It’s been a little more than a year since Kirsten Colantino first felt a tickle in the back of her throat.
That tickle turned out to be Colantino’s first symptom of COVID-19, and over the next 80 to 90 days (the exact number got lost in what seemed like a never-ending fight, she said), the 54-year-old Dublin mother had moments where she wasn’t sure what the future would hold.
“I didn’t know if I was going to live or die,” she said. “I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t get out of bed.”
Colantino’s oxygen levels dipped to 90, but at no point did she need to be hospitalized – although it was a thought that popped in her mind many times. When she was tested for COVID-19, it came back negative but was well after symptoms first came about. The antibody test was also negative, but all of her doctors are 100 percent positive she had coronavirus – regardless of what the tests said. There’s no other logical way to explain what she went through.
The first symptom came on as she was returning from a road trip visiting colleges in Georgia and Florida with her daughter Florence in the middle of March last year. It was just that tickle and upon returning to Dublin, Colantino did what she had on so many days up to that point, she went for a run.
But the next day, “I woke up completely and utterly lifeless,” she said during an interview with the Ledger-Transcript in April 2020. “It was like being hit by a freight train.” That was the beginning of an ordeal that continues to this day.
“I’m still not 100 percent and I don’t know if that will ever be the case,” Colantino said.
Colantino is part of a group known as coronavirus long-haulers, where symptoms persist in terms of months rather than in weeks and days. The initial infection and ongoing symptoms lasted somewhere in the neighborhood of three months. For the first 70-plus days, it was Florence who took care of Colantino, often too weak to do anything for herself, and quickly shifted into the caretaker role of the home they share.
“78 days, that’s how long she took care of me,” she said.
Following those first two to three months, Colantino began to feel more like herself, although there were some issues that lasted much longer. She had a sore throat for about 200 days and to this day, Colantino said she suffers from COVID brain, which she describes as a fog, fatigue, dizziness and some breathing issues. There are instances of heart palpitations and “I still sometimes get my COVID voice,” she said, which is super deep and raspy.
But not only did she have coronavirus itself, she developed COVID pneumonia and mono.
“I had the trifecta,” Colantino said last week. The infection damaged her heart, causing inflammation on the left side, which didn’t heal itself till November. And that’s where she feels the real turning point came.
“If you haven’t gotten (COVID-19), you really don’t get it,” she said.
The fact that others out there have gone through the same issues puts her at ease, but leaves lingering questions.
“A, I’m not crazy and B, none of my doctors can give any answers as to why, how long or when I’m going to be better,” Colantino said. Since she is among the first group of long-haulers, there isn’t any research out there to know what it means for the future.
A visit to the cardiologist in the fall reaffirmed that her road ahead will continue. “He said you’re a long way from home,” she said.
Despite the struggles that persist, Colantino doesn’t let the lingering effects get in her way of living.
“I never looked at it as the glass half empty. I always looked at the glass half full,” she said. “Throughout the whole year, I’ve always maintained hope.”
Since she started feeling better, Colantino has been running five miles a day – although some days it feels like she’s running for the first time – playing paddle (a game that combines elements of tennis, squash and badminton) three to four days a week, along with tennis, kayaking, biking and hiking “every mountain I can find.” When Colantino was discussing her bout with coronavirus back in April, her goal was to hike Mount Monadnock by July 4. That first trip up the mountain happened a few days after the Fourth with Florence by her side, but the point on the calendar didn’t mean as much as actually climbing the 3,165 feet in elevation.
“I got to the top and we hugged and cried, and I thought if I could do that, I could do anything,” Colantino said.
And she’s bound and determined to keep herself active and one day, hopefully, she’ll feel fully back the way she did before last March.
“I just want to be living and be out there doing whatever I can,” she said. “The hope makes me stronger.”
When she does go out, Colantino still wears two masks because she’s scared of catching it again, especially with the looming presence of the COVID-19 variant.
“It still infuriates me when people don’t wear masks or are nonchalant about safety,” she said.
She received her first COVID-19 vaccine shot and will get her second one soon, as she fit into Phase 1B because of her status as a long-hauler. Colantino went back to work from home after nine weeks, admitting she was going crazy mentally without the distraction. She started slowly, working part-time from bed and eventually returning to her full duties.
Colantino is so incredibly grateful for the support she and Florence received, from the words of encouragement to the meal train that kept food showing up at her doorstep.
“The appreciation, the gratitude, it’s hard to put into words,” she said.
Colantino said it sounds weird, but it was the best year of her life.
“I see things through a different lens now because I’m so grateful to the alive,” she said. “It changed my life. It changed my life forever.”