PHOTOGRAPHED BY MORGANA WINGARD

QUEENS, NEW YORK - July 23, 2020: I first heard about COVID in January when it was in China, and was actually planning a trip there in June, but I never thought it would be as serious as it is today and I certainly didn’t think I would get it. I still thought I could go to China!

I was traveling a lot for work. I had been on a dozen flights in addition to Amtrak and the subway. I went out to shows, concerts and had dinners and brunches with friends. The week before I started to feel ill I was at an industry event with a couple of CNN anchors in attendance who later tested positive. So I could have caught it at any number of places. 

I first noticed something was wrong when I was on the train coming back from Philly on March 11th. It was a nice day, but I was freezing. When I arrived at home I took my temperature and sure enough I had a 101 degree fever. It lasted only a day and then came back even higher 3 days later.  The next morning, at the urging of my boyfriend, I went to Urgent Care to get a COVID test. It took five days to get the results. I was sure it wasn’t the flu or like anything I’d ever experienced before but the test came back negative. 

Over the next several weeks I continued to feel extremely fatigued so much so that I would sometimes nap in-between work calls. I’d set my alarm to wake up in time for the next call. There were days I must have slept for 18 hours. I also experienced excruciating headaches, tingling sensations, burning in my legs and feet, nausea without warning, and later, insomnia.

My boyfriend helped me through it. He would come over every day and check on me. He’d sleep upstairs and I’d sleep on the couch. But he made sure I ate and did all the grocery shopping.

My children were worried about seeing me on Mother’s Day so I didn’t get to see them (they did send presents) so as my consolation prize I wanted to go get the antibody test. My boyfriend and I went down to the Urgent Care and both got tested. We were sure he had been exposed because he was around me the whole time I was sick, and is a dentist who performed emergency dental work throughout the whole pandemic. The next day we got our test results. His came back negative so he was upset. Mine came back positive so I was happy. It felt like confirmation that I wasn’t crazy — I did have COVID. My first thought was, “I want to give my plasma.” 

Four months later I still have lingering symptoms. I still have trouble sleeping and I continue to have the burning in my feet. I have developed intense pain in my back, hip and knee.  This is in areas I have had problems with before. But, the pain wakes me up now!  It never did before.

The worrying thing is I don’t know how long these symptoms will last and wonder if new ones will show up. We had to revise my thyroid medication, something that has been consistent for years. And I am very focused on my iron levels, so I can give plasma as much as I can.

I’m not the typical case. I had tested negative and I had so many unexplained symptoms but I had antibodies. 

I tell people COVID is not black and white. There are 50 shades of COVID. 

If COVID is a hoax, then I’m a hoax. I’m proof that COVID is real.