Woods: College Athlete Felled by Paresthesia After Second Pfizer¶
Day 3 · 6:50:00 · Shawn Buckley · Julie Woods · Crystal Denomme
- 🏀 Former volleyball, basketball and long-distance runner was extremely healthy before May–June 2021 Pfizer doses.
- 🦵 Within a month of dose two, constant numbness, tingling and pain (5–6/10) struck both legs from knees down.
- 🚶 Daily walking capacity collapsed from 3–4 km to at most 1–2 km; urgent-care staff first linked it to the vaccine.
Second Pfizer dose ended Woods’ athletic life with progressive nerve pain.
← Woods: Two-Year Wait for SCIG; Guilt Over Gatekept Access | Woods: Third Dose Escalates to Waist-Down Burning Bug Sensation →
Transcript¶
Shawn Buckley · 6:50:00
Uh, you work full-time between two jobs, and health prior, you had no health issues. You— so you're basically a young college student when COVID hits, um, who was extremely active in sports and extremely healthy.
Julie Woods · 6:50:18
That's correct. At that time, my favorite quote was, "It's more than just a game, it's a way of life," because To me, it was particularly volleyball.
Shawn Buckley · 6:50:31
Right. Okay. And you still coach?
Julie Woods · 6:50:34
I do.
Julie Woods · 6:50:34
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 6:50:35
So, okay. We'll, we'll go into that in a moment. Now, as far as your, your vaccines go, so you get in May 16th, 2021, the Pfizer shot.
Crystal Denomme · 6:50:46
Mm-hmm.
Shawn Buckley · 6:50:47
And that was really uneventful, the first one, as I understand it. But on June 26th, 2021, you get the second Pfizer shot. Can you share with us kind of what happened after that?
Julie Woods · 6:51:00
Yeah, so after the second vaccine, uh, within the first month, I began experiencing numbness, tingling, and pain, which I now know is referred to as paresthesia. And at that point, the symptoms were from my knees down. And within the month, I presented to—.
Shawn Buckley · 6:51:23
Can I just slow you down here? So this is, this is both of your legs. And so basically from the knees down, this tingling, numbness and pain on a scale of 10, like what, what would the pain level be?
Julie Woods · 6:51:39
At that point, it was approximately 5, 6.
Shawn Buckley · 6:51:42
Okay, so this is very uncomfortable.
Julie Woods · 6:51:45
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 6:51:46
And how long is it going on? Like, is this constant?
Julie Woods · 6:51:50
It was fairly constant, but not as much though as it is now.
Shawn Buckley · 6:51:56
Okay, so what, what are you, what are you thinking here? Because it also, like, this went on for months and months and months. I guess it's still going on.
Julie Woods · 6:52:06
Yes.
Julie Woods · 6:52:06
So this time around, following the second dose, It lasted for 4 months. The symptoms did go away after that 4-month period, but they did come back after the third dose.
Shawn Buckley · 6:52:20
Right. And it also affected your— the distance you could walk and your endurance, right?
Julie Woods · 6:52:25
The first—.
Shawn Buckley · 6:52:26
Second shot.
Julie Woods · 6:52:27
Yeah. So since I wasn't able to participate in team sports throughout COVID, I turned to walking as a form of exercise. And before I took the COVID vaccines, I was still able to go 3, 4 kilometers a day. And after taking the second dose, that decreased to approximately 1 to 2 kilometers at most.
Shawn Buckley · 6:52:50
Did, did you in any way attribute this to the vaccine at the time?
Julie Woods · 6:52:55
Not immediately. What actually ended up being the contributing factor for me associating my symptoms with the COVID vaccines was that I presented to urgent care because there was concern that I might have had blood clots. And it was actually the staff at urgent care who specifically asked me which COVID vaccine I took. And until that point, I didn't think that it could have been related to the COVID vaccines. But Why ask a question if there's no possible relation?
Shawn Buckley · 6:53:33
Yeah, no, that's pretty telling, isn't it? When they're, when they're asking you which vaccine you took, um, because they're not asking you what you ate for breakfast.
Julie Woods · 6:53:42
No.
Shawn Buckley · 6:53:43
Or, you know, did your parents have this problem? Correct. They're asking you what, which vaccine you took.
Julie Woods · 6:53:50
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 6:53:51
So, um, but you still then decided to take a third vaccine?