My Personal Battle After the Gardasil Vaccine
My name is Jennifer Guldin and I am 27 years old. Gardasil has impacted the lives of everyone I care about. I am unique from a lot of the girls that have been injured by Gardasil, because I did not receive the vaccine until I was 25 years old. I was already happily married and had a beautiful 3-year old daughter, prior to receiving the Gardasil vaccination. Gardasil has not only affected me, but it has also affected my loved ones who have had to witness me suffer on a daily basis for the last two years. I truly believe it has been equally difficult for them, just in a different way. In high school I was very active. After graduating high school, I went on to college where I met the love of my life, Dustin. We were married in July of 2007 and God then blessed us with a beautiful and amazing little girl in August of 2008. Life was near perfect in my eyes! Other than two knee surgeries, from previous cheerleading injuries, and being fatigued as a new mother, I was in very good health. This all changed in September of 2011, when I visited my OB/GYN for my annual pap smear and was approached about the Gardasil vaccination. The nurse explained to me that Gardasil was to prevent against a sexually transmitted disease, HPV, and that there were absolutely no side effects. I told her that I was happily married and was not concerned about sexually transmitted diseases. She threw the words “cancer prevention” out there! After taking into consideration that my mom had breast cancer not too long ago and that it would probably be silly for me to pass up something that could protect me from going through what she did, I reluctantly agreed to get the Gardasil vaccine. That single moment has negatively impacted the past two years of my life and quite possibly may affect the rest of my life.