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“The Pfizer vaccine ruined my life 10 months ago and I am not going to shut up about it from now on. I never told my story. I used the long Covid community to find a place and a voice but this is not the whole picture. Let’s talk about vaccine side effects and vaccine-injured.”

This is how a Twitter thread from Poupy began where she told her story.  Poupy is a French 24-year-old who was a student in Sweden.  She had a Covid injection to protect others, and “for goodwill and freedom.”

“I can’t live my life and I want people to hear that,” Poupy tweeted. “We need research, we need treatments. We need our life back. And we need support.”

Please note: we have taken the liberty of editing Poupy’s Twitter thread, but only minimally, for readability purposes.

By Poupy on Twitter

the #pfizer vaccine ruined my life 10 months ago and i am not going to shut up about it from now on. i never told my story. i used the #longcovid community to find a place and a voice but this is not the whole picture. let's talk about #VaccineSideEffects and #VaccineInjured ⬇️

— poupy 🧝🏼‍♀️ (@scandinana) May 29, 2022

My name is Poupy.  I’m 24-year-old and I am an athlete, runner, and hiker. I am a master’s student, a worker, a daughter, a grandchild, and a friend for some. I am a vegan cook, a pianist and a writer. I am full of life, I am healthy, happy, ambitious and adventurous. Or should I say I was?

My life stopped on July 29^th, 2021. Until then I was living in Sweden for my study. I came back to France at the beginning of the month to get vax because I wanted to protect my family and fragile people. I did it for goodwill and freedom. I don’t wanna be judged on that.

I had my first shot on July 7^th and had no side effects at all except a stiff arm for 2 days. I waited 3 weeks (this was the delay at that time) and had my second shot. This didn’t go that well. The first night was not a signal for me, I had chills, fever, sweat and insomnia.

But I was better in the morning and during the next day. I even exercised and hung out with friends – 48 hours after it, I was sick again. Flu symptoms appeared with a sore throat, then fever and chills, muscle pain, eyes allergy, stuffy nose and ears … The whole package.

This lasted 14 days with astonishing and abnormal fatigue. I tested negative on day 7. At that time, the vaccine was not an option for me. I was almost laughing about it. I tried to exercise again but my heartbeat was higher than before. I had anxiety and shortness of breath.

I almost fainted doing basic yoga. “Okay,” I thought, “give your body time to recover.” My heart was bumping in my chest, I was still walking miles but was feeling so drunk, I couldn’t see clearly, I was dizzy, and I couldn’t talk while walking anymore. That “better” state lasted 10 days.

Then, around August 20^th, after a party, I got sick “again”. Same flu symptoms, 10 days all over again. I now call this my first “pem.” I tried not to let myself stay in bed too many days though and went biking. This got worse. I realised there I couldn’t work out at all anymore.

I worked out 2 hours a day for the last 10 years and I couldn’t do s**t. I had a weekend close to the sea with my friends and tried to survive there. I got myself so drunk I felt myself again. The next part was not that funny though. I came back home feeling better but only a day.

I never recovered from that weekend. Now I think alcohol only made me feel good thanks to adrenaline and maybe improved blood circulation. Two days after that weekend, I was stricken by some pain in my neck. I almost threw up. I couldn’t watch TV, I couldn’t eat. I was so scared.

I thought about meningitis but I had no fever. I went to the physio, I got worse. I couldn’t leave my bed. I was so exhausted and in so much pain. That wasn’t funny anymore. I went to the ER [Emergency Room] after some shaking crisis, then a second time because of tachycardia and leg pain.

I couldn’t sleep because my heartbeat was so high. I couldn’t turn off my phone because I was scared to die, I needed to be able to call the ER. I struggle to remember that time but things were happening fast and I couldn’t stop wondering if that was all made up in my head.

Doctors gave me anxios and magnesium. They told me to exercise and walk. I couldn’t do groceries or cooking anymore so I decided to go back to my parents. I did a 600km train trip with nausea, vertigos, and tachycardia – that was a horror movie. My dad drove me directly to the ER.

I went home. That was at the start of September. Nobody was taking me seriously. I spent the month barely conscious, unable to sit, stand, or walk. I was bedbound for the first time in my life. My symptoms at that time were fatigue, muscles and joints pain, flu symptoms especially

Eyes, ears and sinus pain, I had [Postural Tachycardia Syndrome], PoTS, (I understood around that time), asthma and digestive tachycardia. I was sleeping better, 13 hours per night but still couldn’t function during the day. I had blurry vision, couldn’t focus, and couldn’t work or read. I had terrific migraines.

