My name is Camille, I’m 28, from Kitimat BC. I’m a stay at home mom, I used to be a lot more active. Before the vaccine I used to be able to go on walks outside with my two kids; I used to be able to do more with my days. The only major health issues I ever had were struggles with ovarian cysts and endometriosis. I also have IBS. I wasn’t supposed to get pregnant and back in 2014 they found a cyst about the size of a golf ball on my left ovary. I got pregnant, thankfully, and it went away. The doctors went in to look for it after I gave birth and it never came back.
Covid was crazy. I was the last one out of my family to get the vaccine. I felt highly pressured to get it. My boyfriend got it to keep his job. Everyone around me other than my brother was vaccinated. My sister would fly in from Alberta and would try to convince me it was safe.
In May I had my first Pfizer jab. While sitting there in the chair to get jabbed I was Literally crying. The lady who gave me the jab took me aside and told me how her brother struggled with Crohn’s disease. She said, “Hasn’t your doctor explained to you how you shouldn’t get this with your IBS?” But it was the opposite, my doctor told me to get it. The nurse said I could walk away, that I didn’t have to take it but I went against my gut feelings and took it anyway.
After my first vaccine I experienced pain in my left arm that did not go away and still persists to this day. I had a fever, I felt sick and tired for two weeks. I felt more tired than anything, all I wanted to do was sleep. My menstrual cycle was going really wonky, one period really heavy and then back-to-back periods of grey and black blood. After two periods in a row of this discolouration, I told my doctors. They told me it was normal but to book an appointment with my gynecologist. The next available appointment was in September. I would constantly feel like I was going to have my period but then not get it – bloating and pain but no blood. I felt full in my ovaries and heavy inside my body. I would describe it as inflammation throughout my body.
Pfizer vaccine number two was 4 August. I was sweating when I went in, not because I was nervous – this was a new symptom, hot flushes. Two weeks later I went to the ER one evening because I had extreme pain in my chest. I was just sitting there when it felt like my heart rate jumped up and I was having a heart attack. I was trying to calm down and my heart rate wouldn’t go down. The doctors told me it was anxiety, they gave me pain meds and sent me on my way. After the first ER visit I made an appointment with my doctor to investigate my heart symptoms further, that’s when I had an ECG done and wore a holter monitor for 24 hours. When I got the results back they told me I stopped breathing in my sleep, that’s when they sent me to the sleep lab to test for apnea. Along with my heart symptoms I was also experiencing recurring night terrors and sleepwalking. I would wake up standing, grabbing my chest, crying and inconsolable, screaming and wanting to run. In my dream I was in a black hole, I was being deleted from this earth, it was going to happen in my bed. It was going to suck me in alive. People would come into my room expecting to see me and I would be gone. Needless to say I was afraid to go to sleep.
Another bizarre symptom is every time I play music from my phone and I move it near this one spot on my arm, near my left arm pit the music will turn off, and when I move it away, it turns on again. Even the other day when I was trying to work out, I was playing music off my phone and when I put it up to my left armpit area the music briefly stopped. I have also experienced brain fog and memory loss.
When I went to see the gynecologist in September, she ran tests and told me the reason for my menstrual issues was because I’m premenopausal. She wanted me to go on birth control to stop my period completely, I declined because of the side effects I’ve experienced in the past. She tried to convince me it was normal that I was premenopausal and offered no other solutions. That doctor ended up quitting and leaving the area after our last appointment.
The sleep specialist told me I stopped breathing 9-13 times in the night, he suggested I lose weight even though l’m 5’2″ and 120 lbs. The other option was to wear a mouth guard and if I continued experiencing these sleep symptoms to come back again for more tests to determine if I needed a sleep apnea machine.
To this day I’m still experiencing a shooting pain radiating from under my breast. My heart used to go crazy and I would start sweating but now it’s just that shooting pain. My energy levels are still very low and I’m constantly sweating. I get inflammation in my body, my joints hurt and I get stomach pains. My IBS symptoms have gotten worse since the vaccine. I’ve even had to get a gastroscopy done. The night terrors still come in waves but I haven’t had any recently. I regret getting vaccinated, everything inside of me told me not to get it. I would’ve taken my chances with Covid which I ended up getting anyways, despite being double jabbed. I feel disappointed in myself. l’ve never been one to be easily influenced. Society told me I was doing the right thing but I should’ve listened to my gut.