Surviving COVID-19 with Terrica Parks

28-year-old, mother and entrepreneur, Terrica Parks of Albany, Georgia discusses her journey with COVID19, her battle to survive and her hope for the future.

Transcript below is from a conversation recorded on 4/11/2020.

Please excuse any typos. Link to listen to the recording of this transcript here

Terrica: I was looking through a lot of old photos of myself and my husband and my kids, you know, just trying to relive the moments because I thought this was going to be my last day alive.

Taylor Camille: Beyond our Cells is a podcast where I Taylor Camille share stories by those living a life fully and beyond any stigma or perceived limitations a health condition may have on their day to day lives.

For season one of this series, we are highlighting women of color and more often black women whose health needs are frequently looked over and stories seldom shared.

Today, we are speaking with Terrica Parks of Albany, Georgia. She is a mother, entrepreneur, and at 28 years old, a COVID 19 survivor. At the end of March, 2020 Albany’s death rate rivaled major cities like New York hitting 32.9 deaths per a hundred thousand people, 67% higher than what New York was seeing at that time.

With recent news from Georgia’s governor Brian Kemp calling for the state of Georgia to reopen on April 24th, 2020 this conversation Terica and I shared could not be more pertinent.

Here’s Terrica.

Terrica: I’m 28. I actually just turned 28. December 11. I live right here in a small city called Albany, Georgia. which many people didn’t know much about until this pandemic outbreak. Prior to contracting the coronavirus, I was already suffering from, asthma as well as bronchitis. So those were my only two, health issues, as you know, pretty much my breathing and with my lungs.

Taylor Camille:] Yeah. And so, Albany, Georgia has really been kind of on the map because of this pandemic. Could you describe the community in Albany and what it’s like to live there?

Terrica: You know, a lot of times when you mentioned Albany, you will have to follow with, Oh, well, it’s not too far from Atlanta. Well, it’s actually three hours from Atlanta. And Albany, the community here, pretty much there is really nothing to do. I feel as if it’s a retirement city. A lot of people tend to move away from Albany. including myself. I didn’t move away and I just moved back here last year for a job opportunity. But, there’s really not, unless you’re like in a management position or in a healthcare field or, you know, in law enforcement, there’s really not many job opportunities here as well.

Taylor Camille: Yeah. So what do you do for work?

]Terrica: Right now I am a salaried manager for Walmart as well as I know I do a lot of different things. So I’m also a PRN for Phoebe Putney Memorial hospital, and I’m an entrepreneur as well. I have my own business called Blessed Touch. So what I do with my Blessed Touch business, I do all things custom. So anything from t-shirts to mugs, tumblers, car decals, whatever you need, customized, I can pretty much do it. And as well as I do, natural stone jewelry and, Apple watch bands as well.

Taylor Camille: Wow, I have to check you out. that’s so exciting. I know Albany, a lot of things that I’ve read, it says, you know, yeah, it’s not far from Atlanta, but it’s a small town. Like everybody knows everybody in this community. But, have you seen the stories about what, like what they think the spread might’ve been in Albany?

Terrica: Yes, I did see those stories. say that it pretty much spread at, two different funerals. And that to me seems to be true. I didn’t actually attend the funeral. I think the funeral was, was on a Saturday, but the church that held the funeral, is where I attended on a Tuesday, and that’s where I contracted the virus.

Taylor Camille: Oh my God. So thinking about that, what does the timeline kind of look like for you? So you kind of can pinpoint like that Tuesday I went to church, but yeah, talk me through what the timeline of this looks like to you.

Terrica: Well, like I said, I was at the church on the 10th because I also do music as well, so I had to do a, a performance for the youth group it was on a Tuesday the 10th, and then I noticed that I started to feel very sick on the 14th. So within four days I knew that something had to be terribly wrong, which was pretty fast, I think. I started having different symptoms.

So right away I noticed that, at first I thought it was just a stomach bug because I couldn’t keep any of my food down. I didn’t have an appetite anymore, you know, just very nauseated. But like, like I said, everything happened so fast because that morning, you know, I was very nauseated, couldn’t keep anything down, didn’t have appetite. But then later that afternoon, I began to vomit. And not only was I just vomiting, but I began to vomit blood, which was very alarming to me.

