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.
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.
