Sarah Harmer – Diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder after Pfizer COVID Vaccine

This is Sarah’s story:

Up until June 2021 Sarah lead a very normal, happy & healthy lifestyle.. Even having run 3 marathons and 5 half marathons. She was trying out a new sport with her friends, Stool ball, where she had her first seizure and was taken off to hospital and they were unable to diagnose or find a cause which offered very little explanation. 

There were a few more seizures to come but really wanting to visit her mother in America and being advised by doctors that the Pfizer Vaccine had no link to the recent seizures, she went and got the 2nd Pfizer COVID Vaccine.

After Sarah receiving this in August 2021, her life dramatically turned upside down; having on average 2-3 non epileptic seizures a day, tremors, absence seizures, loss of memory, loss of the ability to speak & write, weakness, headaches, sensitive eyes, tics and paralysis, heart palpitations, difficulty in breathing and struggling to walk.

After several traumatic hospital trips and lots of tests (normal EEG, sleep deprived EEG, MRI brain scan, 3 CT scans, EchoCardiogram, ultrasound & countless blood tests!). Sarah has been given a diagnosis over the phone of Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). For anyone that doesn’t know much about FND it is a condition where patients receive neurological symptoms such as Sarah’s listed above. Symptoms of FND are clinically recognisable that are not categorically associated with a definable organic disease.

As this is a specialised area the referral that has been made to a Neurologist with a 46 week wait through the NHS, the referral is to see this specialist at St. George’s hospital. There have been no interim plans made by the doctors for any help in rehabilitation in the meantime and as you can imagine this is extremely frustrating and debilitating.

Fast forward to now, February 2022, Sarah has tried to seek private medical care and has reached out to various medics but with still no realistic avenue. To put it into context, the specialist at St. Georges costs up to £100,000 to be treated and seen privately by him. As you can imagine this Neurological condition has completely turned her life upside down and taken away any form of independence; unable to work, relying on others to watch over her and accommodate her during the day or take her to places for appointments.. The list goes on! 

We have been so grateful and overwhelmed by all the support so far. We are continuing on to find answers and solutions to improve Sarah’s quality of life and provide that light at the end of the tunnel that she desperately needs. The majority of help has been put into alternative treatments such as Red light therapies, Homeopathic Medicines, Supplements, Acupuncture, Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy (Sarah’s fave!) Whilst there have been improvements to some of the shocking symptoms Sarah has suffered from we still looking into further alternative treatments such as Ozone Therapy and Plasma exchange in the hopes this gets her on the right track!

Thank you so much for the support and for following Sarah’s journey.

You can follow her journey on her GiveSendGo HERE.

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