Alexis from New Mexico

Alexis, New Mexico:  Up until 2007, the only thing Alexis and her family had to worry about was that she had been diagnosed with type I diabetes a year before. Even with that, Alexis was a very happy, shy, well adjusted 13 year old young lady. She worked very hard in school and made the honor roll. She spent her spare time educating her classmates about type I diabetes.

Alexis was scheduled to visit her grandparents in Germany, but her parents were reluctant because of the diabetes. Her doctors assured her parents that Alexis was handling everything so responsibly that it should be perfectly safe for her to go. Everything looked good for Alexis.

Alexis had two of the three recommended Gardasil shots before she went to Germany to visit her grandparents. While she was in Europe, most everything went well. Her grandparents said she acted a little out of character, but nothing they thought serious.

After returning, her mother started noticing odd behavior. Alexis didn’t suffer from jet lag after her trip like they all had after their last trip to Germany. She had always been a very sensitive child, but she didn’t cry when their 12 year old dog died. Little changes that sometimes only a mother notices began to show up.

As time went on, her behavior became more bizarre. She was getting in trouble in school. Alexis was not able to concentrate or retain anything she learned. She went to every kind of doctor imaginable, but all tests came back “normal.’

Her personality changed 100%–Alexis was no longer herself. She would go into fits of rage, screaming and calling names. She swore she hated her family. She wanted to be taken to an orphanage and be adopted by another family.  Sound and movement bothered her. She said people’s faces made her sick to her stomach, even faces on the television. Doctors and school officials said she was just “testing her boundaries.” Her mother
knew something was seriously wrong.

Soon, she was not sleeping at all. She would spend her night time hours sitting up writing notes about things that never made sense. She became obsessed with food, eating anything she could get her hands on while the family slept. One day she stuck her tongue out and her mom noticed it looked almost like she had bitten off a chunk of it.

More visits to the doctor with no abnormal test results. Not knowing what else to test for, someone suggests a psychologist, thinking she may be having trouble accepting the diabetes. No one in the family thought that was the problem, but they agreed to try. After only two visits, the psychologist decided she was traumatized while on her trip to Europe. Alexis was put on antipsychotic drugs. They only made the problems worse. She began to vomit up everything she ate, and then couldn’t wait to eat more.

January 2008, she received her third shot of Gardasil. Then the nightmare really began. Things got much worse. She was still not sleeping at
all, vomiting up everything, binge eating, not to mention acting like a complete stranger to her family and friends.

Two weeks after the third shot, she was admitted to the hospital for a complete battery of tests. Still no diagnosis. No one knew what was wrong with this once healthy, happy girl. Not knowing what else to do, the doctors referred her to a Behavioral Unit.

While there, she was not allowed to be around any of the other children. She could only be in her room, or walk up and down a short hall. The staff had to be constantly instructed on how to handle her diabetic medication. She was given a bucket to vomit in. If she vomited, she was allowed no additional food. On the fourth day there, two nurses witnessed her eating the vomit from her bucket. After the fifth day, they said she was
‘stable’ and sent her home.

Alexis finally ended up in a Children’s Psychiatric Hospital. Nothing they gave her made her sleep; nothing they gave her could stop the vomiting. Finally, one morning when mom was visiting Alexis had an unusual episode that mom witnessed. She told the staff and an EEG was done. They discovered she was in fact having seizures that were all concentrated in her frontal lobe, the part of her brain that controls personality. All of this time, she had been having seizures and no one had noticed.

The next six months were spent going back and forth between two hospitals. Each ran every test they could possibly think of; tissue and fluid samples were sent all over the country. Everything came back normal. It was finally determined that Alexis had been exposed to a virus and her system created antibodies to attack the virus. These antibodies were now attacking her.

She had not been sick and had not shown any symptoms of a viral infection–not even a runny nose. The only virus she had been exposed to was in the Gardasil shots.

They also determined she had suffered brain damage from the seizures. This once proud honors student now tests at about a 4th grade level. To this day, she is unable to attend school. Her seizure activity remains almost constant, day and night.

Every day, new symptoms seem to pop up. She has numbness in her arms and legs, headaches, horrible pain, no bladder control, constipation, vision problems, memory loss, brain fog, chronic fatigue, leg cramps dizzyness, and on, and on, and
on…….

This beautiful little girl who showed so much promise may never be the same again. Her family is at the end of its rope. They know there is no explanation other than Gardasil.

This family is living a nightmare they desperately wish they could wake up from—unfortunately, it is real–very real.

Written
by:  Norma Erickson, Vaccines Examiner