I recently went in for my annual checkup and pap smear, which should have been easy enough. At the conclusion of my appointment the Dr. asked me if I would like to get the HPV shot a.k.a. Gardasil. I questioned why and she said it would be a good idea because it protects against certain cancers and forms of genital warts. She told me that this was the last year I could get it (I am 26) and made it sound so routine, "just a quick shot." I was not informed of any of the side affects until after I got the shot and received a fact sheet with the information. My appointment was at 8:30 in the morning. At about 5:00 pm I began to experience some upper back pain on my left side (the vaccination was in my left arm). Not long after the pain traveled down around my shoulder blade, to my side and around to the muscles around my heart. At 9:00 pm.  I was in quite a bit of pain, but decided to try and sleep it off. I took ibuprofen and went to bed with much difficulty. At 2:00 in the morning, I woke up from the serious pain. I tried several different positions to try to make the pain stop. Eventually, I got up and tried to walk around. This was very difficult to do because I was having trouble breathing. By 5:00 am I was in so much pain that I decided to call my mom. She called my doctor and an ambulance was sent to be because my symptoms sounded like a blood clot or heart attack. When I arrived at the hospital, the doctors did multiple tests on me which included chest x-rays, blood tests to check for blood clots, and urine tests. Everything came back normal. I mentioned the idea of an adverse reaction from the HPV shot, but was shot down rather quickly. This was frustrating considering how I was healthy before I received the shot in my left arm the previous morning. I was sent home Thursday morning with some pain killers and no real explanation for my pain other than possible muscle strain. From Thursday-Saturday I was in bed resting and dealing with the pain. I missed two days of work and was frustrated. The back pain had subsided, but the pain around my heart was still there and I was still having trouble breathing. I had to keep pressure off my left side completely as well. On Saturday, my friend tried to get me out of the house because I was feeling a bit better. I had to take it slow, but we made it to lunch. About halfway through lunch I began experiencing pain, which became so unbearable we had to leave immediately. All the pain I had felt before came back 10x worse. I truly believed that I was living my final moments. Fortunately, I was able to get to my pain killers and decrease the pain enough for my mother to take me to the doctor, who did a second blood test for blood clots, which came back suspicious and I was sent back to the hospital where I got a CAT scan.   Again, it came back ok, but no real explanation. I could go on, but as you can see I am still alive and there is no explanation for what happened to me. Doctors refuse to believe that this was caused by the shot, but now that I am aware of people having similar reactions and many having much worse reactions, I wanted to share my story so that others are aware of what this drug can do to you. I was lucky, but others may not be.  You need to know that I am 5 ft 3", weighing about 115 lbs, not overweight by any stretch of the imagination.  My last concern is the possibility of any long term effects.