So I reached out to a family member of mine to tell them what was going on. And they knew that I had been to that church, which is not my, you know, normal church. I was a visitor there, but they knew someone that attended that church. And then they had that particular person to call me on three-way. And the member of that church encouraged me, you know, to go ahead and get tested. And she informed me that some others were in that church that same night that I was there and they tested positive for it. So when I got off the phone with her, that’s when I went to the ER for my symptoms. And I did tell them that, Hey, I was at the church and I feel like I may have contracted the virus.

Taylor Camille: Wow. So then they tested you once you went to emergency room?

Terrica: Yeah, they tested me. and then they just told me to, you know, self-isolate myself for 14 days and kind of wait on my test results to come back. So they didn’t send me home with any medication or anything. Just the instructions to self-isolate

Taylor Camille: And how do you do that? I mean, you have how many kids and are you married? And like how are you supposed to self-isolate?

Terrica: Exactly. So I have two kids. My daughter, Harmony, she’s eight. My son Ethan, he’s four as well as my husband. And I also have custody of my brother. So I mean, luckily we had an extra room that I self-isolated myself in and I kind of stayed there. I kept a face mask on, you know, when I had to call for anything. And you know, my husband, he kept everything, you know, Lysol, Clorox, disinfectant, you know, kept everything wiped down.

Taylor Camille: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I’m just so happy that none of them contracted anything.

Terrica: Yes, yes, definitely. That was my, that was my, uh, that was my biggest fear.

Taylor Camille:] Yeah. So what did it feel like? How would you describe this disease? And then how was it described to you once they, let you know that you were positive.

Terrica: Well, I did have the flu before, so I can definitely compare the two. And I would definitely say, this is nothing like the flu. It was, way worse than the flu. The pain, was very, very, very excruciating pain. But the worst part of it all was the fact that, okay, I already have asthma now. This virus is pretty much taken over my lungs so I could not breathe.

I could not get up and walk. I would get up and walk, and then they ended up testing me when I went back. to the hospital, they put me on a monitor and they had me to walk around and they noticed when I just took two or three steps, my oxygen level would go from, I’m 99% all the way down to 60%.

So that’s the reason why they admitted me into the hospital. So I would say the, you know, the main thing out of all of it was not being able to just breathe. Like that was terrible. I almost felt like I, as if I was drowning underwater, trying to catch my breath.

Taylor Camille: Oh my goodness. And so how did the nurses kind of like talk you through what to expect or talk you through your symptoms? Were you able to communicate that that’s what you were feeling to them?.

Terrica: Well, I was able to communicate, to them, you know, what I was feeling what was going on. But, I also feel that, around the time when I contracted the virus, you know, to them this is something new as well. And, they didn’t have a cure for it, so they were, were pretty much just trying to go with, you know, what people with the virus was telling them.

They, I don’t feel like they have much knowledge on exactly you know, how can we treat this besides, they gave me, antibiotics as well as breathing treatments, but it kind of felt more like a learning moment on both sides of the, of the field. Like I’m telling you all what’s wrong and you’re all trying to, you’re taking notes what I’m telling you, and trying to use that to better not only my treatment, but treatment for others as well.

[Taylor Camille: Yeah. Cause you were one of the early cases. Yeah.

Terrica: I was, yes. Yeah.

Taylor Camille: Wow. Wow. Woo girl. I don’t know how you did it.

Terrica: Yeah at one point, I actually thought I was not going to make it out of it like I was, cause it was almost as if my, I could, I was fighting, but I could feel my body fighting through it. like even I was, I was afraid to go to sleep at night because I noticed when I did go to sleep, I could feel my chest, like it would literally jump on its own.

Like it was trying to. I can’t, I can’t even explain. Like it was trying to keep me alive, like it was jumping on his own. Like it was scary. So I told my husband, I like, please come in here and check on me periodically. And this was before I even went to the ER. I told him, just check on me to make sure I’m still breathing.

Taylor Camille: Oh my gosh. When you were at home isolating. Wow. Wow.. So then, I mean, what would you say was like your hardest moment?

Terrica: My hardest moment of course when I was in the, I was admitted into the hospital, I couldn’t have any visitors, but I wouldn’t say that that was my hardest moment because, you know, I could still go on and FaceTime and see the kids and my husband. So my hardest moment would have to be, the day that I, that I got admitted into the hospital, which was on a Friday, and this particular day is when I just felt like I didn’t have any more fight in me.

