Last October a nursing student gave me a flu shot too high up on my shoulder. I had intense shoulder pain, so I saw my primary care physician in November. He told me to see an orthopedist to get it checked out. When I saw the orthopedist in December, he said I had bursitis (inflammation) that could take 6 months to 1 year to fully go away. He said that Advil and "taking it easy" was all I could do. However, this past June, I decided to get another opinion because I still had pain. I saw a sports medicine doctor who fortunately ultrasounded my shoulder and found a large partial rotator cuff tear in my infraspinatus muscle. The doctor was shocked, as was I. I received an MRI, that confirmed the rotator cuff tear diagnosis. Apparently, because the flu vaccine was likely injected into my "acromioclavicular joint" instead of my deltoid muscle, my body experienced an immune-mediated reaction to the components of the vaccine. Research studies have shown that this is a possible side effect of the flu vaccine. As a result, I now have to live with this rotator cuff tear for the rest of my life. I deal with pain on a daily basis. Once my "partial tear" turns into a "full-thickness tear", I will have to have rotator cuff repair arthroscopic surgery. The surgery involves placing screwing screws into my bone in order to re-attach the infraspinatus tendon (a serious surgery with a 6-month recovery process). Apparently, rotator cuff tears of this nature are rare in my age group (I'm only 21 years old). So my situation is clearly the worst case scenario. If I only would have known about this potential consequence from receiving a flu shot too high in my shoulder, I would have never let a nursing student give me the shot.
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Last October a nursing student gave me a flu shot too high up on my shoulder. I had intense shoulder pain, so I saw my primary care physician in November. He told me to see an orthopedist to get it checked out. When I saw the orthopedist in December, he said I had bursitis (inflammation) that could take 6 months to 1 year to fully go away. He said that Advil and "taking it easy" was all I could do. However, this past June, I decided to get another opinion because I still had pain. I saw a sports medicine doctor who fortunately ultrasounded my shoulder and found a large partial rotator cuff tear in my infraspinatus muscle. The doctor was shocked, as was I. I received an MRI, that confirmed the rotator cuff tear diagnosis. Apparently, because the flu vaccine was likely injected into my "acromioclavicular joint" instead of my deltoid muscle, my body experienced an immune-mediated reaction to the components of the vaccine. Research studies have shown that this is a possible side effect of the flu vaccine. As a result, I now have to live with this rotator cuff tear for the rest of my life. I deal with pain on a daily basis. Once my "partial tear" turns into a "full-thickness tear", I will have to have rotator cuff repair arthroscopic surgery. The surgery involves placing screwing screws into my bone in order to re-attach the infraspinatus tendon (a serious surgery with a 6-month recovery process). Apparently, rotator cuff tears of this nature are rare in my age group (I'm only 21 years old). So my situation is clearly the worst case scenario. If I only would have known about this potential consequence from receiving a flu shot too high in my shoulder, I would have never let a nursing student give me the shot.
October 12, 2015 - 6:41pmThis Comment
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