Long hauler shares her ongoing seven month fight with COVID-19, hoping for more help | News
Lonnie Gee contracted COVID in June of 2021, and now, seven months later, she is still fighting with the virus everyday. The symptoms have never gone away, even though her test results are negative.
CHICO, Calif. – Tens of thousands of people across the country are still fighting with Coronavirus even after beating it, and health experts say there are probably millions of ‘long haulers’ around the world.
She has been suffering through COVID-19 symptoms for seven months now.
A study done by U.C. Davis shows one in four cases of COVID-19 could bring long term symptoms.
“I could say I was looking standing on the cliff and looking to hell, that’s what it felt like,” said Lonnie Gee.
She has been battling COVID-19, and it’s long term symptoms, for seven whole months now.
“I got COVID back in June last year, it just hit me all of a sudden, then I got so sick I had to call the ambulance and then I ended up in the ER,” she said.
She’s one of thousands of people who have won the war with COVID-19, but are struggling to win the battles, day in and day out.
“It got worse and worse and worse,” she said.
“The weakness is still there, the appetite is not all the way back yet. Battling to go back to work and to even go back out to life again. It’s a scary thing because I’m scared I might catch it again,” Gee said.
“They looked at 175 patients with COVID and followed them over a year,” said Dr. Jeanette Brown a Comprehensive COVID-19 Clinic Doctor at the University of Utah Health.
She is working with long haulers to see if they can tell who will have long term effects from COVID-19.
“They felt like it was about 75% effective at predicting who is going to have persistent symptoms,” said Brown.
But Gee feels, this isn’t enough.
“They need to do more things for the long haulers, there needs to be clinic for long haulers,” said Gee.
“When you think you’re just getting out of it, its slaps you right back down again.”
Gee says she was unvaccinated when she got sick, and is now looking into getting the shot and how her being a long hauler affects her.
Throughout the whole process of fighting the virus, she’s lost 30 pounds.
UC Davis is the closest post-COVID-19 clinic in our area.
If you would like to schedule an appointment, CLICK HERE.
