Sue Poncin, Tinley Park, Illinois, USA

The hardest thing was when I found myself not being able to carry on conversations because speaking was too exhausting. I was short of breath trying to talk and couldn’t answer the most basic questions, like my husband asking “How many pizzas should I order?”I can now maintain a conversation with few pauses for word retrieval or thought processing.

I will never forget was putting on my gym shoes (sneakers) to walk around my neighborhood on April 27th. Prior to that, I would look at my shoes and be to exhausted to even think about trying to get them on and tie them so I was wearing flip-flops or slip-on shoes. Plus I was only going up and down my block so they weren’t needed. I knew I was on my way to recovery when I made it to the beach at the end of August in Indiana for my brother-in-laws birthday celebration. I missed most of the summer activities with my family and this was the first time I was able to enjoy getting away. It’s only 45 min from where we live in Illinois and I needed a lot of assistance to get there but we did it!

Sue shares more of her long Covid recovery story on her Facebook page.