COVID-19’s Lingering Effects

A Michigan woman who was healthy before contracting COVID-19 has been battling symptoms, including seizures and hallucinations, for months. WDIV's Devin Scillian reports.

(WDIV/NBC News)  — A Michigan woman who was healthy before contracting COVID-19 says she’s been battling symptoms, including seizures and hallucinations, for more than 130 days.

While many people point to the overall survival rates of COVID-19 in younger people, Joleen Nelson said those numbers don’t tell the full story of what it’s like to battle the virus.

“You don’t know how it’s going to affect you or someone else,” Nelson says. “You just don’t know.”

Nelson, 41, says she started feeling sick March 27 and thought she was getting a cold.

“I was healthy,” Nelson says. “I was completely fine.”

The week prior, she had lost her sense of smell and taste, but back then, those weren’t recognized as official COVID-19 symptoms.

Nelson says she has meticulously documented her symptoms for months. The total number of symptoms is more than 50.

“It’s been pretty severe,” Nelson says. “There’s been two times my boyfriend had to call 9-1-1. The most frightening have been I’m now having seizures from COVID-19. Also, hallucinating. I have brain fog. I have electrical shock running through my body. It feels like an electrical centipede. Shortness of breath, tachycardia, high heart rate.”

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