Lesley Baughman

First Dose of Pfizer on 01/19/2021

Second Dose of Pfizer on 02/02/2021

Pennsylvania

42 yrs old

Q: What was your life like before you got the vaccine?

I was very active. I used to run and/or walk several miles a week and played tennis regularly. I had a lot of energy and was the person who would be down for anything.

Q: Would you like to share your reasons for getting vaccinated?

I was taking care of my very ill mother last year. She had a rare lung disease, which made her very susceptible to having a bad outcome, if she got Covid. She sadly passed away in September of 2021.

Q: What was your reaction, symptoms, & timeline?

I felt no reaction after my first shot, but within a few hours of my second shot, I felt like absolute death. Fever of 104+, severe body aches and inability to hold my head up. I work from home and couldn’t even sit the following day to complete my workday. After this initial reaction, my symptoms came on gradually over time. A few weeks later, I had my first bout of vertigo. Little did I know, this would be my life for the foreseeable future. So now, a full 20 months later I still have vertigo along with: general light headedness 24/7, pain in the back of my head/base of my skull 24/7, feeling like I have a bobble head and constantly need support to hold my head up, fatigue so bad I struggle to get out of bed let alone do anything active. I struggle just doing basic needs tasks. Cooking meals and showering are very taxing activities now, which is incredibly sad. Because of all of these symptoms, I’m also now experiencing anxiety frequently. I am literally a shell of the person I used to be.

Q: Share your experience with any medical care and any diagnoses you have received:

I’ve been to my pcp, ER, endocrinologist, neurologist, etc. I’ve had multitudes of blood work, I’ve had a brain MRI. All of these have come back fairly normal, unfortunately. I’m having a tilt table test to test for POTS syndrome in a couple weeks. Fingers crossed for some answers. Even if the results are negative, I have all of the symptoms. I’m looking into a functional medicine clinic for future treatment.

Q: Was your reaction reported, and what was the response?

VAERS, no response

Q: Are there any treatments we should know about that helped or hurt your health?

I changed my diet substantially. I eat low carb now, which I think helps more than anything. Sugar sets my symptoms off really badly. I take the following supplements: good quality probiotics, super-B, vit D, turmeric, black seed oil, NAC, magnesium in the evenings to help with sleep.

Q: Have you had Covid before?

I had Covid in January 2022. I had mild symptoms, but lost my sense of smell completely. In the few months following this, my post-vaccine symptoms lessened for a while. Sadly, they returned.

Q: What do you wish others knew?

If you are worried about Covid, take care of yourself and get yourself in good health. Maybe avoid huge crowds, if it’s a bad part of the season and cases are large. But please please do not get this vaccine. Maybe there will come a day in the future where changes are made and it is safer, but it is not safe for everyone right now. I would have rather lost my life to Covid than to have to live through the personal hell I’m going through from having gotten the vaccine.

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