About 11 years ago, I was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy. As a result, I have numbness in my feet, calves, and hands, which gets worse at night.

Until I was infected with the coronavirus in March, my peripheral neuropathy was more annoying than painful. After I got sick, it went into overdrive. I had much more pain in my hands and feet, and my balance was affected. My COVID-19 symptoms were exhaustion, chest pain, diarrhea, terrible headaches, and loss of smell.

During the second day of symptoms, including chest pain, I went to the emergency department at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center to make sure I wasn't infected with COVID-19 or having a heart attack. Over five hours, I had a cardiogram, a cardiac enzyme test, and a COVID-19 nasopharyngeal swab. Even though my test came back negative, four doctors said I had the coronavirus, calling my result a false negative. Then a week later, my neuropathy got much worse, and I went back to the hospital and was there for eight hours. Doctors were concerned about inflammation of my nervous system, and they increased the dosage of my neuropathy medication. I also had a blood test for COVID-19, but again it came back negative. One doctor said that they have no idea how the coronavirus works—that it's going to take 10 years to understand all its effects.

The emergency department experience was strange. My family dropped me off and couldn't come in. I didn't know if I would see them again. I was alone in a room. I was petrified. I had no idea what the doctors were going to find and could only remember the scary stories about how the virus affects the body and how fast it can change. I was lucky that I didn't have any lung issues and didn't have to be on a ventilator. Between the pounding headache, exhaustion, diarrhea, lack of appetite, and no sense of smell, I felt like I was going crazy.

Once my symptoms subsided and I was released from the emergency department, I remained in quarantine for 20 days. The only people I saw were my doctors via telemedicine. My wife and sons would leave food outside the guest bedroom and knock. I was too exhausted to do anything. If I worked an hour a day, that was a lot (I'm an executive for a company that makes radioisotopes for PET scans and a board member of the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy). I watched television shows twice because I would fall asleep in the middle of them. If I walked to the bathroom, I'd have to take a nap afterward.

I am better now but still easily fatigued. And my peripheral neuropathy is much worse. I had to increase my medications substantially—I take about five pills a day—but I'm working with my doctor to reduce the number again. I've slowly started exercising more, doing Pilates at home two or three days a week. By 8:30 p.m., I'm ready for bed, which is when the numbness and pins-and-needles sensations happen more frequently. My bout with COVID-19 is not finished by any means, but it's been wonderful to be home with my wife and sons.

We were a true family unit before I got infected, and this experience has only strengthened it. - As told to James K. Williamson