a generally healthy lifestyle. I have been a singer, a dancer, and a flight attendant! I decided sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine in order to help our world fight against this pandemic. I wanted to protect my family and friends to eradicate this virus once and for all. It was with no hesitation did I jump at the opportunity to get this vaccine when it became available to me on February 12th, 2021 at the Convention Center. As soon as I received my shot I proudly posted my photo with tears in my eyes letting the world know that we were one human closer to a COVID-19 free world. I was Moderna proud.   My entire family had already received their Moderna vaccines because I come from a family of nurses, but none of them had experienced any side effects. I was confident I would be in the clear after their clear symptom free vaccine. Immediately following my vaccine my arm was a little sore, as expected. However, I did experience fatigue and mild leg cramps in my calves. One very odd symptom was that I could taste the vaccine in my mouth, like a metallic, strange taste, which I reported to my family, but everyone just laughed it off. The leg cramps went away after a day or two as well as the taste, but the fatigue continued throughout the week. I felt these symptoms were pretty average. I signed up for the V-Safe reporting system and put in my report and thought nothing of my initial vaccine symptoms.   Things took a very strange turn on the morning of February 20th, 2021 at about 10am. I woke up and my face was numb, tingling all over, twitching in different parts of my face pretty severely and uncontrollably. By 4pm the tingling moved into both of my arms and hands and by 5pm it moved into both of my legs. Shortly after the cramping and twitching began in both of my legs and I lost the ability to walk, lift my legs, and just the ability to feel my legs at all. I could not walk.  Obviously concerning, I thought I was originally having a reaction to a medication I had been taking for over a year called, Topamax, a nerve pain medication which can cause numbness and tingling as a side effect. I called my prescribing physician and he immediately ruled out the possibility of a reaction to this medication due to the length of time I had been on this medication, that I had not missed a dose, I had not increased or decreased the dose, and I had not experienced a reaction like this in the time that I had been taking the medication. He recommended I keep an eye on my symptoms and go to an emergency room if things worsen.   Overnight, my symptoms remained the same. I woke up on Sunday, February 21st, 2021 and I still could not walk, I could not feel my legs. My legs were still twitching and cramping. My face was still numb and tingling, but the twitching had stopped in the face. My hands had stopped tingling. At this point my mother who is a nurse suggested that I call Moderna, the vaccine provider, to report a possible side effect of the vaccine. Upon contacting Moderna, the company thought that it could possibly be a reaction between the Topamax medication and the vaccine, but they had no current information about these two having any interactions. They thanked me for reporting and told me to go to an emergency room if my symptoms continued or worsen.   Throughout the day on Sunday, February 21st, my symptoms remained. I was able to get to my feet, but I walking like a newborn baby giraffe or as my mother described, like a 105 year old woman. I was unable to feel my legs completely, lift them, move them without lifting them with physical help of my arms moving them. At this point on Sunday night I decided to contact my Primary Care Physician. She noted that this sounded similar to Guillain-Barre and that I sound immediately go to an Emergency Department before the symptoms get any worse. It was late on a Sunday night and I was unable to drive myself, so I waited.   Overnight on Sunday into Monday I began experiencing light flashes in my eyes, heart races, lower back pain, and worsening cramping in my legs. I knew that I needed to seek treatment in an emergency room.   On Monday, February 22nd, 2021 I was taken to the Emergency Room Department. They conducted blood work and a physical examination, but did not want to proceed with any MRI?s or CAT scans. The ER the doctors were baffled. They could not figure out what was causing my paralysis other than the vaccine was the only new thing that had been introduced to my body, but they could not verify or diagnose anything. They let me go with a referral to neurology.   While we were sitting in the ER my cousin, a nurse anesthetist at another local hospital, called my mother who was with me with some very alarming news. Her co-worker, had experienced the same symptoms back in December and was just going through recovery after his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. He was told by the CDC there had been 19 reported cases through the CDC where after the first dose of the vaccine people have reported numbness, tingling, and the lose of the ability to walk after receiving the first dose of the mRNA vaccine, both Moderna and Pfizer. Her co-worker was also in the same age range as myself, very healthy, young, active. He was officially diagnosed with Transverse Myletis. He has taken a full two months to regain the ability to walk and still has numb patches on his legs. He walks very slowly, but is walking. He returned to work, but cannot return to his normal life working out and being active because he does not have the strength. He was told not to get the second dose of the vaccine.   There are unreported cases in this area by physicians who do not know where to turn with this information. It is hard to link these symptoms and cases because they are so obscure, but these same symptoms are occurring with those who have also had COVID-19. When I was being seen for an EMG test of my legs the physician performing the test said to us, ?I have a patient who received the vaccine and has the symptoms, maybe I should report it!?. My Grandmother?s physician just last week just sent a patient of hers with the same symptoms to neurology. I think this uncommon side effect is more common than is being reported and no one knows where to turn with the information.   I finally got into the head of Neurology. I was told, ?it?ll probably get better?, basically saying that they don?t know what they can do and they are at a loss for knowing what this is and why this is happening to people after the first dose of the mRNA vaccine. Doctors don?t have answers and the vaccine companies aren?t offering information to help link these side effects together. The physician told me not to proceed with the second dose of the vaccine due to neurological side effect that I have had. I should benefit from the first dose and it is not safe for me to get the second dose from this side effect.   I was unable to walk for weeks since this began on Feb. 20th. It is just now that this week I am slowly able to move my legs, but they are still very numb and heavy. I haven?t been able to drive or live my normal life. I cannot use stairs, walk long distances, stand for very long periods of time. I am twenty-eight years old and I walk like an eighty year old woman, wobbly.   I have reported my case to CDC, V-SAFE, Moderna. The CDC said they would be in contact with me due to my report of extreme adverse side effects via the V-SAFE report, but I have not heard anything from them as of today.  These are the uncommon side effects that need to be heard and reported. I don?t know why they are being ignored because I have been left without answers and without hope.