Am I under tetanus infection? what should I do to get rid of the pain and muscle spasm?

[piggymi]

On Sep. 29th 2009 morning, the thumb of my left hand got pinched by a taxi door, resulting in a heavy bleeding.I took a tetanus antitoxin shot (TAT horse serum 1500 u, made in China). Ever since that day, the wound had been very painful and swollen, although enswathement was changed everyday with new medication, the pain and swell did not ease.

In the midnight of Oct. 11th 2009, about 12 days after the tetanus shot, I woke up with an intense feeling of fever on my feet and hands as well as an intense vertigo feeling, and started to projectile vomiting for about half an hour. After that, I felt my neck was stiff and could not move around, and the vomiting went on for another hour. Despite of these severe symptoms, I was still conscious. I was taken to the hospital by an ambulance, and the doctor did a CT of my brain which did not show any abnormities. Then I was injected with some medication treating the vomiting and it finally stopped at around 5:30 AM. The vomiting and vertigo did not reoccur, however, it took about 45 days for the wound to heal.

At around the beginning of Nov. 2009, I began to have a strengthless feeling on my feet, which felt like walking on sand, and this accompanied with dizziness and headache. The doctor I saw suspected that I had cervical problem and did a CT scan of my neck, which did not reveal any serious problem that may suggest Cervical Spondylosis.

Starting from around Dec. 2009, the strenghthless feeling I experienced earlier started to diffuse from my feet to my knees. Also, I started to experience muscle spasm starting on my toes all the way to the groin area, my arms, shoulders even my facial muscles also had muscle spasm as well.

Starting from March 2010, my knees started to experience sharp stinging pain, which accompanied with intensive sweating. I also experienced mild fever every afternoon with more intense pain, which seemed to correlate with the body temperature. I could barely walk more than half a mile, after which I would experience pain all over my body. The muscle on my upper arms and shoulder were also painful.

Starting from June 2010, the stinging pain on my knees developed further as I became more sensitive to heat, moisture, and air movement. The pain would become more intense as long as there was wind around, or if I took a shower. It also became more intense after I ate or drank water. The pain was milder in the morning, and became more severe as the day went on. I took Diazapam pills (4 mg, 2 mg before sleep, 2mg after waking up in the middle of the night) before I went to sleep, which eased the pain so that I could fall asleep. The spasm also persisted, and became more severe after long walk.

I'm so eager to ask am I still under tetanus infection? Can something be wrong my tetanus shot injection? How can I get rid of the knee joint pain and muscle spasm?

[Fkim]

Hi did you ever figure it out?? My right knee is swollen and aching and my left leg has a few muscle spasms afterwards.

[Jaybay]

Lyme disease is carried by deer ticks.  If you ever took a walk through a wooded area you may have been bitten by a tick and never known it.  That's how the disease is spread.

[piggymi]

Thanks a lot for your consideration. In fact, some of the Chinese Doctors agreed on that the TAT probably had something wrong with itself, and all of the symptoms i developed has something to do with this TAT. But since i already got these problems, i'm really wondering what should I do to improve myself, especially about the knee joint pains and muscle spasm?

[piggymi]

Thanks for your consideration, i didn't test for lyme disease, but i never got bitten by dogs, deers,or other big animal, how can i get infected by lyme disease?

[piggymi]

Thank you about the questions. In fact, i did test whether i was under chronic fatigue syndrome when i was still in China, but the doctors denied on that. And now i'm already in United States to seek medical help, i think i will definitely go to see doctors in Rhematology and Infection Disease as you suggested.

[piggymi]

Because i got the injury on my hand when i was in China, and the TAT shot i took was also made in China, sad about that...

[piggymi]

Thanks a lot for your suggestion. I don't have a cough, and i took MR and CT of my lung, it's normal, and doctors in China didn't think i had TB neither, and before i took the TAT shot, they did give me a skin test for the TAT, and it turned out that i'm OK with that. So i'm so confused how come i developed the allergic reaction to it 12 days after the injection, given that the skin test showed that i'm not allergic to TAT.

[Alexis1197]

what you may be experiencing is either a reaction to the the base of the injection or to the adjuvant in the injection. The base of a tetanus injection is horse plasma, if you are sensitive to it your reaction may be due to your body attacking the foreign proteins in the plasma. An adjuvant is a very small amount of a toxic substance that is used in some injections to get a stronger response from your immune system. Especially as you say that the injection was from China, they would likely not have chosen as safe an adjuvant or there may have been too high a dose, and either way you may be reacting to the toxins in your system which are hard to get rid of.

[Alexis1197]

what you may be experiencing is either a reaction to the the base of the injection or to the adjuvant in the injection. The base of a tetanus injection is horse plasma, if you are sensitive to it your reaction may be due to your body attacking the foreign proteins in the plasma. An adjuvant is a very small amount of a toxic substance that is used in some injections to get a stronger response from your immune system. Especially as you say that the injection was from China, they would likely not have chosen as safe an adjuvant or there may have been too high a dose, and either way you may be reacting to the toxins in your system which are hard to get rid of.

[Jaybay]

You would have been hospitalized if you had an actual tetanus infection so no worries there.  In fact, I don't think your symptoms have anything to do with that injury at all.  Have you ever been tested for Lyme Disease?

[mkh9]

p.s. how do you know the vaccine was made in China.
mkh9

[mkh9]

I have a couple of questions, is the fever low grade and gets higher in the afternoon?  Have you had a lot of weight loss? Did you get the taxi door injury in the US or in China? I assume in the US and just the vaccine was from China. I am thinking Chronic fatigue syndrome perhaps caused by an infection with Brucella. Brucella may have been introduced in the original injury but also with a contaminated toxoid from China. Brucellosis can cause meningitis, encephalitis, bone and joint lesions, and Chronic fatigue syndrome. Lupus can give you symtoms like this. Since the symptoms are somewhat non specific I would get tested for Brucella, lupus , and chronic fatigue syndrome and TB. TB can get into joints and the spine not just the lungs. Anyway, perhaps an infectious disease doctor and rheumatologist may help.
mkh9

[mkh9]

Hi and sorry you haven't been well. No I don't think you have tetanus. The symptoms you describe are not typical of tetanus. You normally first get "lock Jaw" and would have trouble breathing  and neck spasms etc. and progressive problems. It sort of sounds like you had an allergic reaction to the toxoid in the vaccine two weeks after getting the injection. After that the symptoms may be due to an infection from a different bacteria perhaps, if you still have pain in the area where you first got injured or perhaps it got into the joint. Have you had a complete blood count? As it could also be a neurological problem that came on and that may be coincidental to the initial infection. The afternoon fevers and fatigue make me think of TB but you don't have a cough? I have to think about this further. It isn't straight forward. Since the shot came from China, I don't know if it was contaminated with something either.
hope this helps or maybe someone else has an idea.