Age: 42.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19, COVID19
Symptoms: Blood catecholamines, Blood pressure increased, Brain natriuretic peptide normal, Burning sensation, Cardiac imaging procedure normal
Clinical narrative: In short, I am an active, healthy 42 year old woman (115 pounds, 5?2?) who experienced an incident of strong heart palpitations, sinus tachycardia, elevated blood pressure, and extensive chest/neck/upper back flushing at 17 minutes out from Moderna shot one, longer incidents of the same on day 12 and day 17 post vaccine, and an extended (>24hr) incident of symptoms beginning day 18 for which I was hospitalized for 80 hours. On 4/2, I experienced sudden hard, fast heart palpitations at 17 minutes post shot one of Moderna as though I had just run a sprint, accompanied by a hot, tingly feeling in my ears and the back of my neck and a red flush across my chest, neck, and arm opposite from the that had the injection. I felt like I had had a shot of adrenaline or chugged several Red Bulls. The bounding palpitations stopped after 5-10 minutes but the shaky adrenaline feeling, including tingling gums and flushed redness, lasted approximately 3 hours. I took my blood pressure  at home 1 hour after the shot and it averaged 184/123 hr 90 although since I had a history of normal BP and hadn't used a BP machine before this was dismissed at the time as user error.   Over the next week I occasionally felt a hot burning feeling in my upper back, neck, and shoulders. I had a routine physical on 4/13 (day 11) and nothing was amiss with BP 132/80 hr 78 which was slightly higher than my history and so limiting salt was discussed. I had a flushing incident with heart palpitations on the evening of 4/14 (day 12) with heart rate of 100 bpm which resolved slowly back to 80 bpm after 3 hours of resting in bed. Stronger palpitations returned on the evening of 4/19 (day 17) with a whole body pulsing feeling and   heart rate at 110 bpm and a shaky light headed feeling for several hours.  On the morning of 4/20 (day 18) the palpitations returned, this time in an immunologist?s waiting room. My BP alarmed staffed as it was being measured around 200, settling down at 180/110 and heart rate over 100. Palpitations in this instance continued without stop for over 24 hours despite lying down the entire day with BP now being monitored and consistently running towards 180/120. I was seen in quick succession by outpatient immunologist, GP, and cardiologist on 4/20 as they tried to determine what was happening. ECG showed sinus tachycardia rhythm, a heart ultrasound was clear. Walking or sitting up was getting difficult as I was slightly dizzy or light headed and it was hard to focus vision as though inebriated. My entire body felt pulsing hard against itself from the inside as though I could feel every vein in my body slamming against my body. I had 10mg amlodipine several hours before going to bed which had been prescribed that day. In the middle of the night 20 hours into palpitations episode I began throwing up, as though in transition in labor, and the strong heart palpitations and body pulling feeling still had not stopped. At this time decision was made to send me to the ER and I was admitted to Mt Sinai in Manhattan, NY early in the morning of 4/21 (day 19). I was eventually given Nifedipine ER 30 mg, Lovanox 40 mg, potassium. I was in the hospital for 80 hours for management of symptoms, diagnostic testing, and observation. The pulsing feeling finally began to recede first, followed by slowing of heart rate towards more normal levels. 36 hours into the episode heart rate and BP were much more normalized. All diagnostic tests basically returned normal (see Item 19). After hospital discharge on 4/24 through week 7 post shot about once or twice a week there would be an instance where I felt a bit off and would check my heart rate and it would be over 100 for about an hour despite being at rest, but I did not feel the hard, pulsing feeling so this may have been just me paying to much attention to my normal heart rate fluctuations after the scare from my hospitalization. I continued on Nifedipine post discharge for several weeks before stopping due to side effects and am now trying HCTZ for BP management.  My BP has continued to be 135/95 on BP medication (and 150/100 without) so unclear if hypertension is a new issue post vaccine or had developed during 2020.  At this point in time, my doctors suspect the Moderna 100mg dose was too high for me and my reaction was somehow the result of my system being overwhelmed by the dosage. I have not received the second shot. My GP told me she filed a report on my case to VAERS 4/28 but v-safe recently contacted me and told me VAERS shows no record of it so I am now self-submitting.