So I texted my husband and I was like, I can’t fight anymore. I give up. I don’t have any more fight in me. And, you know, I was looking through a lot of old photos of myself and my husband and my kids, you know, just trying to relive the moments because I thought this was going to be my last day alive.

So he came in and then he took me to the ER. So when I got to the ER, I sat in the waiting room just for a little while, and then they began to triage me. And so it was alarming to them because when they checked my temperature, it was 105, and my heart rate was at 155 beats per minute. And so the guy, the nurse was in shock, so he called over the walkie talke that he had and said, we have a code sepsis. So when he said that three other people ran out of the back, they rushed me to the back room. So I literally had four people in the room with me. One lady was putting the IV in one arm. The other lady was putting the IV in another arm. They were saying that I had gotten there just in time before my major organs began to shut down.

So even though at that moment. It’s like they were saying all of this stuff and they was doing all of this stuff, but I was so numb to what was going on because I had already experienced so much pain. I had already went through so much, you know, just trying to fight it myself. And so when they were telling me this, it’s like I was processing it, but I wasn’t.

I literally told the nurse, I said, do whatever you have to do. Just don’t let me die.

Cause she was like, okay, I’m getting ready to stick this needle and your arm is going to hurt. I said, you stick whatever. I’m not going to feel it. I said, I’m numb to all pain at this point. I said, just do whatever you all have to do.

Just please don’t let me die. Those were my exact words to the nurse. So that, that I feel like was the hardest moment because I was like, they said, if I would have waited any longer, they don’t feel like I would’ve made it, you know, which I felt like before I even went to the ER, that, you know, I wasn’t gonna make it through the night. So they felt like if I didn’t come in the ER when I did that, I probably would have went to sleep that night and not woke up the next morning.

Taylor Camille: Yeah.

Terrica: Yeah. Which was, like I said, it was very alarming, very scary, and I feel like that point was my hardest, hardest moment of all of it.

Taylor Camille: And even as a mother, you kind of, I think you might have, in one interview related it to like child birthing and just like the, the pain.

Terrica: Yes, I, I was literally in the middle of my bed because I had Tylenol three, for the pain. So I was in the middle and I took the Tylenol three but nothing I took was helping. And I noticed they said not to take ibuprofen, even though I had some, I, you know, I didn’t want to risk it, so I didn’t take that at all.

But I was literally in the middle of the bed, in a fetal position because the pain it radiated from, my stomach to my back and it felt like labor contractions and nothing I did would make the pain go away. Like I was literally just in the bed just screaming. My husband came, he was trying to rub my back, you know, just to try to comfort me.

But, that was some excruciating pain. And you know, I did give birth to two kids, but I didn’t do a natural birth. I had some, you know, some medications to aid in that. So to me it felt like I was given labor without any medication, just pretty much going through the process.

Taylor Camille: Oh my gosh. So how, how has your recovery been? Have you been able to hold your children again?

Terrica: Yes, I actually was able to hug my kids on the 29th to be exact. So my recovery has been, well, the only issue that I’m dealing with now, I still experience headaches and some dizziness as well as short term memory loss. I don’t know if it comes from the medication that I was on. I’m not really sure.

Hopefully that will pass away soon. Now I do have a cough. But I, I kinda had a small call before I even contracted a virus due to me having asthma. And you know, around this time of year, you get worse because of the pollen. So I’m not really concerned about the cough, but just the, short term memory loss concerns me.

Taylor Camille: yeah. do you like, you don’t remember things from the day or, things that happened before?

Terrica: Well, it kind of varies because, one day I asked my husband, I was like, did I eat today? He was like, yeah, you ate. I was like, what did I eat? Because I don’t remember eating and I don’t, I didn’t remember what I had ate. sometimes I can notice I’m on my phone about to do something and I was like, wait a minute.

What was I about to get ready to do? Like, it’s kinda scary to me because I never had this issue before. You know, before contracting the virus, I never had any, you know, any issues with memory loss. So I’m trying to, you know, figure out exactly where is this coming from. I did tell my doctor, but she didn’t have an answer for me.

So I’m hoping that it’ll go ahead and pass away hopefully. Cause it’s like I said, it’s kinda, it’s kind of scary like her mom, I’m only 28 years old. I can’t have Alzheimer’s already.

Taylor Camille: Yes. have you known anybody else who contracted the virus as well?

