Age: 52.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19, COVID19
Symptoms: Condition aggravated, Dizziness, Ear discomfort, Ear pain, Erythema
Clinical narrative: excruciating pain in her ear; left ear completely filled up and got completely full; Hissing and tinnitus worsened; low grade fever (100.2°F); Couldn't hear; This is a spontaneous report from a contactable consumer (patient). A 52-year-old female patient received the first dose of BNT162B2 (Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, lot number: ER8734), via an unspecified route of administration, administered in the left arm on 26Mar2021 at 14:45 as a single dose for COVID-19 immunisation.  Medical history included labyrinthitis on 2017 to an unspecified date where her left ear became blocked up and had to have her ear cleaned up and experienced severe vertigo and dizziness, swimmers ear in her left ear on an unknown date several years before and afterward just her left ear would get clogged up, low grade tinnitus from 2017 and ongoing. The patient was taking unspecified birth control tablets since 2015 and ongoing for an unknown indication (reported as 'to regulate') which she was off of for a couple of years but had to be put back on because of a pretty intense experience (unspecified). The patient did not have prior vaccinations within 4 weeks from the COVID vaccine. The patient previously got a flu shot on an unknown date, maybe once in the last 10 years and expeirenced flu symptoms. All her other vaccines were when she was a kid. The patient was not a believer of western medicine or vaccinations since medications just poison other things in the body. The patient reported that one week after the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, on 02Apr2021, her left ear completely filled up and got completely full. The patient couldn't hear on Apr2021. Her hearing was blocked and she started running a low grade fever (100.2°F) on Apr2021. The patient had excruciating pain in her ear on 02Apr2021 and her ear pain was at a 10 on an unknown date in Apr2021.  She added that she has a high pain tolerance and that she is not a baby. She could not get her ear to clear by herself and she could not get her ear to pop in the shower. She went to urgent care, and the provider cleared her ear with a syringe.  The urgent care provider cleared the fluid in her ear with the syringe and cleared out ear wax. She thinks that this was an immune response to the Covid-19 vaccine. The patient added that the hissing noise and tinnitus worsened in her head and has been enhanced on 02Apr2021, since she received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. It took another week and a half for her ear pain and fever to resolve. The urgent care provider prescribed her amoxicillin to take.  Her pharmacist informed her that if her fever did not stop in 2 days then she did not have an infection and did not need the antibiotics and if she still had a fever after 2 days of taking the amoxicillin, the patient's symptoms were a delayed reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine. She took the amoxicillin and her fever finally broke, her ear pain resolved, but the tinnitus and hissing in her head is louder than it was before she received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The patient talked to a physician who is at a location administering the Covid-19 vaccine and the physician informed her that she was not crazy and she did not need amoxicillin.  The physician stated that he has been seeing and hearing from people getting the COVID-19 vaccine that they are experiencing ear fullness, low grade fever, and ear pain. The patient reported that her concern is getting the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.  She is concerned that her tinnitus is going to get worse with the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. She knows that the vaccine is all new and is for emergency use and she doesn't know what to do.  She did want to report what happened to her. She found a support group for those experiencing tinnitus after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.  She was not alone as there are over 1,000 people in the support group.  The number of people experiencing tinnitus is relatively low because there have been over 80 million vaccinated. She had her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine 4 weeks ago, 26Mar2021 and the pharmacist said that the patient could not get the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while she was running a fever. The pharmacist informed her that she could hold out on getting the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for 6 weeks. She is worried about her ear and the tinnitus and what could potentially happen with the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The people in the support group were saying that the tinnitus is worsening with the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. She does not want to live with worsening of the tinnitus, so she needs that answered. For the pain she was experiencing, the patient stated that for her to go buy ibuprofen and risk taking ibuprofen because she knows the side effects for that, she has to be in a lot of pain so she doesn't take anything.  She takes natural remedies and for her to go to the pharmacy to get Advil, you have to know she is in a lot of pain. The patient does not have a thermometer so she does not know when her fever started in Apr2021. She stated that it was weird and she felt awful and that she for sure had a low grade fever that whole week. She is still experiencing a small amount of ear pain. The hissing and tinnitus worsened through the whole thing.  The patient reported that when her ear filled up and she was having excruciating pain, the hissing got worse. She did not have her hearing tested but once the urgent care provider syringed the fluid from her ear, she felt like her hearing was normal. The patient said she had a hearing test in 2017 that was fine. The physician told her that she was going to have tinnitus, but that the patient would habituate to it and it would get to the point where the tinnitus was not so irritating. She knows that the ear fullness was an immune response.  She added that it seems like the COVID-19 vaccine is going for weak areas and triggering a response. The outcome of the events left ear completely filled up and got completely full and couldn't hear was recovered on 06Apr2021 and the event low grade fever was recovered on Apr2021. The event excruciating pain in her ear was recovering the event hissing and tinnitus worsened was not recovered.