In late October 2021, I got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. A week later, | developed some pain in my right calf. At first, I didn’t think much of it but as a couple days passed I decided it’d be best to make an appointment with my doctor. The doctor suspected it was a Baker’s cyst or a muscle strain. Initially, it was just sore to touch, and there was no swelling or redness. I requested an ultrasound since I had a history of blood clots after a fractured foot.
I called the ultrasound clinic the following day, and they booked me in for five days’ time, because they said it was non-urgent. As the days passed my calf pain persisted, but was basically gone by the day of the scan.
When I didn’t hear back, I assumed everything was good. A couple days later, I had brief sharp pains in my chest, and later that evening I developed shortness of breath. I went to the ER and they did a d-dimer blood test, and an echocardiogram.
The D-dimer came back high so they started me on blood thinners right away. I was sent home and told to expect a call from the thrombosis clinic.
The following night the chest pains got a lot worse and it became harder to breathe. I returned to the ER where they did a CT scan and found multiple pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in lungs). The doctor told me there were too many to count and they covered about 40% of my lungs — mostly in the lower parts of the lungs. He said the clots were all relatively small but there were a lot of them.
The following three to four weeks were really hard. If I moved too much I would be out of breath, and it was painful to yawn. Every breath gave me a stabbing pain just left from the center of my chest. I was directed to continue on the blood thinners. I have been on thinners for four months now and will continue this dose for another two months. The doctor recommends that I stay on blood thinners for the rest of my life.
Although the clots are basically dissolved now, I continues to have random chest pain, pain behind my knees and l get extremely tired at random. I have struggled to find doctors who are willing to dig deeper into this and who would consider my previous clotting issues were made worse by the vaccine.
l used to mountain bike, jog and exercise multiple times a week. Now I struggle to get through the day without crashing mentally and physically.
There is no medication in the world that works for everyone. This is no different and it shouldn’t be as hard as it is to get an exemption, or find a doctor that is willing to consider the vaccine isn’t as safe and effective as advertised.