While the virus may not be life-threatening to anyone who contracts the virus, it can be life-altering.
Summer Maxwell said she contracted COVID-19 in July. She reported feeling dizzy and loss of taste and smell constantly.
“The first feeling was shocking, devastating,” she said. “I constantly ate food, constantly drank things that normally had a strong taste. Couldn’t drink anything. Couldn’t smell anything. Nothing.”
Five months later, the 27-year-old Chicagoan said she is still feeling the impact of the virus.
She said her scent has finally returned, but so has the dizziness. When she drinks alcohol, her taste buds disappear completely.
“It’s nothing like it. To feel completely normal and then be almost absent from your body is exactly what it feels like,” she said.
Jhary Bornip said she had difficulty breathing and labored breathing as a result of the virus, and she also lost her sense of taste and smell.
The 32-year-old said she’s seen an ear, nose and throat specialist.
She said the way to regain her senses was a costly one.
“Now I’m doing treatment that isn’t covered by insurance, so it’s expensive,” she said.
The ladies are part of a group that nobody wants to belong to: the ‘long-runners’, who suffer from side effects of COVID-19 long after they contract it.
“Younger adults often don’t get as sick with COVID at first, but young adults, like others, may be prone to long-term, persistent symptoms or so-called long-term COVID,” says Dr. Deborah Burnet, chief of general internal medicine. University of Chicago.
Burnet said symptoms can range from fatigue to shortness of breath, cough, joint pain, brain fog, and loss of taste and smell.
“You can’t predict what symptoms a person will have. Some people deal with headaches, sleep problems. So it’s not something to throw off you. Oh, I can’t deal with not smelling. Nobody knows how it will affect them. ,” she said.
Chicago R&B singer Jeremih recently shared his battle with the virus after struggling for his life in the hospital for weeks.
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At 33 he considered himself very healthy.
“I was weak. I went in there probably 220 and I left with 175. I’m like I’m damn close to skin and bones,” he said. “I wouldn’t want anyone to experience what I’ve been through,” he said.
Bornip and Maxwell said they were grateful because they knew things could look a lot worse for them, but they can’t help but wish their lives would get back to normal.
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