Desiree Jennings – Redskins Cheerleader
Disabled by a Flu Shot – Please Pass This To Everyone
Hello,
My name is Desiree Jennings and I am a twenty-five year old woman. I work full-time as a Marketing Communications Manager for a large Internet company. I am currently finishing up on my bachelor’s degree in Finance and Economics this fall and hope to go on to a Masters in Economics in 2010.
In my spare time, I enjoy running in and training for races from 5Ks to marathons. I am also a leader of a local run club, training beginning runners for 5K and 10K races. I am training for the National Marathon in DC in March and just lately became a member of the Washington Redskins Cheerleader Ambassador team.
That was the life that I used to know.
On August 23, 2009, I received a seasonal flu vaccine at a local grocery store that drastically, and potentially irreversibly, altered my future. In a matter of a few short weeks I lost the ability to walk, talk normally, and focus on more than one stimuli at a time. Whenever I eat I know, without fail, that my body will soon go into uncontrollable convulsions coupled with periods of blacking out.
Every day is a battle to control the symptoms triggered by the flu vaccine shot and a reminder that my life will never be the same. I set up this site to tell my story and warn the people of the neurological side effects than can result from vaccinations; especially knowing that in the majority of these cases, their stories are seldom heard outside of immediate families and friends.
I hope everyone that reads my story will heed my warning and think very carefully, including watching my story, reading the information about vaccine side effects on my website, reading the vaccine package insert, considering the natural remedies for flu and H1N1 on my site, and seeking out consultations with the doctors found on my website, before making the decision to receive a vaccination.
Sincerely,
Desiree Jennings
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DesireeJennings
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January 5th, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Desiree-
My name is Hopie Jackson and just want you to know what an inspiration you are to me. I was always extremely healthy and athletic, an honors student with great grades, and had just started a modeling career. I had just returned from New York City where I competed and had everything to live for, and absolutely loved my life. However, three and a half years ago when I was 14, I was started on Yasmin, a birth control pill, to hopefully help my menstrual pain and irregular periods. The first night that I started taking this medication, I started feeling ill. Within two weeks I went to my doctor three different times and they thought I just had back to back viruses. The last time I had an appt., I had a fever but they gave me a flu shot anyway. Three weeks after I first noticed any sign of illness, I began having twitches which within a few hours landed me in the ER with what they called motor seizures. Because it was such a shock to my body, although conscious, I felt like I was in and out of what was going on around me. My head would jerk to the left side and I couldn’t control the movement to get it to turn back to the center. My hands and feet were jerking also and I would have twitches in my muscles all over my body. I would also jerk if someone touched me. It felt like an electric shock. They could give me ativan or vallium to stop the attacks. But during the hospitalization, they later found out IV benedryl would work. I had very general blood work done and a CT scan and MRI of my brain and after nothing showed abnormalities, that is when they sent in the psychologist and after he spent a half an hour with me, he determined I must be stressed as an overachiever and immediately diagnosed me as having conversion disorder. Although two other psychologists spent time with me on three other occasions and didn’t agree with his diagnosis, the head psychologist still demanded that I should be treated psychologically in the inpatient or outpatient unit. My mother refused to believe that I needed psychological treatment, because both she and I knew it was something physcially wrong. I had three different hospitalizations until I was diagnosed by three different doctors who all agreed that it was cervical dystonia. During the dystonia, my body gradually became sicker and sicker with two other illnesses also. Those are fibromyalgia and central sensitization. My life had completely fallen apart and I didnt think I could take it. I lost friends, family, who thought I was trying to get attention and thought I was causing the cervical dystonia to happen myself. I would have a cervical dystonia attack and my head would lock to the left side for up to periods of 12-13 hours before doctors would give me the IV medication I needed to stop it. They were denying me the medication for so long because they just thought I would stop it after a while when I got tired of it. It never stopped without medication, and I had no control over it. The benedryl that we used at home when I wasn’t in the hospital, quit working, which we later found out was because my body was producing so many histamines that my body wouldn’t react to it because I had become tolerant of the benedryl. I was so stressed and didn’t think it would ever stop. I was in so much pain due to the fibromyalgia and central sensitization, and I lost half my hair, i had and still have headaches every day and severe pain in every part of my body. Almost a year and a half ago, I tried to commit suicide just because I couldn’t handle it anymore and I didnt have a life. My life was saved by my mother, who I owe everything to, and I find now that life is such a gift. Finally, my dad had done some research and found out that vallium under the tounge dissolving would get 80% of the medication to my muscles instead of the 20% that would if I had just swallowed the pill. Also, we found a doctor who injected my neck in about 7 different areas on each side of my neck with Botox, which relieved the cervical dystonia attacks. Currently, my cervical dystonia is under control with the Botox, and I am still struggling with my fibromyalgia and central sensitization pain, but I am trying to start getting my life back. It will be a long road ahead but I find that I am a better person because I went through so much. This happened when I was almost halfway through 9th grade, and although I am supposed to be a senior now, I’ve never been able to go back to school full time and have to take online classes, so it’s pretty unlikely that I will be able to graduate this spring which is pretty disappointing. Are there medications that you could recommend to me that I can ask my pain doctor about? I am on lyrica and savella, however I have gained a lot of weight from it. I need to try something else. What treatment are you getting? And again, you are such an inspiration and I wish you the best luck. Thank you for sharing your story with all of us. Unfortunately there are people who criticize us because we are different from them, but I just have to keep reminding myself that they have no clue what it is like to be in our situations. It is sad that some people are so ignorant and cruel. But keep your head up, and know that you are in mine and my family’s thoughts.