UNION, Ky. — A nurse practitioner is sharing her story of recovery.

Late March, the woman tested positive for COVID-19 and spent a week in the hospital, struggling at times to breathe.

“I was very lonely,” said Renee Mathew, a nurse practitioner in Northern Kentucky. “This virus doesn't discriminate. It takes different people down and other people seem to get through it ok.”

Mathew is sharing her heart-wrenching tale. She cherishes her family, friends, and people she’s come to know at a new deeper level.

Her battle with the coronavirus started on March 25.

“My blood work was coming back, my chest x-ray was all pretty consistent with COVID-19 infection,” Mathew said.

As a frontline worker, she had been keeping up with the developments of the virus, only to become a patient herself.

“I had been reading a lot about COVID (-19) since we started taking care of them (patients) and I think the scariest part is a lot of the uncertainty with the virus,” Mathew said.

She says at first her body started aching and later developed a low-grade fever. In a matter of hours, her symptoms became worse.

“It was the shortness of breath. I think when the fear set up that I couldn’t get my air, I couldn't breathe, I felt like I was suffocating. I think that was more scary than even worrying about a COVID-19 test,” Mathew said.

What followed next ended with Mathew having to spend a week in the hospital in Edgewood and learning she tested positive for the unknown Coronavirus.

“There was a 2-day point in the hospital, I don't know, where it was a very scary time,” Mathew said. 

While she recovered in the hospital, her husband Daniel developed symptoms of the virus, and her brother also tested positive. Luckily, both have also recovered.

Spending time in quarantine, Mathew stayed in contact with her children, friends, and family via social media as well as garnering emotional support from across the world.

“A very wonderful lady came to my hospital, or came to the hospital I was at and dropped off some holy water and a blessed metal by the pope and made sure I got it,” Mathew said. “Things like that just meant a lot to me.”

Mathew is one of many Kentuckians who have overcome the Coronavirus. As of right now, more than 1,600 patients have recovered.