Greenwood Village Man Offers Hope On Coronavirus: 'You Can Come Out The Other Side'

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. (CBS4)- J.Y. Kang first began feeling lousy around President's Day weekend in mid-February, but he said the wooziness and cold symptoms went away, only to return in early March.

"I started feeling really bad. It was a headache, felt like my head was going to explode."

He said the intense headache was accompanied by extreme fatigue, chills and body aches, but no fever.

Kang, 56, a personal injury and criminal defense attorney, said the illness left him with no energy, bedridden and unable to leave his home. He took Tylenol and figured the sickness would pass. It didn't.

"I thought this was the cold or flu and I would get over it, but I didn't."

He said by March 12 he felt poorly enough that he contacted his doctor, who recommended he be tested for COVID-19 since he had been traveling in Asia in December. He was tested March 13.

"The results came back March 20 and I was positive for COVID-19," said Kang. He shared his test result with CBS4.

The positive test put him in a group of about 600 Coloradans who have tested positive for this novel coronavirus. Slightly more men than women have tested positive in Colorado according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Kang told CBS4 that about the time he took the test, March 13, he began feeling better and has steadily improved ever since. He said he never considered checking in to a hospital. By March 20- the day his test result came back- Kang said he was already feeling nearly 100%.

"I was starting to feel so much better, when I got the result on the 20th it became irrelevant."

He said he has been symptom free for days and feels back to normal health, although he is continuing to self- isolate, "This past weekend I had my first beer and it tasted damn good."

He said he wanted to tell his story to demonstrate that, "You can come out the other side of this without a lot of negative effects. Even if you get it, you can come out and still be good."

Kang noted that he never had a fever and experienced only minor respiratory problems. He said he suffered a loss of his senses of taste and smell, which doctors are now saying appears to be a side effect of the virus.

British doctors are now urging adults who lose their sense of smell to isolate themselves for seven days, even if they have no other symptoms. Doctors are concerned with the number of patients, like Kang, who have shared similar experiences. They say diminished capacity to smell and taste may indicate the virus is present.

Kang says his strength has returned and he is back to walking his dog three to five miles every day.

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