(WXYZ) — Jeff Whitmer, a husband, father, and architect, is one of those people who has had COVID and still battles persistent symptoms.
"It actually started to get worse, probably six, eight weeks after I had the initial infection," said Jeff.
He said he struggles with fatigue and brain fog the most.
"My wife, and I could have a conversation in the morning, she could call me at noon, and there's some days, I have no memory of the conversation that we had," he said.
On Saturday at the Henry Ford Health Cancer Institute in Detroit, there will be the unveiling of a special project where long COVID patients like Jeff have turned their experiences into art.
"It was therapeutic in a way. For myself, being an artistic type person," he said.
As far as the lingering issues that are still impacting people, Dr. Sara Santarossa of Henry Ford Health weighs in.
"I would say I mean, respiratory problems are a huge kind of factor that's still persistent. And in the artwork, you'll see that often represented in the lungs. And they've drawn ... flames or some are like bound, it looks like they're bound by barbed wire or there's like a thorny rose that's almost wrapped around one," said Dr. Santarossa.
Dr. Santarossa is the scientific director for their patient engaged research center, and she says the body mapping project is centered on the art created by the long haulers that describes their journey, the face they put on for others to mask things like chest pain and ear aches — even loneliness, and the frustration that comes every time someone asks "aren't you better yet" as if these real symptoms are some kind of test they just can't manage to pass.
"I think loneliness and depression are really represented in the stories and the artwork. You see almost that some of the artists have created like two figures where there's one, here's me before and here's me now, and the body posture really says a lot," she said.
Jeff said, "it helped reinforce, that I wasn't alone ... after we got through the whole thing, and, you know, we, the group combined all the stories, all the stories were almost identical ... it was someone that was really active, they got it, it wasn't bad. And now their life is completely different."
From there, Dr. Santarossa said they'll be utilizing it to develop where they need to move with treatment and service care and in the academic or research world.
One participant said during her journey she's learned to be grateful for the healing that's already happened and hopeful there will be more. Jeff is hoping their stories will further open the door to understanding.
"You have sympathy and empathy for people ... they might seem okay, like, if you saw me on the street, you would never know what I'm dealing with," said Jeff.
To learn more about the COVID Body Mapping Gallery, click here.
