COVID vaccines and neuropathy
I am 85 with small fiber neuropathy that is getting worse. My neurologist thought it would be a good idea for me to wait with the covid vaccine and not be first in line to see how it affected other people with neuropathy. Probably because it is a new technology. Has anyone had a problem with neuropathy after receiving the vaccine? If so, which vaccine?
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This is NOT A STUDY. It is just a description of the VAERS data. Self-reported data, not investigated or verified by anyone. People who assume that their conditions or systems were caused by a vaccine and chose to report those assumptions to VAERS.
It does NOT say CAUSE. It says REPORTED.
Correlation is NOT causation. I can't say that strongly enough.
And 1/10 of one percent is not even correlation. It is an extremely weak association.
I think your best bet would be a neurologist at a large teaching hospital, depending on where you are located. I am seeing one and she has been very helpful. That is to say, helpful in order ing lots and lots of tests that are all coming back normal, so she is going with a presumptive diagnosis of a small fiber neuropathy. She said she is seeing an increase of cases both from the vaccination and the covid infection itself. There is a study going on at the University of Vermont Hospital by Dr Waheed who reported one of the first cases of peripheral neuropathy post vaccination. Unfortunately, there is not much to be done for this type of neuropathy unless they can get to the bottom of an actual cause. Getting on Google just leads to a cesspool of misinformation and conspiracy theorists though. And VAERS, as someone pointed out, is a self reporting vehicle that anyone, anywhere can report anything.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8250971/
I don't know if this is allowed on this board, but this is a link to the first case study by Dr Waheer.
Well said. Thank you.I am not anti vax either. In fact, I personally have vaccinated thousands of people in my community with the covid vaccines as an RN with the public health department. But I do know my symptoms started a few hours after my 4th vaccination. And neurological events, while uncommon, can happen after any vaccination. I am lucky my doctor is a clinician and a scientist and she believes that it is the spike protein that is causing the issues, both in the vaccinated and the infected.
I totally agree that's true. I read another article saying that conspiracists and anti-vaccers are false reporting there making that site pretty much irrelevant. However, there are many on this thread who believe every word. I guess I did not make it clear that the article I did read was an actual study, and the link I used was not it but mirrored the results to an extent. I once challenged someone who was using VAERS as proof, going so far as to say that I acknowledged that the poster may have truly been affected as stated, but that many self-reported without any medical confirmation and I got viciously attacked. So now I try to be a bit more diplomatic. Again, the study I originally read was an actual medical study unrelated to VAERS. And if you read the entire article, it does have a disclaimer of sorts regarding VAERS. I personally would never see VAERS as anything but anecdotal. Last November I had knee pain issues that were crippling. I saw threads on Mayo Connect from people blaming the Covid shot, Prolia and Anastrazole. Thus I waited until my next booster (nope), my next Prolia shot (nope), and switched from Anastrozole to Letrozole. Within weeks I was almost pain-free. (Bingo, Anastrozole). I've had 2 Pfizer and both boosters. 5 days after the 2nd booster I vacationed at the home of relatives 4 states away staying 4 days. When we got back we were told one member had tested positive and was showing symptoms the day we left. Neither of us got sick, took precautions and tested 3 times. I have chemo induced neuropathy, and I most certainly will get the new variant booster in December.
I believe there are studies out there beginning to find just that. You have 3 options for this or any vaccine really. Skip it and try to stay safe, get it and chance being one of a very small percentage to have a bad reaction, or get infected and exponentially increase the chances of a severe outcome. I'm sorry this happened to you, and I hope it gets better.
Thank you. Having lost so many friends and colleagues to this awful disease before there was a vaccine, I am willing to put up with these neuropathies. I am sure that they would change places with me, as I have said before, in exchange for being alive again. And I may have experienced the same side effects with a covid infection along with all the other sequelae covid could bring to my body. I am still masking and social distancing.
THANK YOU FOR THIS SAME SITUATION FOR ME
You are correct. There is no spike protein in the vaccine itself. However, by injecting cells with a synthetic mRNA that encodes a viral spike protein, the Covid mRNA vaccines directs human cells to MAKE a viral spike protein. So your own body becomes a sort of spike protein 'factory'. That process should evoke an immune response without a person ever having been exposed to the viral material itself. It may be that, as I said before, those who experience an adverse reaction, are particularly spike sensitive? The vaccine/spike may also induce an autoimmune response in some and perhaps the body continues to produce the spike protein? There is mounting evidence that vaccine-induced long Covid is real (search "Antibodies mimicking the virus may explain long haul COVID-19, rare vaccine side effects"). 13 months after being vaccinated I checked my antibodies. I had no Covid exposure (IgM - neg), but my antibodies were still high (SARS-Cov-2 IgG - 5347 AU/mL ( < 50 ) H). The immediate response to the vaccine I experienced within 15mins (tremors) was, as you say, probably not due to the spike itself (too soon), but more likely a reaction to the polyethylene glycol. The other cascade of long-covid-like symptoms followed within days.
We need a big benefactor for sure, some big promoter to draw awareness to PN and help get more attention.