Louisville woman still struggling with COVID-19 months after contracting it

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Lisa Lozano says she got COVID-19 in February and months later - she is still sick. Now the Louisville woman is trying to educate others on how serious the virus is.

In an interview on March 20, Lozano, 48, talked to us about her COVID-19 diagnosis thinking she'd be better by now. "It's debilitating and it's really scary," she told us then.

Now, three months later, we talked to Lozano again. "I've been suffering for 119 days," she said.

While Lozano is getting stronger each day, she says she still has symptoms. She's one of what some call the COVID-19 "long haulers" -- people sick from COVID for several weeks and months.

"There are about 60,000 of us on my Facebook survivor page," Lozano said. We're trying to get the word out that this thing is not going away in two weeks like everybody is saying or everybody is thinking."

She says COVID-19 survivors in her group include people who are athletes, in excellent health. The hair salon owner thinks she contracted the virus when she went to the Omni Hotel for dinner in February. Unable to work, she spends much of her day resting, trying to get better.

"I'm basically bedridden, Lozano said. "You can't get up and do much because your heart rate spikes. You are tired constantly. You can't get enough sleep."

While her husband hasn't gotten sick, she says her dog has now been sick for weeks too and has gone to the vet several times.

Lozano says she and some of the other "long haulers" only had fevers at the beginning of the virus. She says, "Blood pressure will spike when you are just sitting still....

"We all have trouble breathing. Sometimes oxygen will be 100 percent, but you still have trouble breathing, headaches. A few days ago, I just got diagnosed with Chemosis of the eyes in both eyes. It's where the inflammation is behind the jelly part of your eye."

She says she hasn't had tennis elbow for years and the virus recently flared up her tennis elbow too.

She wants people to wear masks and says don't let up on taking precautions.

"This is very real. It's not leaving and can affect anybody."