This is some of the events that happened to me following my Pfizer vaccination in 2021. It is a life event with severe illness, loss of health, loss of career, and years spent searching for answers while trying to rebuild a life that was suddenly turned upside down.

The day after receiving the vaccination, my face and ears were severely swollen, and the right side of my face began to droop. Over the following three days, I fell into what I can only describe as a coma-like state.

Family members struggled to wake me, and I was barely functioning. When I did begin to come around, I was left with an intense pounding headache on the right side of my head that made even basic daily tasks difficult.

There was SO much pressure and pain behind my eye.

I contacted 811 and was advised to take allergy medication and Advil. As the weeks passed, the neurological symptoms became impossible to ignore. I began slurring my words. I struggled to spell and often couldn’t remember simple every day words.

My thinking felt clouded. I could no longer comfortably hold a pen or write. Tasks that had once been second nature suddenly felt impossible.

In December 2021, I lost the career I had dedicated 15 years of my life to. I was in constant pain, struggling cognitively, and unable to perform at the level my job required.

Losing my career was devastating, but at that point, I was simply trying to survive each day. Even though I had a “Sick Leave” note before this happened the government wouldn’t grant any benefits to go on leave.

My body seemed to be breaking down. I experienced severe night sweats, full-body tremors, and rapidly lost approximately 15 pounds. In the months that followed, I developed additional symptoms, including vision loss in my right eye, chest pain, low blood pressure, and dramatic fluctuations in heart rate ranging from the 40’s to as high as 190 beats per minute. That was pretty scary and I still struggle to keep my heart rate under control.

What made this experience even harder was feeling dismissed when I sought medical help. I repeatedly returned to clinics looking for answers, only to leave feeling unheard.

I asked doctors to examine my eye, investigate my cardiac symptoms, and help me understand what was happening to me. I wouldn’t even suggest the had anything to do with these symptoms, as I knew they’d turn me away.

Instead, I often felt as though my concerns were being brushed aside, they didn’t care!

Meanwhile, my symptoms continued to worsen. By March 2022, I began experiencing what felt like tiny electrical shocks in my chest, along with constant squeezing chest pain.

Mid March while sleeping, my heart rate suddenly surged from approximately 124 to 165 BPM, with tight chest pain. The episode resulted in a 911 call and they transported me to the hospital by ambulance since it was so high.

After months of being told by many different doctors, stress could be responsible for my symptoms, I was finally assessed in April by a cardiologist. He took the time to listen, reviewed my history, and thoroughly evaluate me.

He was the first physician who made me feel truly heard. He performed and requested a lot of different tests. He took me on as a long-term patient.

According to his assessment, I had experienced a severe adverse reaction following my Pfizer vaccination, characterized by Tachycardia and stroke-like symptoms. He explained that he had been seeing an increasing number of patients presenting with similar symptoms during that time.

For the first time in months, I felt validated, I wasn’t a ghost in a room anymore. Someone was finally acknowledging what I was experiencing was real.

There’s one statement that stayed with me over the years. “If you received a second dose, you wouldn’t have made it.”

Today, more than four and a half years later, I am still living with the consequences of putting something in my body I didn’t want. Not following my gut intuition.

While most symptoms have improved or disappeared, I have never truly felt like I got my life back. The person I was before October 2021 feels like someone I barely recognize. It is difficult to explain, but I still do not feel at home in my own body.

I have pursued numerous treatments, including naturopathic therapies, in an effort to heal and regain a good healthy quality of life. This was a difficult time in mine and my family’s life. We are thankful it wasn’t worse and we’re moving in the right direction over the years.

Vaccine injury is often discussed in statistics and reports, but behind every number is a real person whose life was changed. It happened to me.