Age: 75.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: PPV
Symptoms: Feeling cold, Incorrect route of drug administration, Oedema peripheral, Pain in extremity, Pain in jaw
Clinical narrative: On August 18, 2006, I had a physical by Dr. He asks me if I had taken my 2nd pneumonia shot. I told him I thought I had already had two because I remembered that the first time I had one I was told I wouldn't have to have another one. Later they told me I had to have two, so I had the second one when my husband was taking his. He couldn't find a record of the first shot so he told his nurse to give me one. The nurse brought me the shot and said, "I don't know where to give it to you." Being a nurse, I couldn't believe she said that. Instead of the regular place in my muscle at the top of my arm, she proceeded to pull the back of my arm in the loose part of my arm and pinched it up to give me my shot. This was the afternoon of Friday, August 18, 2006. (Later the nurse told me I had "already had two".) By Saturday morning, I was hurting so bad that I couldn't go to church. I put ice on my arm and took two MOTRIN's every 4 hrs. but they didn't stop my pain at all. I then called the doctor's office and Dr. was on call. I told her I was having a reaction to the pneumonia shot and I told her that I was applying ice and taking MOTRIN's. I then asked her if there was anything else I could do. She said she knew that some people have a reaction to the shots and she told me to keep on doing what I was doing. Then later on the pain even when up into my left jaw. My left arm was swollen all the way down to my hand. May arm looked like "Popeye's" arm. The muscle on the inner side of my arm from my hand up to and above my elbow was pulling on my arm to where I couldn't straighten it out. On the inner part of my arm and in my wrist there were knots in my veins, and my elbows was sore. The next thing that happened was that I was freezing to death. This happened when the outside temperature was real high. I turned the air conditioner in our home off, turned on a portable heater in front of me and placed blankets over me- yet I kept shaking and freezing. I then went to Dr's physician's clinic, since it was on the weekend, and saw a female doctor there. She did nothing except look at my arm. After a few more weeks some of the swelling had gone down but not all of it, so I went back to Dr. He didn't know how to take the swelling out. He said I might keep taking the MOTRIN and he gave me a prescription that is used for arthritis but said it did have some side effects that I didn't like. I didn't want anything else to happen to me so I didn't take it but kept taking the MOTRIN. On 2 August 21, 2007, I went to Dr. for my yearly physical again and he measured my left and right arms and the left one was still larger than the right one. The muscle felt denser in the left arm. The muscles in the right arm were real loose so there was still some inflammation in my left arm from the shot and there were still some knots in the veins in the inner part of my left arm just above my elbow and in my wrist. I was afraid that if they had to take blood from my left arm that it would be a problem. I was also afraid to have any shots in my left arm since there was still some inflammation left there. A nurse recently checked my blood pressure in my left arm and it hurt while she was taking it. I have never had any problems with shots of any kind before. When I told three nurse about having a problem with my shot (without telling them where the nurse gave me the shot) they all said they gave it to you in the wrong place. Is that possible? Could she have placed the shot in a "vein" or a "wrong muscle"? Or, did the shot spread too fast in the part of the muscle she gave the shot to me in, since it wasn't a hard muscle? When I went back to Dr., he said I was allergic to the shot and told me not to have another one. When I told him where the nurse gave me the shot, he said, "We give shots there all the time". (I've had several shots in his office but have never had one given to me in the spot where this one was given. It has always been in the hard muscle on the upper part of my arm, or in my hip.) Was there any other person who had problems with the same pneumonia shot medicine given to me at the same time in August 2006? It seems strange that I had no problem with the shots before. And, I have had two flu shots since having the pneumonia shot but have had no problems with them either. I still have some swelling above and below my elbow and in my wrist, have soreness in my arm, still have little knots in my veins on the inner part of my arm where I bend my elbow and in my wrist, and now and then my arm itches at different places. I presume that is because of the inflammation still there. Do you know if the pneumonia shot had something added to it in 2006 that wasn't in the one before? What would be in the shot that would make people allergic to it in 2006 and not in the years before when I took my other shots? Were there others who had a problem with the shot? Could you tell me what was in the shot that I took? Have you heard of others that have had the shot placed in a vein instead of a muscle? Have you heard of others that have had the shot given in the back of the arm instead of the hard muscle in the upper part of the arm" Could having more than two shots do this? I thought by now that this problem would have gone completely away but it hasn't I would like to have some answers if you can give me some.