I've had a bit of a worrying development since I had my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine two weeks ago. Around 48 hours after having the jab, I started developing a niggling pain just under my left ribs and left shoulder blade. I didn't think much of it at the time, as I thought it may just be some minor side-effects from having the vaccine. As the week progressed and I got to last weekend, the pain under the ribs had stopped, but the pain under the left shoulder blade had worsened. It got so bad that, by Monday, I had to be sent home early from work as I could no longer bear any weight in my left arm. By Wednesday, I was having quite a few spikes of pain under my left ribs again, leaving me little choice but to contact NHS 111. After describing my symptoms, they referred me to my nearest A&E hospital, (Bedford South Wing). After several hours of tests and an X-ray, they have diagnosed me with a potential blood clot, which I am now awaiting a CT scan to confirm for definite while taking blood-thinning tablets. As of now, my condition has returned to about where I was a week ago, so it's subsided a little but still fairly uncomfortable. I'm hoping desperately that, if I do have a blood clot, the blood-thinning tablets help to clear it.
Now of course, for the fact I had the Pfizer vaccine rather than the AstraZenica, I can't directly blame the vaccine for what has happened. There is a reasonable chance that I was unlucky enough to have potentially developed a blood clot that had nothing to do with the vaccine. However, for the fact any symptoms I've had over the last two weeks started 48 hours after having the vaccine, I can't shake the thought that it may have contributed to this (I'm going to guess that any vaccine has a very small chance of causing a blood clot, but the AZ vaccine has a slightly higher chance again due to the design of the vaccine itself). As such, despite how important it is to have both doses of the vaccine, it's making me feel rather concerned about the idea of having my second dose, in case I end up going through all this again...
Likewise I'm sorry to hear that you've had this issue and hope that you continue to improve.
Sorry to hear of your trouble, I hope it continues to calm down.
My Mother had blood clots in her chest a few weeks after her first jab and found no information to help her make a very difficult decision about her second jab.
The medical world were dismissive yes men and it worried her sick for weeks.
Meanwhile the world was shouting about the dangers of the jab being anti fax propaganda
She did eventually have the second jab and is fine but she is in her 70,s ans has immune system issues so in the end the weight of threat just tipped in favour of the jabs.
I’d love to meet the internet mouths who say it’s all such a simple decision, maybe put them in front of people like you and my Mum.
People need to try walking in others shoes.
Good luck
A fair and balanced comment.
I would however say that there's a big difference between saying to the general population that it's the best thing to have your vaccine and what to say to someone who has appeared (and I use that word as there's no certainty either way, not because I'm doubting the genuine concerns that having the second dose) to have a link between the vaccine and blood clots.
What I would say, is that given there appeared to have been a link with the first dose I would like to think that the NHS would have measures in place to ensure monitoring after the second dose, or at least when the diagnosis was made clear guidance as to what to symptoms to look out for were given.