I had to go back to my apartments for my back to school. My last year of master’s. I struggled from October to December to keep myself in a state where I could go to school for 6 hours and then sleep until the next day. I was bedbound all the time except for those hours.

That was a perfect nightmare but I kept pushing. I learned about pem but that was not an option to give up. After the Christmas holidays and the massive crash I experienced, I had to find a backup plan. I had to accept I would end up bad if pushing more.

My school was probably the biggest disappointment I had this year. They tried to kick me out instead of helping me (private school 10k a year) they said I was making my parents lose money. They threatened me to refuse my internship even if I succeeded until the end of class.

I fought and they accepted to give me a few hours remotely. Thanks for the effort lads. I pushed myself until the end of March 2022. Regarding symptoms, new babes I forgot to mention were now part of me. I had a regular flush on my face each evening at the same time.

This was linked to food and it stayed for 7 months. It was coming with headaches, blurry vision, and head pressure, I was red and burning. Had this too on my hands and feet. From October, I became allergic to everything. Had to let go of my plant-based protein diet.

Had to let go of everything, basically. I immediately started to follow a low histamine diet but even now this is my main issue. I probably developed #mcas and #mecfs which got worse from January. My food allergy symptoms were shortness of breath, a pressure on my throat and chest. My eyes were exploding and I had big flu symptoms in the morning, all that in addition to my regular flush. My crashes were becoming hard to handle, I was struggling more and more to clean my place and do daily tasks.

I haven’t mentioned it but I was a freelance worker for the company I worked with in Sweden and I had to let go of this too in mid-November. So basically, my life was surrendering to everything.

Regarding healthcare, I went to almost 50 appointments in 10 months, I saw plenty of specialists – most of them gaslighted me. It took what little energy I had but I tried to maintain my mental health in a good state. I am proud of that. I lost most of my friends and gave up on social life.

I took every supplement possible; some did nothing, and some probably improved a little. But no breakthrough. I am now on 3 diff antihistamines which I believe help. I do my best. Positive aspects are my PoTS that improved on month 9, breathing issues slowly improved too with a lot of mediation, specific diet, deep breathing exercise, theta waves etc. I do very slow and safe exos only to move my back, arms, and neck which is where the inflammation is worse for me.

But that is all. All the other symptoms remain and are very debilitating for me. I also experience awful crashes 1 week (at least) out of 3 because of my period and hormones.

I can’t live my life and I want people to hear that.

For the last 2 months, I am finally learning to manage pem because I am finally free of obligations. But I am supposed to start a 6 months internship to graduate so the fighting is not over.

Finally, my mental health has never been this good. This disease is not psychosomatic. This is not depression or anxiety. This is a severe immune reaction and illness. We need research, we need treatments. We need our life back. And we need support. Thanks, if you reached this part.

Okay, before I receive anything I am just gonna specify a few things before getting remarks:

• Yes, I might have caught covid at some point, long before or between the jabs. But not that I am aware of. I never tested positive and never got symptomatic before the vax.
• Yes, the vaccine saves and saved lives and I acknowledged this with honesty. I’m not an anti-vax or whatever that is called. I only say we need to be warned before. I asked for testing my antibodies before getting the jab and they refused, saying that if I never tested positive I should take 2.
• Yes, I ignored my symptoms first because nothing prepares you for this. No doc. No book. No thought.
• Yes, I enjoyed time with 4 friends twice in an apartment. Yes, I overdone and drinking probably made it worse but this is not at all my point there and I have no regret about that.

And I had still so many antibodies 6 months after the second dose that I am pretty sure about my adverse reaction, covid or vaccine, this is a reality we need to talk about.

Sending love to all the people living with the same situation, I stand with you 💜

For those telling vax long hauling isn’t real:

Vax Long haul is clinically & microscopically indistinguishable from #LongCovid due to the virus. I believe the same term should be used, so that sufferers receive the same standard of care. Otherwise we risk further marginalising the already stigmatised #vaccineinjured

— Dr Asad Khan FRCP FRACP 🇵🇸🇳🇿🇮🇳🇬🇧#pwLC (@doctorasadkhan) May 29, 2022

End of Poupy’s Twitter thread.

As a correction to Dr. Asad Khan’s tweet above regarding “long Covid”: last year, a French study found that the only “long Covid” symptom associated with lab-confirmed Covid infection is persistent anosmia or loss of smell.  Read more HERE.

There have been some interesting responses to Poupy’s Tweets which are worth reading if you have the time.  Below are just two of them.