Julie Ivan Sworn: From Ultrarunner to Spinal Lesion

Day 2 · 6:53:04 · Shawn Buckley · Marylou Lavalle · Julie Ivan · Dean Allison · James Freeland · Nicole Morier

• 📖 Julie Ivan is sworn; VISP-recognized Moderna injury after a hyper-fit life of 18–20 km mail routes and Round the Bay runs.
• 🦵 Days after a June 30, 2021 second Moderna dose, numbness climbed from feet to bra line with loss of bathroom sensation.
• 🧲 St. Mike’s MRI found a spinal lesion from vaccine-triggered immune attack; massive prednisone followed and pharmacies balked at the dose.

Ivan’s pre-injury athleticism and the rapid post-Moderna neurological cascade.

← Photos, VISP Form, and Doctors Threatened Over Exemptions | Progressive Lesions, Burning Feet, and Daily Limits →

Transcript

Shawn Buckley · 6:53:04

Our next witness is Julie Ivan. Julie, will you take the Bible in your right hand? Julie Avon, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So help you God.

Marylou Lavalle · 6:53:20

I do.

Shawn Buckley · 6:53:24

Now, you did not have COVID-19, and your doctors— you've been verified as having a vaccine injury, and you're one of the few that even the Vaccine Injury Support Program agrees that you have a vaccine injury. You're currently 50. You, you have 3 children. You work at Canada Post and you started back in 2016 as a mail carrier. And that, that you were walking basically 18 to 20 kilometres a day, 5 days a week. You also were very active. You would do the 30-kilometre Round the Bay Run 5 years in a row. You were hardcore running, runner, and 3 to 5 days a week you went to the gym. This is pre-vaccine. So you were like one of these hyper athletes that the rest of us try to ignore exist.

Julie Ivan · 6:54:16

Yeah.

Julie Ivan · 6:54:16

So, okay, yeah, it was, uh, 2006 I started with Canada Post, so it's my 21st year.

Shawn Buckley · 6:54:22

Oh, I'm sorry, I got that wrong by 10 years.

Julie Ivan · 6:54:24

Yeah, yeah.

Shawn Buckley · 6:54:27

So Yeah. And the point I was just trying to make is, I mean, and you love that job.

Julie Ivan · 6:54:31

I love letter carrying. Yes, I love it so much.

Dean Allison · 6:54:34

I'm—.

James Freeland · 6:54:34

Yeah.

Julie Ivan · 6:54:35

And I've just gone in, in the last year and a half inside. I finally just couldn't do it anymore outside. I tried to do it and I convinced the neurologist to let me go back to work and have sign off on me going back after 2 months just because I said, I have a truck, I'll park my truck, do 5 houses, get back in my truck, move it up. Do another 5 houses. I said, you got to let me go back to work, right? I'm going crazy. I had about 2 months off when it first happened just because I couldn't walk.

James Freeland · 6:55:04

I walked.

Shawn Buckley · 6:55:04

Let's start at the beginning. So you have your second Moderna shot back on June 30, 2021. Can you share with us what happened after that?

Julie Ivan · 6:55:15

Yeah. So it was a Wednesday. I think I was just at the pharmacy picking up a prescription for my daughter and I just said, hey, do you have any in there. She said, yeah, we have Moderna. And I said, is that okay? Because I took Pfizer as my first one. She's, yeah, no problem. So that was a Wednesday. And then Friday, uh, me and my partner were driving up north, and I was like, oh, my feet are so tingly, like I can't feel them, like it feels like they're asleep. And I didn't think anything. And we drive up north, we rented a cottage. And then Saturday I woke up and I'm like, it's up to my knees now, like just tingling. And I could still walk, everything. And then Sunday it was up to my waist and this, and I'm just like, it felt like a freezing in your tooth. So, you know, after you have a cavity and they freeze your tooth and you're walking, you could still chew, you could still do everything. It's just, it felt like swollen and like a, like I was frozen. So I'm like, okay, this is gonna wear off. It's obviously the vaccine. Something just kind of triggered something. It's gonna wear off. And then Monday morning I woke up and it was up to my bra line and I couldn't feel to go to the bathroom anymore.

Julie Ivan · 6:56:15

So that's when I was like, okay, so this is a Monday. We're just supposed to be leaving on the Monday. So I call.

Shawn Buckley · 6:56:21

So you couldn't, you couldn't feel even to like go to the bathroom?

Nicole Morier · 6:56:26

Yeah.

Shawn Buckley · 6:56:27

Like you're feeling numb from, from the chest down.

Julie Ivan · 6:56:31

So the Sunday it was still just the numbness. It was like walking and it was shocks coming up my legs and it was just the numbness. And if I kneeled down, I felt like I was on like 2 inches of bubble wrap. Like I just— but again, I'm just like, okay, this is just some kind of freezing wearing off or something or some something with that. So then the Monday morning, I'm like, okay, now this is serious. I can't feel to go to the bathroom now. So I know I'm not going to get into the doctor on a Monday.

Marylou Lavalle · 6:56:57

So I called telehealth and just explained my symptoms and she just said, get to emergency.

Julie Ivan · 6:57:02

So we were debating what hospital to go to because we're up north. And, um, my partner's mom had worked at St. Mike's in Toronto, so she said I would just— and I live in Hamilton, so she said just go there. So we drove down and, uh, they got me in right away and just said, uh, just ask me the questions. And then within a couple hours I was having like a spinal tap and MRIs. First it was an MRI, they found a lesion. So the way I've been explained it, it's the vaccine caused my immune system to attack my spine. So there's a lesion there now. Um, and then they did the spinal tap, and, uh, it was like 1,500 milligrams of prednisone to like an IV prednisone first, and then, um, I think it was like 23 pills a day to take to start, and then it— you slowly taper it off over a couple months. So the first 2 pharmacies wouldn't even fill it because they couldn't get a hold of the doctor and they'd never seen a prescription that large. And they were nervous. And then it was finally one did.

Julie Ivan · 6:58:03

And they just a bunch of phone calls back and forth. And yeah, so it was just when I walked, it just was shocks. Every step it was like something was rebounding back up. And if I went like this, it was like electric shocks. But for the first little while, it was only under here that was affected. And now it's my hands, my head. I have this tingling in my head.

Shawn Buckley · 6:58:25

Um, do you have tingling right now?

Julie Ivan · 6:58:28

Not at this minute, but it happens daily, a couple times a day. And, uh, the feet and the hands are burning or freezing. I feel like my fingertips are frostbitten, but you know, they're burning. It's, uh, all just different things. My legs from the knee down are numb. I can feel to walk. Everyone thinks, oh, how— you know, I can feel completely to walk, but they're numb. And they— I I used to be sure-footed. Now I'm not sure-footed. If I'm level ground, it's fine. But that's why I had to go inside, because I can't take the outside anymore surfaces. And now I'm inside the plant unloading trucks of mail.

Shawn Buckley · 6:59:05

Just let's slow down here.