Help Dominique recover from the Covid-19 vaccine

Dominique was just starting a new chapter in her life, moving with her then fiancé and mother back to her home state of North Carolina from Las Vegas. She was ready to restart her real estate career in Charlotte, excited get married and thrilled to be closer to her family.

A couple of days before she left Las Vegas, she made a decision that has quickly turned her life upside down. Being a loving daughter to her mother, Dominique made the decision to get her COVID-19 vaccine in hopes that she wouldn’t catch or spread the virus to her only living parent or any of her other loved ones. Directly after receiving her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, she had felt the typical fatigue that she was warned about before receiving the vaccine. A few days following, she was reconnecting with her family at brunch and started noticing that she felt a bit off for a swift 5-10 minutes. She didn’t think much of at the time as it seemed it could have been jet lag.

Two weeks following her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, she began noticing that she was having cramping pains in her legs that turned into growing pains late in the evening. She went to bed not thinking much of it, and 15-20 minutes after she woke up the next morning the leg pain kicked back up for about an hour. Luckily, it went away for several days following but unfortunately it came back with a vengeance and stayed present for a week. Dominique was rushed to the hospital after 7 days of suffering severe cramping in the legs, trouble walking, numbness/coldness and lightening like sensation in the legs.

While at the ER, 5 separate doctors came in to examine her and find the cause of these abnormal symptoms. It was decided that she would be admitted to the hospital for further testing. After running a full brain and spine MRI along with countless blood tests, the neurologist on duty was unable to find the reasoning behind the issues Dom was having. Several other possibilities were ruled out during this visit, however her symptoms were not treated or resolved and she was told to follow up with a neurologist to further investigate.

After waiting a couple of months to get in with 3 separate neurologists, multiple other symptoms began to emerge. Dominique began isolating herself from her friends and family as she had a very hard time accepting that her life had crumbled right before her eyes. While playing the waiting game for her doctor visits, these are the symptoms she had begun to experience during those 2 months:

Vertigo

Severe brain fog

Short term memory loss

Visual changes

Pain behind the eyes

Cheeks aching/Tingling

Migraine that wouldn’t peak

Anxiety

Heart palpitations

Lack of sensation throughout the body, especially the legs

Feeling out of body

Random bouts of heat/burning sensation in tiny areas of the body

Depth perception is very off visually

Blurry vision

Internal vibration that would wake her up out of her sleep

Tremor in her right hand

Trouble forming sentences

Dystonia / Dystonic storms

As some of these symptoms would come and go, some were with her 24/7. When she was finally able to see the 3 doctors, one of which is a functional neurologist rather than traditional, she was hoping to find more answers to the symptoms that seemed to be piling up. Unfortunately, the two neurologist that were covered under insurance were of no help, both claiming that they had seen so many adverse effects but didn’t know what to do to find the problem. Luckily, the functional neurologist had given her a tiny bit of hope as she was able to find several neuro-inflammation markers and diagnose one of the symptoms Dom was having as dystonia/dystonic storms whereas the others were not.

Throughout all of this, Dominique has sold her car and multiple personal items to pay for her medical bills that don’t seem to stop piling up. The most helpful doctor thus far has been her functional neurologist who is not covered under her health insurance and is an out-of-pocket expense. In addition to this, Dom is continuing to schedule multiple appointments with doctors all over the country until her search for answers is over and she can finally get her life back to what it was before.

If you would like to assist with Dominique’s financial burden, any donation through GoFundMe will be greatly appreciated. All funds raised will go directly to cover Dominique’s medical costs as she continues to search for answers so she can not only help herself but possibly help others like her who are struggling in finding the right help.

On behalf of Dominique, one of her closest friends, I want to thank You for your kindness, prayers and outpouring love that she has received in the last couple of months and upcoming months to come as she’ll be fighting this until she gets her life back.