I always felt I was able to overcome that day to day. “When I had cancer in my mid 20s, I had chemotherapy for a few months and there were good days and bad days – days where you feel sick, nauseous, tired. Fortunately, my breathing never got worse than pressure and pain in my chest when I took deep breaths.”įor two weeks, Nick and his partner self-isolated in their apartment and relied on the support of friends who delivered them food. “All in all, I was probably sick for just over two weeks with a fever and chills – just utter exhaustion. Four days later they called me back – I had tested positive.” The chest X-ray revealed Nick had pneumonia, but because he wasn’t having breathing problems, he was able to return home. “I walked up to the hospital and was tested there. This time, he was advised to bypass urgent care and go directly to the hospital, where he could get properly tested. So I called my doctor and said, ‘Hey, what should I do?'” At this point, I had completely lost my taste and a sense of smell. I began to start feeling pressure and pain in my chest. “I dealt with that for a week and my fever didn’t subside. He went to an urgent care center near his home in Hell’s Kitchen, where they checked his lungs (which were clear), tested for the flu (negative), and sent him home with directions to complete a course of antibiotics. “At this point, the city was not shut down, there was no stay-at-home order, and Bernie Sanders was still in the Democratic race – which is the marker I have in my head of when I was feeling ill.” He started to show symptoms of COVID-19 in early March. A cancer survivor, he’s classed as immunocompromised. He has been hesitant to publicly share his experience because of potential professional, personal, or legal retaliation, so we agreed to do this interview with him remaining anonymous.
This is the story of his tricky decision. However, despite the FDA relaxing its restrictions on donations from gay men, because he has a long-term partner, he’s still officially ineligible. Having recovered from COVID-19, he’s in a position to donate his antibody-rich plasma to potentially save lives.