Dominique De Silva, 30, is still searching for answers from doctors after developing a long list of debilitating conditions, including severe neurological complications, pain and at times, an inability to walk, following her first dose of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine.
In an interview with The Defender, Dominique, who goes by @QueenCityDom on Instagram, said she was moving from Las Vegas to North Carolina to start her new life, get married and open her real estate practice when she decided to get vaccinated. Because she has only one living parent, she wanted to protect her mother and other loved ones.
“This virus consumed me to the point where I was wiping down my groceries with Clorox wipes, masking up everywhere I went, staying away from my friends, using hand sanitizer 24/7 and living in complete fear of getting sick,” Dominique wrote in an update on her Go Fund Me. “So, of course, when I had the opportunity to get my V [vaccine], I took it as soon as I could because I was ready for life to go back to how it was before.”
On March 18 –– two days before her big move — she and her now husband received their first and only dose of Pfizer’s vaccine.
Shortly after, Dominique said she felt the typical fatigue she was warned about before getting the vaccine, but she also noticed changes to her vision. “I think I just blew it off because maybe it was just ironic,” she said. “It felt like everything was super bright and too much to take in.”
Dominique said she felt awful, but thought maybe she was tired from getting ready to move across the country. “I felt like my brain was sick,” she said. “That’s the best way I can describe it because it is a feeling I had never had before.”
The next day Dominique got on the tram to the airport and said it felt like an elephant was sitting on her chest. “I didn’t know what was happening with my heart but it did not feel good,” she said. “Before I got on the plane, I got hit by the beginnings of a migraine and started seeing spots in my vision, but the migraine never actually came.”
Within two weeks of receiving Pfizer’s vaccine, Dominique noticed cramping pains in her legs that turned into what felt like growing pains late in the evening. The next morning the leg pain returned.
