Until March 23 last year, Penny Parkin, a 69-year-old semi-retired social worker, was fit and strong and her only preexisting condition was an underactive thyroid.
Now, she says the fatigue she's been feeling for the past year after getting COVID-19 is akin to being "hit by a truck." Colette Luke has more.
COVID-19PENNY PARKIN: "You can't fight when you're really, really sick.
You don't have any will to fight." 69-year-old Penny Parkin has always been active and strong and her only preexisting condition was an underactive thyroid, which requires her to take one medication.
But all of that changed on March 23rd of last year when she believes she was exposed to the coronavirus.
Ever since, fatigue and other lingering symptoms have continued to haunt the semi-retired social worker, making her one of thousands of people worldwide known as a “long hauler”.
PENNY PARKIN: “It's like no other tiredness that I've ever felt.
But it's like you were hit by a truck… There are times when I had actually felt so tired driving... and I have felt like falling asleep at a traffic light.” Parkin believes she was exposed to the virus in Princeton, New Jersey, during a grocery shopping trip after she had rushed to put together a mask out of paper towels and rubber bands.
PENNY PARKIN: “I just remember I just felt like, I think I'm going to get it because there were so many people walking in front of you without wearing masks.
So sure enough, four days later in the afternoon, I started feeling a scratchy throat and I started to feel really tired and by the time I went to bed that night, I knew that I had a fever, which I never get." By the 10th day, she could barely breathe - and was hospitalized and diagnosed with viral pneumonia on top of COVID-19.
Parkin who lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania was bedridden for weeks, but by the middle of May, her pneumonia was finally gone but many lingering symptoms remained.
She tested positive for COVID-19 again and had antibodies in her system for seven months after her original exposure.
And she says the exhaustion still overcomes her to this day.
She also said exerting minimal physical effort can make her bedridden for days like after she helped her 85-year-old husband John shovel snow for 20 minutes after a major snowstorm last month.
PENNY PARKIN: “I was in bed for three days after that... So meaning like, zero energy, I can't do anything, can barely get out of bed and feel like a bus hit you.” Parkin - who received her first COVID-19 vaccine at the beginning of March – will be approaching one full year since she believes she caught the virus.
PENNY PARKIN: “So there is no rhyme or reason as to who gets terribly sick and who doesn't and also who gets long haul and who gets over it.... So I guess I'm just doing my little public service announcement, you know, 'Wear your effing mask' and, you know it's not over yet."
While many can't wait to get the vaccine, there are others who are unsure about it or simply don't want to get it.
