While the virus may not be life-threatening for all those who contract the virus, it can change lives.
Summer Maxwell said she contracted COVID-19 in July. She reported constant dizziness and loss of taste and smell.
“The initial feeling was shocking, devastating,” she said. “I constantly ate food, I constantly drank things that normally tasted strong. I couldn’t drink anything. I couldn’t smell anything. Nothing.”
Five months later, the 27-year-old Chicago girl said she still felt the impact of the virus.
She said her smell finally returned, but so did the dizziness. When you drink alcohol, your taste buds disappear again.
“It’s nothing like that. Feeling completely normal and then being almost absent from your body is exactly how it feels,” she said.
Jhary Bornip said he is experiencing respiratory challenges and difficulty breathing due to the virus and has also lost his sense of taste and smell.
The 32-year-old said she saw a specialist in her ears, nose and neck.
She said the road to recovery of the senses was expensive.
“Now I’m doing a treatment that’s not covered by insurance, so it’s expensive,” she said.
The ladies are members of a group that no one wants to belong to: “long-haulters”, who have side effects of COVID-19 long after they have contracted it.
“Younger adults often do not get COVID at first, but young adults, like others, may be susceptible to long-lasting, persistent, or so-called long-distance COVID symptoms,” said Dr. Deborah Burnet, chief of General Internal Medicine, University of Chicago.
Burnet said symptoms can range from fatigue to shortness of breath, coughing, joint pain, brain fog and loss of taste and smell.
“You can’t predict what symptoms an individual will have. Some people face headaches, sleep problems. So it’s not something to throw away. Oh, I can handle not smelling. No one knows how it will affect them.” she said.
Chicago R&B singer Jeremih recently shared his battle with the virus after weeks in the hospital fighting for his life.
LINKED: Jeremih shares details about the fight for life against the new COVID-19 album with Chance The Rapper
At 33, he considered himself very healthy.
“I was thin. I went in there with a weight probably 220 and I went to 175. I’m like I’m damn close to my skin and bones,” he said. “I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what I went through,” he said.
Bornip and Maxwell said they were grateful to know that things might seem much worse to them, but they couldn’t help but want their lives back to normal.
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