Did Vaccinations Trigger My Fibromyalgia?

I recently found a list of triggers for fibromyalgia. Vaccinations was on the list and the only one that fit my timeline.

Because I was preparing for a trip to Bosnia, with a family who’d come to Iowa as refugees of their war, I began vaccinations early in order to have all three Hepatitis B vaccinations spaced as suggested. Because we would be in rural areas, with homes destroyed in the war, a typhoid shot was recommended.

So between June of 2000 and January of 2021, I had nine vaccinations. (I didn’t get the pneumonia shot until November of 2021.)

Joy, Samir, Adis (not quite 2), Zlatka (with another baby due in October), and Dzenaela (age 5). Near Skokovi, Bosnia, June 2001

 

I may have begun to have symptoms while in Bosnia, in June of 2001, sometimes going to bed early from exhaustion. But we were in a mountainous area so I figured that was why.

When we returned home, I went downhill quickly, having a puzzling and difficult summer. That August I also endured a bout of shingles. I was 56 years old.

It’s amazing that people I’ve met since that time have never known me as a well person. In spite of working with various medical people over the years, nothing has helped. I’ve lived with unwellness a quarter of my life! I’m so thankful for my husband (Guy) who has graciously seen me through all these years, giving up traveling and things he’d enjoy because I can no longer take part.

Symptoms: All-over pain (bones, muscles, joints), exhaustion (during the worst days, taking a shower was a huge undertaking), and brain fog. I’m so thankful the brain fog lifted enough a few years ago so I could write again! This last year has been challenging, but I’m not giving up.

I wanted to link the site where vaccinations was listed as a trigger, but so far I haven’t located it again.