Coronavirus Chronicles: Edmonds artist shares exhausting experience with COVID-19  

For Edmonds artist Heidi M. Barnett, the experience of COVID-19 was like waves crashing against the coastline, receding for a moment and then slamming against the shore again.

“That’s what I saw in my head when I thought about how I felt,” said Barnett, 45, who has painted such seascapes in her signature pointillism style. “All of a sudden, I’d feel better, but then it would come back again…I was feeling so devastated.”

Barnett’s two-week struggle with the illness underscores just how harrowing the virus can be, even for healthy young people without preexisting conditions. So far, more than 200 Edmonds residents have tested positive for COVID-19, and 12 have died.

As someone who rarely gets sick, Barnett assumed she’d get a mild or asymptomatic case. But even though she is among the about 80 percent of patients with mild to moderate symptoms, that doesn’t mean the experience wasn’t agonizing.

Before COVID, Barnett said she questioned whether shuttering everything was the right choice. Was the coronavirus as bad as they say, she wondered? Was it really that different than getting the regular flu?

“When you’re overly healthy, you think it’s not going to affect you,” she said. “It’s easy to doubt something until you actually experience it. But, you don’t want to experience what I’ve experienced.”

All the symptoms

In late March, Barnett’s husband Erik, who works in a nursing home, started feeling sick. He quickly got tested at The Everett Clinic, and received a positive result several days later.

Around the same time, Barnett started feeling sick and exhausted herself, as did her 26-year-old son Luke. A heaviness in her chest prompted her to visit The Everett Clinic in late March. She also tested positive, which was, in some ways, a relief.

“I thought: If this isn’t the coronavirus, and I get that on top of this, I don’t know how I would deal with it,” she said.

The next two weeks were a blur of every symptom imaginable: body aches, fatigue, night sweats, a sore throat, and a cough so bad she’d dry heave. Without a sense of taste and smell, her favorite cinnamon tea was flavorless, and she questioned whether the stove was on when she cooked.

Midday was her high point, and she’d try to prepare some simple foods like vegetable soup for her family. But standing by the stove was so tiresome that she needed to pull over a chair.

Her daughter, who doesn’t live with the family, would drop off oranges, coconut water and Popsicles to soothe their dry, cracking throats. Sometimes, though, the icy cold made her cough even harder.  Similarly, hot tea would temporarily help, then bring on unexpected nausea.

While her son didn’t experience the coughing, he’d wake up so sweaty his whole body was soaked. At night, Barnett would muster the strength to check on her husband and son, ensuring they had liquids nearby.

“I was feeling so devastated: I’m so sick and I can’t call anyone to help because I don’t want to take a chance getting anyone else sick,” she said.

Even taking her two dogs — whom she used to walk every day — outside for bathroom breaks was exhausting.

The three sick family members made a pact: When you were feeling your best, do anything you could to help, from washing a few dishes to taking the dogs outside.

One day, Barnett would feel she was on the mend only to feel sick all over again that evening.

“I’ve never felt so much back and forth,” she said. “You had the excitement of feeling better — and you wanted to be better so bad — and then it wouldn’t go away.”

When she wasn’t sleeping, she’d read the news of mounting death tolls and her anxiety level would rise.

“Knowing you have it, you think, ‘Oh my gosh, this could really get this bad,’” she said.

Edmonds’ community support

Even though her husband and son were in the house, they were all sleeping at different times and rarely communicated more than a brief symptom update.

When she was feeling low, Barnett reached out on social media, sharing her story with an Edmonds neighbor group and on her artist page. The kind words and supportive response from the community buoyed her spirits.

Some messaged to share their own experiences with COVID, while others offered to drop off food or walk her dogs, a favor she refused but appreciated, nonetheless.

“It was just so nice to feel not alone,” she said. “I love the Edmonds community.”

Barnett finally felt better last weekend, as did her husband and son. But, despite the possible immunity, there are still too many questions about the virus and the extent of the protection to give her peace of mind.

“I’m scared to death of getting it again,” she said. “It’s been so rough.”

For now, she’s painting in her home studio and dreaming of what she’ll do when she’s fully recovered: Maybe she’ll go to her favorite oyster place with friends and family or finally get out on those kayaks.

That’s something they didn’t make time for last summer, she said.

“This summer, we will,” she said.

— By Kellie Schmitt