My name is Candice and I’m 34 years old from Sarnia, Ontario. I have 1 child. She’s a miracle. I was told I’d never have children and she was born the day we got locked down in our town.
This pandemic has affected me in every aspect. I had a mental health breakdown. My husband lost his job and l, as an entrepreneur, was struggling hard to see if my business would make it.
At the end of June 2021 we were holding off on getting the Covid-19 vaccine because we were skeptical. How could this have come about so quickly. People around us weren’t dying and were recovering. We were going to wait for as long as we could to get the vaccine. Due to a scare in our neighborhood, and feeling social pressure we went and got vaccinated.
When I went to get my first vaccine, I was anxious. Everything was normal at first. Just the usual flu like symptoms and a sore arm. I wouldn’t say there was anything noticeable abnormal in the first couple of weeks.
Exactly 2 weeks after the vaccine, my period started off black and full of clots. I thought that’s not normal because my periods have always been regular and consistent. I thought maybe it was a miscarriage. I didn’t have any pms symptoms or cramps leading up to it.
I would start to bleed every two weeks. I would bleed and then after a week it would stop. My husband and I would be intimate and the bleeding would start up again lasting 12 days then giving me a week break before starting up again. I was bleeding through super tampons in an hour, clots like crazy to the point I started to question how I was still able to walk around without fainting.
On September 23, 2021 I started to bleed again. It was a week after my last stretch and it lasted until October 8th. I have a history with endometriosis. This made me really concerned so I went to our emergency room and they did blood tests and everything was normal so I got sent home and told to take Advil to stop the bleeding.
I took 2 extra strength Advil for about 10 days to stop the bleeding. It stopped after about 4 days but I kept taking the Advil because I didn’t want to bleed again. After I stopped the Advil, the bleeding stayed away for 2 weeks, and came right back. When I asked the doctors if it was a possible adverse reaction, I was shrugged off.
During this time I started seeing my gynecologist. We did blood work and everything came back normal every time.
They did an ultrasound and the doctor noticed a cyst on my ovary in October. They thought that was the cause of the bleeding, but since my last ultrasound, the cyst has gone yet I still continue to bleed.
My sleep has been affected as well. I get intense night terrors and wake up drenched in sweat. I have a reoccurring dream I’ve murdered someone. It’s very vivid and frightening. My dreams were always really nice before.
In February, I started looking into a more holistic approach. I started energy work, focusing on grounding and forcing the vaccine out of my body. I started to see a naturopathic doctor and they put a tincture together for me with natural medicines to help my situation.
This is the first month (March) that I didn’t bleed. I’m praying this means things are getting better.
Once I got the vaccine and had the adverse reaction, that’s when we started to see the people distance themselves from us and our choices/ opinions.
My husband’s father wants nothing to do with us because we are not fully vaccinated, and he won’t let us bring our granddaughter to see her great grandma.
I have lost lots of friendships and family dynamics due to the vaccine. It feels like in the last two years we have lost common decency for choice and respect for people’s differences.
Never before have we had our individual medical choices separate families. I hope we can go back to the foundation of love in which we grew up on.