PORT RICHEY, Fla. — For some who get sick with COVID-19, they can experience symptoms for months and even years following. This is called long-COVID, and Julie Talamo sadly knows it well.

“It’s a little unnerving yes, this is what started my journey,” said Talamo, holding medical paperwork. “These are the CTs I’ve had done. Just some of them, not all of them.”

She says she has a cluster of nodules on her lungs, and chronic scarring. 

Talamo got sick with COVID in 2022. A year later, a pulmonologist came to the conclusion that she had long COVID following her continual shortness of breath. 

“He said he’s seen some really weird things since COVID, but I have lung scarring, and that’s due to COVID. It’s long COVID,” Talamo said. 

She now takes a maintenance inhaler daily, and carries around a rescue inhaler. 

Even with those medical struggles, Talamo’s outlook is positive. 

“There are so many people that have it worse than me. They are, you know, I mean, when my husband got COVID, he had it really, really bad. It was pretty bad. He almost died. And I’ve had friends that have actually died from COVID,” said Talamo. 

She now sees her pulmonologist every three months. She says he hopes to eventually get her off the inhalers, but is not sure when that will be.