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Woman with pre-existing condition details battle with COVID-19

Posted at 4:49 AM, Apr 16, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-16 07:49:12-04

While Arizonans stay home, in hopes of flattening the curve of those who contract COVID-19, some are now recovering from the virus that's sparked a global health crisis.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center, 501,206 people from around the world are confirmed to have recovered from the coronavirus.

Elizabeth Bolt, 34, is one of them.

She called the Valley home for more than nine years. While living Arizona, she spent three years working as a producer at ABC15, and recently moved to Dallas to be closer to family.

Bolt recalls having a cough, feeling tired, and losing her appetite and sense of taste before test results confirmed she contracted the virus.

"It was four days between getting tested and finally finding out that I had it," she said." At that point, I had been having symptoms for 10 days."

Bolt says she relied heavily on telemedicine, before scheduling a drive-thru test.

"Honestly, it looked like something out of a movie, tents, people in the full PPE," said Bolt. "Once it was my turn, they rolled me up to the tent, and they swabbed very deeply into both of my nostrils and gave me a one-sheet on COVID-19 and it said go home and act like you have the virus and be in isolation until you get the results and know for sure."

Bolt admits it was a scary wait, since she suffers from Type 1 diabetes, but she was never hospitalized.

"I really was sick for 24 days," she added. "It's not just the sniffles and you'll be over it."

Bolt battled the virus from her home with her parents dropping off supplies at her door when they could.

Today, Bolt says she's grateful for them, but hopes her story will remind others who may not have experience with the virus that it affects everyone differently.

"I wish that -- from my experience-- that they would stop saying its like the cold or flu," said Bolt. "For me it really wasn't, it was more like pneumonia."

"I still feel a little bit of survivor's guilt, just because of the heart-wrenching stories of people younger than me who don't have an underlying condition [dying]," she added. "Even though I never felt like I was in danger, it still feels like a big deal that I came out of this on the other side fine."