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Teacher describes year-and-a-half journey with long-haul COVID-19
By Rashas Williams, WYFF
Teacher describes year-and-a-half journey with long-haul COVID-19
RECOVERY. >> HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT? >> IT IS SO HARD TO NOT TO BE ABLE TO DO THE THINGS I USED TO. >> HER PATH TO RECOVERY ORVE THE PAST 15 MONTHS FROM COVID-19 HAS BEEN ANYTHING BUT EASY. >> I HAVE BNEE SEEN BY NEUROLOGIS ITSN ANDERSON, GREENVILLE, NEW JERSEY, NORTH CAROLINA, AND I’M WRITINTOG BE REFERRED FROM WAKE FOREST TO DUKE TO BEEE SN. >> AND EMORY. KELLY IS A SINGLE MOM, TEACHER AND WORKED TWO JOBSUT B GAINED A NEW TITLE -- AND THAT IS COVID LONG-HAULER OR SOMEONE WHO STILL EXPERIENCES SYMPTOMS WELL AFTER 12 WEEKS. HOWEVER, AS TEIM PROGRESSED, SO DID HER LIST OF ILLNESSES. >> I HAVE SATAX,IA TREMORS WHEN WALK, MIGRAINE HEADACHES CONSTANTLY. A CSFEA LK FROM A SPINAL TAP. I HAVE GASTROPARESIS, WHICH HAS TO DO WITH YOUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEM SLOWING DOWN. I HEAV CONSTANT NAUSEA AND FARMG.IN I ALSAMO DIABETIC. >> YOU CAN THROW IN A LACK OF TASTE AND NUMBNESS AND SENSITIVITY TO ALL LIGHT, WHICH IS WHY SHE IS WEARING TWO GLASSES. WITH NO PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS BEFORE GETTING COVID9,-1 SHE’S SPENT MORE THAN 20 DAYS IN THE HOSPITAL BED, BUT ONE OF OUR WERE SYSTEM COST OR TO WALK AGAIN. >> THIS IS WHEN MY TREMORS WERE THE WORST. I LOOK LIKE I AM FLAPPING LIKE A BIRDNC D CAN HARDLY STDAN UP. ANYTIME I WALKED ANYWHERE I HAD TO USE A WHEELCHAIR OR MY WALKER DAN SOMEBODY HAD TO HOLD MY HAND SO I DID NOT FALL. >> YOU SEEM TO BE A GOOD SPIR'I’S. WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE TO YOU NOW A YEAR LATER? >> I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M STILL NOT WHERE I NEED TO BE. >> ONE YEAR LATER, KELLY IS ABLE TO WALK AGAIN WITH MINOR TREMORS. COVID LONG HAUL AS A PHYSICAL AND MENTAL BATTLE SHE WILL NOT LOSE WHILE SHE CONTINUES TO SEARCH FOR A DOCTOR WITH A CURE. >> YOU WOULD TRAVEL 1000 MILES IF YOU HAD TO. >> I WOULD GE IVMY NEXT BORN CHILD WHATEVER WE HAVE TO DO TO GET WHERE WE KNOW TO G
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Teacher describes year-and-a-half journey with long-haul COVID-19
By Rashas Williams, WYFF
It's been nearly a year-and-a-half since Kelly Jerolamon tested positive for COVID-19.As time progressed, she experienced close to a month of hospitalizations and began to realize that the virus was starting to create additional issues.“I have sensory ataxia, so that’s tremors when I walk," Jerolamon said. "A migraine headache constantly. A CSF leak from a spinal tap. I have gastroparesis which has to do with your digestive system slowing down, so I have constant nausea and vomiting. I’m also diabetic from the COVID.”Out of the last 15 months, Jerolamon was bedridden for 10 of them.“I stayed at home for about 10 months and when I was able to go back to work, I work then I’m in the bed in the darkness pretty much until the next day,” Jerolamon said.As her conditions worsened, she lost the ability to walk on her own. The search for medical care ramped up as her ability to walk slowly returned as weeks went by, but she was constantly told her conditions were so rare that no one could or knew how to treat them.The video below shows Jerolamon's limited capability to walk in May 2021.Jerolamon's said in the video," this is when my tremors were the worst. They call this sensory ataxia. I look like I’m flapping like a bird and can hardly stand up so anytime I walk anywhere I had to use a wheelchair or walker and somebody had to hold my hand so I didn’t fall."“I’ve been seen by neurologists in Anderson, Greenville, New Jersey, North Carolina," Jerolamon said. "I’m getting ready to be referred from Wake Forest by Duke University to be seen by a different neurologist. I've also been to Emory's long haul COVID clinic and they couldn't help me."Jerolamon has experienced a list of other symptoms over time like lack of taste and extreme sensitivity a light, including sunlight and light from electronics. She had to wear two pairs of glasses while speaking with a reporter, due to her extreme sensitivity to light.“We figured out that I had meningitis," Jerolamon said. "From then on I’d had a 10-out-of-10 headache with light sensitivity and nausea. It feels like lightning is being struck down my limbs. I have numbness in my feet and hands, and I walk with some intense shaking that has improved.”Jerolamon said at this point, she's willing to travel as far as she needs to, to find a doctor that can cure her multitude of conditions. She said she will remain in good spirits knowing the progress she's made in a year toward recovery, but won't stop until she's back to the life had before her COVID-19 diagnosis.
ANDERSON, S.C. —

It's been nearly a year-and-a-half since Kelly Jerolamon tested positive for COVID-19.

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As time progressed, she experienced close to a month of hospitalizations and began to realize that the virus was starting to create additional issues.

“I have sensory ataxia, so that’s tremors when I walk," Jerolamon said. "A migraine headache constantly. A CSF leak from a spinal tap. I have gastroparesis which has to do with your digestive system slowing down, so I have constant nausea and vomiting. I’m also diabetic from the COVID.”

Out of the last 15 months, Jerolamon was bedridden for 10 of them.

“I stayed at home for about 10 months and when I was able to go back to work, I work then I’m in the bed in the darkness pretty much until the next day,” Jerolamon said.

As her conditions worsened, she lost the ability to walk on her own. The search for medical care ramped up as her ability to walk slowly returned as weeks went by, but she was constantly told her conditions were so rare that no one could or knew how to treat them.

The video below shows Jerolamon's limited capability to walk in May 2021.

Jerolamon's said in the video," this is when my tremors were the worst. They call this sensory ataxia. I look like I’m flapping like a bird and can hardly stand up so anytime I walk anywhere I had to use a wheelchair or walker and somebody had to hold my hand so I didn’t fall."

“I’ve been seen by neurologists in Anderson, Greenville, New Jersey, North Carolina," Jerolamon said. "I’m getting ready to be referred from Wake Forest by Duke University to be seen by a different neurologist. I've also been to Emory's long haul COVID clinic and they couldn't help me."

Jerolamon has experienced a list of other symptoms over time like lack of taste and extreme sensitivity a light, including sunlight and light from electronics. She had to wear two pairs of glasses while speaking with reporter, due to her extreme sensitivity to light.

“We figured out that I had meningitis," Jerolamon said. "From then on I’d had a 10-out-of-10 headache with light sensitivity and nausea. It feels like lightning is being struck down my limbs. I have numbness in my feet and hands, and I walk with some intense shaking that has improved.”

Jerolamon said at this point, she's willing to travel as far as she needs to, to find a doctor that can cure her multitude of conditions. She said she will remain in good spirits knowing the progress she's made in a year toward recovery, but won't stop until she's back to the life had before her COVID-19 diagnosis.