From 4 km Walks to Numb Thumb After Moderna¶
Day 2 · 7:25:18 · Dean Allison · Jannine Duffy · Jennifer Britain · Charles Hoffe
- 🚶 Before vaccination, 66-year-old Jannine walked 2 km to and from grocery work, stood all day, then cooked and gardened.
- 💉 On May 29, 2021 she took a Moderna shot, worked the same shift, and felt arm pain with lasting thumb numbness.
- 🧪 Antibody testing had shown she never had COVID, so the family did not initially link symptoms to the shot.
Baseline fitness and the first Moderna dose that left her thumb permanently numb.
← Jannine Duffy and Jennifer Britain Sworn In | Blue Fingers, Purple Lesions, and Crystal Pain →
Transcript¶
Dean Allison · 7:25:18
Now, Janine, my understanding is you You did not have COVID.
Jannine Duffy · 7:25:23
There were antibody tests, so I had an antibody test that proved I never had COVID.
Dean Allison · 7:25:29
Okay, and, um, you're 66. Yeah, you've had 2 kids, Jennifer and Robert.
Jennifer Britain · 7:25:36
Yep.
Dean Allison · 7:25:37
And you've got some grandchildren. And now, 5, 5 to 6 years before the vaccination, you started working. You were working as a cashier at a grocery store. Yep. And prior to vaccination My understanding is you literally would walk 2 kilometers to work. Yep. You'd be on your feet at work all day.
Charles Hoffe · 7:25:55
Yep.
Dean Allison · 7:25:55
And then you'd walk 2 kilometers home.
Jannine Duffy · 7:25:57
Yeah. Rain or snow.
Dean Allison · 7:25:59
Right.
Jennifer Britain · 7:25:59
Okay.
Dean Allison · 7:25:59
So, so this is what's happening daily just before this story, just so everyone can understand that.
Jannine Duffy · 7:26:08
Oh, and I could go home and cook dinner. I could garden afterwards. It's like physical to me was energizing. So the more I did, the more energized I felt.
Dean Allison · 7:26:21
Okay. And then I'll just quickly, Jennifer, introduce you to the inquiry. So you're 43. You're a mother of 3 kids. And you're basically here to help support your mother. And by, you know, profession, you are a real estate conveyancer.
Jennifer Britain · 7:26:38
Yeah.
Jennifer Britain · 7:26:38
Yeah. And I'm here to support her because as soon as this happened, I became her caregiver her immediately and kind of rode this whole storm with her, went to every doctor's appointment, have spent hundreds of hours in the emergency room with her.
Jennifer Britain · 7:26:50
And I think honestly that's what kind of got us as far as it did is I was not scared of the emergency room and we went a lot.
Dean Allison · 7:26:59
Okay, so let's, um, back to you, Janine. Is, um, you get a Moderna shot Yeah. On May 29th, 2021. Can you share with us what happened?
Jannine Duffy · 7:27:14
Okay, well, I went and got the Moderna shot and I had a shift at work right afterwards, which to me, no big deal. But during that shift, we had to call people over to the grocery lines because of the COVID thing. But I raised my hand like this and I was pointing to someone to come over. And I got a pain through my arm. Not, not much of a big deal, but my thumb went numb. And to this day it is still numb, and I can feel that every, every moment of the day.
Dean Allison · 7:27:49
So you can feel that it's numb? What's that? It feels numb every day.
Jannine Duffy · 7:27:56
It's like it's all alive. All of the nerve endings feel like they're alive. I can touch it. If she touched it, I'd be jumping through the roof. So, yeah, it's like— and I'm so used to it now, and I just know that I do this all the time to keep it so I don't lose it because I'm scared that it's going to go completely numb.
Dean Allison · 7:28:19
So what happens after that? So thumb is the first thing.
Jannine Duffy · 7:28:23
Okay. The thumb, I remember. I just remember The next couple of weeks I got so weak walking to work, the calves of my legs started to burn.
Dean Allison · 7:28:35
I just want to slow you down. We'll get there. I want to talk about fingers and toes first.