Gardasil: The HPV vaccine and our new reality!

By Vicky Oakley, Bedlington, Northumberland, UK

Our daughter Holly, was an energetic, unstoppable, full-of-life 12-year-old. Very sporty, playing netball, rugby, rounders and football for a local club, the school, and county. She was also part of the Newcastle United development academy. She was so full of energy; we would send her for 15 minutes on the trampoline just to use some energy up.  She loved sports, she loved being active and she loved being outdoors.

Then, between November 2013 and May 2014, she was given the HPV vaccinations. Our life would never be the same again.

A month or so following Holly’s final HPV vaccination, we noticed she would vomit for what seemed no reason at all. For example, she was on the football pitch (trials for NUFC), and she vomited while on the pitch, then carried on playing.  We put it down to a one off, but as the months rolled on the vomiting got worse and worse and the period of illness became longer.

We took Holly to see our GP on numerous occasions, the same answer came back… it’s a vomiting bug.  After 4 months, when the sickness became worse and she felt continuously nauseous, no energy (to the point of not being able to speak) and lightheaded, we pinpointed that these “episodes” always came around the time of her period.  We were sure this was hormone related.

Doctors prescribed anti-nausea drugs, but nothing worked.  We tried the contraceptive pill, that didn’t work.

In addition, when Holly was well she seemed to be plagued with injury, pulled muscles, sore joints – we put it down to her not being at the peak of fitness anymore.

Another appointment to the GPs and they decided the best solution would be to stop her periods all together, she was given the depo injection.  This was followed by possibly the worst 3 months ever. She was in an “episode” the whole time, constantly vomiting, feeling nauseous and being unable to get out of bed due to extreme fatigue.

She was in and out of hospital because she was so ill. Following every test imaginable, Drs could find nothing wrong with her. They tried to say she was bulimic. We knew this was not the case, we knew it was hormone related.

School employees were onto us because she was unable to go to school she was so ill, and no one would believe there was actually anything wrong with our precious daughter.  And the worst thing was, 3 months of not being at school, friendship groups move on, friends became more distant, they just grew apart. Holly was losing contact with the outside world.

We searched to try and find a Dr who could help. At one point we were seeing around 6 different Drs both private and NHS.  Eventually we were pointed in the direction of a Dr who thought she knew what was wrong with Holly.  Holly was diagnosed with Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome, which seems reasonable with the following symptoms.  Some later tests also revealed that Holly no longer had any primary defence system, it had completely gone.

Her primary symptoms were:

• Extreme constant nausea
• Vomiting up to 10 times a day
• Dizziness
• Extreme fatigue (to the point where you cannot even speak or move)
• Low blood pressure

In addition, Holly has also suffered:

• Joint pain
• Muscle pain
• Easily injured
•  Broken wrist (which we think is due to weak bones)

Holly was so poorly that doctors recommended that when she had a period it would be best to be admitted to hospital, sedate her for around 2 days and give her lots of IV anti sickness medication.

This worked, Holly went back to school on a part time basis, eventually going back full time. However her energy levels never ever returned, she was still ill and hospitalised for every period she had, she lost her friendship group and was not allowed to go skiing with the school as it was classed as too much of a risk for the school. She was unable to do all the sports she did before because of the fatigue, she would sleep whenever she could, her sporting activity was virtually non-existent.

Nevertheless, we were delighted because we seemed to have the situation under some type of control for around 12 months.  She was still ill every time she had a period, but we decided 3 days in hospital to get her well again each time was doable and we sort of adapted to that life.

About 6 months ago however these “episodes” started appearing outside of when Holly would have a period. Her injury situation was getting worse, sore muscles, sore knee to name but a few.  The fatigue was worsening, she was constantly tired, and didn’t want to go out to visit friends and would spend most of her time in her Pyjamas.

2 months following that, Holly broke her wrist in two places at football.  Nothing out of the ordinary, a save which she had done thousands of times before.

By this time, we were starting to do more research.  HPV injury had occurred to us previously, however was pushed out of hand by doctors. We decided to look more into it, and found hundreds of girls in a similar situation to Holly.

At the present time, our life is on hold, a cold or sore throat is enough now to put our daughter into and “episode” and be admitted to hospital.  Stress will put her in hospital. A period will put her in hospital. In a 12-month period she was in hospital 11 times spanning well over 50 days.  We know all the hospital staff!

Her Dr is now trying to tell us that some of it is in her head and sent her to see a child psychiatrist who has confirmed to us that there is absolutely nothing wrong with Hollys mind!  Holly has also been told she has Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

While I fully believe Holly is fatigued, and it is chronic, I believe that there is something fighting her auto immune system (tests prove this) and this is to do with the vaccine.  I feel the same about the Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome.

So many sporty girls having the same set of similar symptoms following the vaccine cannot be coincidence, no matter what the Drs say.

We are currently receiving alternative therapy treatment to try and take the HPV vaccine out of Holly’s body.  Only time will tell if the effects of the HPV vaccine are reversible.  Ironic, Holly wants to be a Dr, yet no Dr will believe what this vaccine has done!

Sadly because Holly’s situation has continued to deteriorate, she is no longer able to attend school. Instead, she is a prisoner in her bedroom; often too exhausted to even get out of bed.  She receives home (2 hours) 1-1 tuition twice a week.  Each session means she is incapable of leaving the house for up to 2 days afterwards. Even so, Holly wants to continue.  With so many decisions having been taken out of her hands, who am I to decide if she should continue with tuition?

I cannot praise my daughter enough on her strength of character, determination and positivity to “work around” this situation.

Her not being in school has also impacted her social life. She rarely sees her friends these days. If they do come round, she can only tolerate it for very short period of time before she is worn out.

Holly told me last time they came, she could barely keep her eyes open after 30 minutes of chat!  How is this normal?

There needs to be more information given to parents on this vaccine, not the current information, the real information, stories like this, stories of girls who have been injured by HPV vaccines.

The world is waking up and I hope it’s not too long before people realise the dangers of this.   My eyes are well and truly open now, I want to shake everyone so they see what is happening and how it’s all being pushed out of hand as nonsense.

Had I known then what I know now, I would NEVER have allowed my daughter anywhere near HPV vaccines!