Nome resident tells of personal experience with COVID-19

When Anne Marie Ozenna, 49, flew back to Nome from a visit to Anchorage in August, she felt fine. As far as she knew, she hadn’t been in touch with any positive COVID19 patients, and she had no reason to believe she might have contracted the virus.

Still, she followed the City of Nome’s travel mandate and got tested at the airport when she arrived. She went home for her seven days of mandatory quarantine. Her first test came back negative, and seven days went by without any sign of illness.

Right around the end of her quarantine, though, she started to feel sick. She tested again seven days after she arrived and soon learned that had joined the now 92 people in or from the Bering Strait/Norton Sound region to test positive for COVID-19.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it, or I thought I was safe,” she said. “But it came.”

Not long after the positive test came back, Ozenna started to feel the breadth of symptoms. “I had the shallow breathing, bad headaches, fatigue, no appetite, I couldn’t taste my food, smell my food,” she said.

The worst, though, was the breathing. Ozenna said she had never felt anything like it before in her life. “It’s like you have the flu but it’s heavy on your chest,” she said. Her breathing troubles came seemingly at random, feeling totally fine one moment and then struggling to get air the next.

“‘Is this it? Am I going to get worse? What’s going to happen?’ Those are the questions that go through your head,” she said. “It got me thinking ‘Geez, I better get me will done.’”

Even worse, people close to her began testing positive as well. Her 17-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son whom she lives with both got the virus and isolated with her, although they thankfully only experienced a very mild illness.

Some of her grandchildren, who stopped by to visit before Ozenna knew she was infected, also contracted the virus.

Fearing that she had inadvertently spread the virus to her family was one of the worst parts of the ordeal. “It was scary. I cried never knowing how sick they’re going to get and hearing all the stories of how bad COVID is,” she said. The fear and uncertainty were a lot to handle, and had effects on Ozenna’s mental health as well. “I went to the hospital for a couple days because I got anxiety from it,” she said. “It freaked me out and I was scared.”

There are still no widely used treatments for the virus, so all Ozenna could really do was rest at home and hope to get better. “Mucinex helped, Tylenol helped, and lots of water. I really drank lots of water,” she said. “Family members gave me stinkweed juice,” a traditional Iñupiaq cold remedy.

To support her during her isolation, Ozenna’s children would come by and drop off medicine and food outside Ozenna’s front door, which she would retrieve once they were safely gone.

She also got four weeks’ worth of food from Norton Sound Health Corporation, which also called regularly to check up on her. “They call you every day, and they make sure you’re okay,” she said. “The hospital was very supportive.”

Eventually, a little more than a week after her symptoms first appeared, the fatigue and headaches started to dissipate. Two weeks later, she was no longer infectious and was deemed fully recovered.

Still, though, shadows of the sickness stay with her, even months after her positive test. She still gets periodic bouts of coughing and breathing trouble that feel like aftereffects of COVID. “My symptoms, they come and go,” she said. “Like that little breathing on my chest, the

with helping him, giving him advice, and talking with him regularly over the phone as he makes it through his isolation.

To those still dubious of how serious the virus actually is, she hoped her story would serve as a cautionary tale, and emphasized the importance of mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing, quarantining after travel, and all the mitigation techniques that have now become household knowledge.

“Even my worst enemy, I don’t wish it upon them,” she said. “Be careful, it’s not a thing to play with. It’s scary.” stigma has extended far beyond the infectious period of the virus itself.

Ozenna works for NSHC, and said people started treating her differently since she came back to work. “I get little looks here and there, or little comments, or jokes,” she said. “They just look at you differently. They look at you longer!”

But Ozenna said she’s not letting what other people think get to her. She’s just focusing on her own health and the health of her family as the deadly pandemic rages on.

Recently she learned that her son, who lives and works in Fairbanks, had tested positive. She’s been occupied funny breathing. It comes and goes.”

Scientists still don’t know much about the long-term effects of COVID-19, with some patients showing lasting medical problems long after the initial infection.

Ozenna said she’s doing her best to stay positive and healthy.

“I’m learning new techniques, cleaning up more, or going for a drive, or calling a friend,” she said. “I keep busy, cool off, open the door, get fresh air. Basic stuff.”

She also said that she’s experienced stigma since word got out that she had tested positive, and that