Terrica: Yes. Yes, yes. So I know you remember me telling you that the lady called me from the church to tell me that I needed to go ahead and be tested. It’s better to be safe than sorry. You know, she told me she was at the church as well, but she wasn’t going to go that day. She was going to go the next day and be tested.

So, she went the next day, and she was tested. She was in the hospital for I think about four to five days, but she didn’t make it. I also had another, classmate that was at my church. We graduated together. She was at the church on the same night as. That as I was, we talked, you know, we hugged, you know, cause we hadn’t seen each other in a while and she was only 28 years old and she didn’t make it as well.

So it’s, it’s like, it’s very scary. Like very, very scary

Taylor Camille: People that we’re just here

Terrica: Yes. People, yes. People are just had a conversation with and now they’re gone.

Taylor Camille: And young people too are like, you know, it doesn’t matter.

Terrica: Yeah. Like I said, me and her were the same age, both of us 28 years old, and I had just seen her and to hear the news, you know that she passed away. It’s very sad.

Taylor Camille: Yeah. I think what’s worse is that a lot of people aren’t getting their time to mourn and time to say goodbye because you, you know, the restrictions on funerals. Then the restriction on gathering, that kind of breaks my heart more cause it’s like, you know, how do we come to peace about it?

Terrica: Exactly. And that was my biggest fear, you know, being in the hospital, admitted in the hospital. I don’t have any family here, so what if I do take my last breath? I mean, I’m going to take my last breath with strangers, you know, that was that. That part just really does something to me that people are in the hospital, but they can’t have their family there with them.

You know? And a lot of them are not even making it out of the hospital, and they’re pretty much dying there alone. That’s, that’s just so sad to me. They can’t have a proper, you know, funeral

Taylor Camille: Yeah. It’s heartbreaking. some of these like statistics I’ve read, especially coming out of Albany where I think a lot of coverage is focusing on big cities like New York.

And, It’s just interesting to see that a place like Albany, three hours from Atlanta, has been so affected by this, pandemic. But I just wondered like, what are your feelings about those numbers? What are your hopes for your community when this all passes? just anything you want to talk about on that end.

Terrica: Well as far as my feelings about those numbers, it is very, very shocking and alarming because I remember when we first started to hear talk about the virus, we were told for one, and just to be honest and transparent, we were told that, well, African American people couldn’t contract it. And we were also told that were younger people won’t be able to get it as well.

So I think we kind of dropped the ball because in the beginning when we heard about it, we weren’t as cautious. You know. Okay. Yeah, it’s a virus, but it’s not going to touch us. You know, everybody just going about their normal lives. And a lot of people still haven’t really started to take it serious because it hasn’t hit close to home yet.

I’m kinda seeing the people that are taking it serious are the ones that have either lost a loved one to the virus or either have a loved one currently fighting for their lives right now, but it saddens me when I go on my social media and I see so many people right here in my hometown, Albany, Georgia, are still not taking it serious.

I mean, we have people going on live, you know, meeting up to fight and you know, doing all kinds of crazy stuff when this is the time we definitely needed, you know, to be sheltered in place, you know, obey the laws and shelter in place and you don’t need to go outside, you know, stay home because it’s definitely is serious.

I never imagined in a million years that it would happen. You know, right here in the small city of Albany, we have outnumbered even Atlanta, Georgia, and it is twice as big as Albany.

I just hope that people will finally just get the memo, ‘Hey, this virus is real. It doesn’t have a race, age, religion, or gender. It can happen to anyone’, Albany has already, been on the list for so many different things in a negative aspect with one of those things being, poverty. So many people are right here in the city, of Albany and are living in poverty. So, you know, I, I just, I sometimes, you know, you just get tired of always seeing Albany on the news for something bad.

You know, when are we going to be on the news for something good?

Taylor Camille: Yeah. Well, I’m hoping that after the dust settles that, you know. You and your business will boom. And I’m hoping for a lot of good but it is troubling to see, you know, our community, especially as a black community, feel like this doesn’t concern them or feel like, they can dodge this bullet.

So a lot about, this podcast is about, what brings us peace and, how we uplift our spirit. And I wanted to know how did you find peace, through all of this, and what did you learn about your spirit?

Terrica: Yes. So I’ve always been that person to not only self-motivate myself, but motivate others as well. Even from my hospital bed. I, recorded a video just pretty much not only praying for myself to make it through, but others in the hospital as well. So I just learned that, And which I always tell all of my followers, this giving up was never an option.

