My Personal Story on the Flu vaccine
About 10 years ago, I worked at a trucking company that afforded all their employees an opportunity to have a free seasonal flu vaccine. During that time I had no idea what the risk factors were for getting the flu shot. I witnessed dozens of dock workers, local drivers and office employees swarm over to get their dose of the vaccine. I contemplated for a while about whether or not I wanted to get the flu shot. This of course was my first time EVER receiving this type of vaccine. I slowly made my way to the front office and sat down to get my fill of this seemingly harmless potion.
Sometime after receiving the flu vaccine, I began to feel body aches and sudden chills. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Funk Dr. Mark had the flu! It was kicking my tail, I felt absolutely terrible for the next several days. It was difficult to keep anything down, so I resorted to good old fashion chicken noodle soup. Finally, my fever broke, the chills stop coming and I was back to normal, or so I thought.
Several weeks went by before one particular night while I was working; I had a tremendous left sided earache. I remember thinking to myself this is odd; I have never in my life had an earache. I got off work that morning and went straight home to get in the bed. Several hours later I woke up and had this funny feeling permeate across my head and face. I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and the left side of my face was paralyzed. You could have bought me for a penny at that moment. Funk Dr. Mark was terrified. I went through my mental rolodex and out popped stroke. Say what! I called a friend like in deal or no deal…and within a few hours, I was at the ER.
I arrived at the ER and almost immediately I am taken to a private room. And of course my mind is racing…this never happens; they must know that I have had a stroke, at the ER for 5 minutes and I’m in a private room?!? Say what! One by one the nurses come in, look at me briefly and walk out. Finally the attending physician comes in gives me a once over. The doctor finally asked me to SMILE, and of course, I could not! I could not close my left eye lid, I could not squeeze my lips together, I could not stand to hear loud noises, I could not taste my breakfast, etc, etc… He pulls his chair closer to me and without blinking says, “You have Bell’s Palsy.” If you thought buying me for a penny was cheap, somebody could have given me away at that moment AND got change "cambio". All I heard was Palsy…and my mental rolodex now hit on cerebral palsy… (Please keep in mind, this was prior to me going to chiropractic school…so I had no idea what he was explaining to me)…By this time, I will never forget it, my frat brother Stanley Price (G.O.M.A.B. STAN) was right there when I was about to lose it!
Shortly after all that excitement, the doctor explained to me that it is was not a stroke or “cerebral palsy” related…He asked if I had been sick lately, or if I had been out of the country. I said no I had not been out of the country, but several weeks prior I had flu like symptoms. He then prescribed prednisone which is a steroid, in hopes that it would reduce inflammation which is the cause of my Bell’s palsy. As you can imagine, as the weeks passed by and my Bell’s Palsy began to clear up, all I could think about was that FREE flu vaccine that was given to me for prevention. LOL…prevention! Prevention from what, the flu, no wait, maybe from facial paralysis AKA Bell’s palsy? I think NOT.
Bottom line, I still have residual symptoms from my bout with Bell’s palsy.
I have frequent and unresolved tearing of my left eye (crocodile tears), my left eye lid does not close as it should normally when I activate my facial muscles and here it is almost 10 years later. You can run out and get the flu vaccine if you want to…But please do your OWN research.
Note: to all student doctors...Learn those cranial nerves! Remember CN VII has efferent as well as afferent functions...Anterior 2/3 of tongue, motor innervation to Stapedius muscle (dampening of loud nosies), closing of the eye lids, etc, etc...
Sometime after receiving the flu vaccine, I began to feel body aches and sudden chills. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Funk Dr. Mark had the flu! It was kicking my tail, I felt absolutely terrible for the next several days. It was difficult to keep anything down, so I resorted to good old fashion chicken noodle soup. Finally, my fever broke, the chills stop coming and I was back to normal, or so I thought.
Several weeks went by before one particular night while I was working; I had a tremendous left sided earache. I remember thinking to myself this is odd; I have never in my life had an earache. I got off work that morning and went straight home to get in the bed. Several hours later I woke up and had this funny feeling permeate across my head and face. I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and the left side of my face was paralyzed. You could have bought me for a penny at that moment. Funk Dr. Mark was terrified. I went through my mental rolodex and out popped stroke. Say what! I called a friend like in deal or no deal…and within a few hours, I was at the ER.
I arrived at the ER and almost immediately I am taken to a private room. And of course my mind is racing…this never happens; they must know that I have had a stroke, at the ER for 5 minutes and I’m in a private room?!? Say what! One by one the nurses come in, look at me briefly and walk out. Finally the attending physician comes in gives me a once over. The doctor finally asked me to SMILE, and of course, I could not! I could not close my left eye lid, I could not squeeze my lips together, I could not stand to hear loud noises, I could not taste my breakfast, etc, etc… He pulls his chair closer to me and without blinking says, “You have Bell’s Palsy.” If you thought buying me for a penny was cheap, somebody could have given me away at that moment AND got change "cambio". All I heard was Palsy…and my mental rolodex now hit on cerebral palsy… (Please keep in mind, this was prior to me going to chiropractic school…so I had no idea what he was explaining to me)…By this time, I will never forget it, my frat brother Stanley Price (G.O.M.A.B. STAN) was right there when I was about to lose it!
Shortly after all that excitement, the doctor explained to me that it is was not a stroke or “cerebral palsy” related…He asked if I had been sick lately, or if I had been out of the country. I said no I had not been out of the country, but several weeks prior I had flu like symptoms. He then prescribed prednisone which is a steroid, in hopes that it would reduce inflammation which is the cause of my Bell’s palsy. As you can imagine, as the weeks passed by and my Bell’s Palsy began to clear up, all I could think about was that FREE flu vaccine that was given to me for prevention. LOL…prevention! Prevention from what, the flu, no wait, maybe from facial paralysis AKA Bell’s palsy? I think NOT.
Bottom line, I still have residual symptoms from my bout with Bell’s palsy.
I have frequent and unresolved tearing of my left eye (crocodile tears), my left eye lid does not close as it should normally when I activate my facial muscles and here it is almost 10 years later. You can run out and get the flu vaccine if you want to…But please do your OWN research.
Note: to all student doctors...Learn those cranial nerves! Remember CN VII has efferent as well as afferent functions...Anterior 2/3 of tongue, motor innervation to Stapedius muscle (dampening of loud nosies), closing of the eye lids, etc, etc...
Here's another horror story from the flu vaccine:
No comments:
Post a Comment