Irma

Oct 16

“I had the symptoms, but I didn't have the battle.”

This is part of a series on Grace Heights Health and Rehabilitation — which had over 40 residents and 35 staff members test positive for COVID.

MORGANTON, NC: I was born with no sight in the left eye and I had a cataract in the right eye. I had surgery on that at 34 years old. And I have a white mass over the optic nerve. I couldn't see on either side and glaucoma took the side vision. So that caused the blindness in the right eye in 2004 or 2005. I raised three kids and took care of a house and all of that. So, it can be dealt with. It can make you bitter or better. It's what you do with it.

It can make you bitter or better. It's what you do with it.

Until recently, I lived with my daughter. Last year, I fell and injured my hip and my leg. After being in the hospital, they sent me here [Grace Heights] for rehab. After getting here, realizing I couldn't go back and have my daughter take care of me, I made a decision to stay here. Now my family wasn't happy with me making the decision to stay, but I'm in my right mind. I felt like I could make my own decision and that's what I did.

In March I felt tightness in the chest and had a lot of coughing. They started giving me breathing treatments four times a day and they put me on other antibiotics and two different kinds of cough syrup. If it wasn't for those, I don't think I would have made it because they caught it early and they treated it. I never was sick enough to go to the hospital. They said I was asymptomatic when they did the testing. I never was sick. I never felt bad or anything like that. I had the symptoms, but I didn't have the battle.

I have had so many brushes with death and survived. And if it's my time to go, it's my time and I'm ready.

My daughter is upset now because she thinks she'll never get to hug me again. I told her that’s foolishness because I have had so many brushes with death and survived. And if it's my time to go, it's my time and I'm ready.

MORE SURVIVORS FROM GRACE HEIGHTS

“Until you've gone through it or saw somebody go through it, you have no idea.”

“Other people my age in this community say it’s fake and that people are trying to make it seem way worse than it actually is. Working as a receptionist at Grace Heights, I saw how many people were dying and that made me take it more seriously.”

“I'm old enough to remember the polio epidemic. I must have been six or seven years old. We had it really bad in Caldwell County and I have relatives who are still paralyzed from it. I was very young, but I do remember schools being closed, which was a big thing.”

“Compared to MS, my COVID experience is nothing. I've had a cold that was worse. It was just an inconvenience.”

“For me, it is a mindset. This is what I'm doing and this is what I signed up for. So, I'm going to continue with it.”

“I had the symptoms, but I didn't have the battle.”

“I wasn't that sick. I just wasn't feeling the best.”

“We've seen a lot of death, more than what I expected. I know people die in this population, but it came so fast and furious. It wasn't what I was expected.”

“One night I laid down and I couldn't get up the next morning. I couldn’t move nothing.”

“There's a very low percentage of facilities that would accept COVID patients from the hospital. At a time like this, I feel like it's our duty as a healthcare provider to provide these people a safe place when others won't and we will continue to.”

Grace HeightsSenior

Administrator

Irma

Tiffany

Lola