Even though I was at my moment when I felt like I wasn’t going to make it, I always, always put God first in whatever I do. And that alone just bring me so much peace. Even just knowing that I made it out of that, and I know unfortunately a lot of people didn’t.

That brings me peace as well, I constantly try to uplift and encourage everyone else because even my business, that’s what it’s centered around. The betterment of people. How can I make someone else life better? You know, what can I do to contribute to someone else’s happiness?

And let’s just try to get through this because, you know, I honestly don’t like I’m watching the news because they always want to tell about the fatalities, but what about the people that are recovering.

So you know, it can be very depressing at times. So I just try to keep myself uplifted and others uplifted as well.

Taylor Camille: As a survivor, what do you hope others can learn from your experience and what kind of wisdom or knowledge or positivity do you hope to depart on other people?

Terrica: As a survivor, I want to let people know the way that I got through this, not only through my prayers. But, even though, and I have to say this, even though I was in a hospital bed, even though I was short of breath, I still didn’t allow that to stop me.

Every single day I would sit up in my bed and I would walk from one corner of the room. To the other corner of the room, and I felt like this helped me because I didn’t just allow myself to just stay, you know, just to lay there in bed.

Cause a lot of times, I’m pretty sure you know, a body in motion stays in motion. also when they send you home to self-quarantine. I did the steam over the stove. I would do hot showers, you know, let the steam build up in the bathroom. That helped. And, don’t fear, don’t fear, just hope for the best.

You know, if God brought us to it, he’ll bring us through it. That this too shall pass greater is coming.

Taylor Camille: Yeah. What are some of the things people have said to you? Either during or after that stuck with you or touched you?

Terrica: So even though I couldn’t talk much when I was in my hospital bed, I constantly looked at those messages of encouragement. People telling me, you know, that they’re praying for me, that I’m strong.

I’m a fighter. You know. Just affirmation, just reminding me of who I am. You know that I’m going to make it out of this and, and now I’m getting, I’m so glad you made it out of it. I knew you were, and I always knew you were a fighter and you know, that’s just so encouraging to know that I have that support.

Taylor Camille: Yeah, that’s sweet. What was the first thing your kids said to you when you came back or did?

Terrica: Oh, so now, like I said, y’all, I’m all about being honest. So when I got to the hospital and my four year old is so hilarious to me. So when I got out of the hospital, you know, my eight year old, she understands more, you know exactly what’s going on. You know, you’re just getting out of the hospital.

We can’t hug you anymore. So my son, he was like, mama. Oh, you got, you got that rona virus don’t come around me, mama. You know, he just pretty much told me straight up, just like it was but on the day that they found out, which I posted the video as well. They found out that I was out of quarantine and they could hug me again.

They were so excited just to be able to hug me again. And, you know, like I said, we don’t really value the little things as being able to hug our kids. Like I was missing that terribly, you know, just being able to kiss them goodnight, you know, tuck them in and I couldn’t do any of that. So not only was I excited, but they were as well to know that we can finally hug our mom again.

Taylor Camille: What a mess. He kept it real.

Terrica: Yeah. When he first saw me come home, cause even when I came home, I still had, you know how w I had the IV in my arm and both arms and on my hands. So it was a total of three. They had to put the bandage over there, you know the cotton. And so I’m walking in the house with all three of these on me and he ran ‘uh uh mama’. You got there? He said it just like that. ‘The rona virus’.

Taylor Camille: Oh my God.

Terrica: He’s saw that and he got scared. He said, I don’t want to get sick,

Taylor Camille: Leaving you there with the sound of her children hugging their mom for the first time in a long time. Yeah. On the next episode of beyond ourselves, we talked to Lauren, Melissa about autism.

Lauren Melissa: We really have so much to give and there are so many problems in our world that neuro-typical people have never been able to solve. So maybe it’s time to bring a new perspective.

Beyond Our Cells is an original series produced and hosted by me Taylor Camille, a variety of the series artwork shared here and on our Instagram @beyondourcells are created by Carmen Johns and Sierra Hood. My hope is that these listening’s have left you with a warm heart and an even cooler mind. I hope you are left feeling able to seek peace in the spaces and places you may find yourself in.

If you’re interested in being on the pod or have any compelling leads, please shoot us an email at info@beyondourcells.com and subscribe and share if you haven’t already.

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