Augusta resident Marysa Sierra, 31, is an inspiration to anyone struggling to get through life.
Sierra worked as a marketing manager for a local optical center. She was young and had no preexisting health conditions. In November 2020, as the pandemic ripped through the state of Georgia causing panic and confusion, she adhered to the health community’s advice. She wore a mask and gloves and social distanced. She isolated herself, limiting her ventures to work and the grocery store, she said.
Still, COVID-19 reared its ugly head. Initially, Sierra lost the ability to taste and smell. A few days later, the virus began to transform her life into a living nightmare. As it ravaged her body, the symptoms increased in severity.
“I had this migraine headache for a week,” she said and recalled that she began sleeping for more than 13 hours-per-day and lost over 20 pounds.
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Sierra went to a drive-thru testing site and received a positive COVID-19 result the day before Thanksgiving. She did not have a primary care physician and attempted to fight the virus at home, drinking a lot of water and tea, she said. After a week, the severe throbbing pain associated with the migraine began to ease. But instead of getting better, Sierra’s state of health spiraled downward. Two weeks later, as she dealt with a daily fever, a second visit to the drive-thru site resulted in another positive result. Little did she know the fever would show up, off-and-on, for three months, she said.
Isolating at home, Sierra noticed she was beginning to forget simple words and losing track of time.
“I forgot names of things like apples or doors,” she said and mentioned she hesitated to seek care at an emergency room because of her COVID-positive status. She did not want to infect anyone else with the virus, that today has been attributed to more than 16,000 deaths in the state of Georgia.
“That would not help anybody,” she said.
Two weeks later, Sierra visited the drive-thru testing site again and this time received a negative result. Her body, free of the virus, won the battle but the war was far from over.
“I was feeling physically better,” she said. “But not mentally okay.”
Sierra began experiencing severe memory lapses. A visit to a local ER frustrated her when they sent her home with a recommendation to take vitamins. Afterward, she lost the ability to verbally communicate. Shortly after Christmas, her husband of eight years, took her to an Atlanta-based hospital.
“It was the first time someone understood what was wrong with me,” she said.
A medical team consisting of a neurologist, speech therapist and primary physician came to a conclusion and informed Sierra she was suffering from encephalopathy, a complication of the COVID-19 infection, she said.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, “Encephalopathy is a term for any diffuse disease of the brain that alters brain function or structure.” A list of causes includes infectious agents, chronic progressive trauma, poor nutrition and lack of oxygen or blood flow to the brain. The hallmark symptom is “an altered mental state.”
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A study published September 2020, on The National Center for Biotechnology Information’s website included three patients who suffered encephalopathy due to COVID-19 complications. Two of the patients died and one patient “recovered with measurable cognitive deficits.”
Today, a previously recorded phone message on Sierra’s former place of employment’s answering service is a painful reminder of how she used to speak. Nearly four months after she contracted the deadly virus, she is unable to work and struggles to communicate. As is common with her second diagnosis, dysarthria, Sierra slurs her sentences. Due to damaged muscles, she cannot control her voice box, resulting in long pauses between her words.
Once a vibrant woman, she now skips simple words like “am,” “and” and “is,” resembling a small child learning to speak. After months of speech therapy, she struggles to talk, sounding like a person learning a new language. As hard as she tries, it is not easy for others to understand what she is saying. The complications leave Sierra in a vulnerable position.
“Basically, I am trapped in my head,” she said with obvious difficulty. “I have words in my head that are hard for me to get out. It is hard to talk to anyone when you are trying your hardest to speak, and you can’t speak, and no one can understand you.”
Sierra’s days are long, spent keeping her brain stimulated with puzzles and simple cognitive tasks. She engages in lung exercises and speech therapy. She attempts to keep her stress level down, giving her brain a chance to heal. A severely shortened attention span creates too much of a risk for her to drive. Thirty minutes into the task she used to take for granted, she forgets what she is doing.
Sierra’s doctors are hopeful she will recover in time. A month ago, plagued with silence, she could not talk at all. The neurologist explained that her brain is jumbled and forgot how to function, now it is trying to remember how to function properly, according to Sierra. Simple routine and an abundance of relaxation are part of her prescription. Stress is dangerous for her traumatized brain.
Presenting further risk, a COVID-19 vaccine is not an option.
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“I’m slowly getting back,” she said and stated doctors do not know why her body responded to the virus the way it did. “But it is painful.”
COVID-19 drastically altered the young woman’s life. She misses singing, in the car and at home. She realizes now how much joy the simple task used to give her.
“I have not sung a note since November,” she said. “I can’t.”
Sierra has learned lessons of gratitude the hard way. She said she will never take anything for granted again.
“You lose yourself,” she said with pain in her shaky voice. “You are gone, you are missing, you change, I am not me anymore.”
The young woman developed a deeper empathy for people enduring tough situations. Even in her greatest moment of darkness, she keeps herself focused on the future and better times.
“No matter what you are going through,” she said. “There is always the other side.”
Sierra does not want anyone to suffer the type of complications that she continues to fight to overcome. People need to take COVID-19 seriously and be careful, she said. Personally, she gained a compassion and empathy for people with sudden brain dysfunction.
Embarked on a new journey, Sierra does not know what her future will bring. COVID-19 shoved her onto a new life-path. Her experience with the virus changed her perspective and philosophy on life. It reshaped her character and turned her soul inside out. Everyday she waits for her condition to improve so she can go on with her life. While she sits stuck in limbo, she patiently looks forward to applying her new perspective to her new life. She gained a deeper understanding of herself.
“What you want, what you think, is not the same as what you know truly,” she said. “Life has so much to offer.”
Shellie Smitley is a staff writer for The Augusta Press. Reach her at shellie@theaugustapress.com
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