In an effort to raise awareness, Matt Ford is opening up about his experience with Monkeypox.
As the terrifying disease continues to spread more and more throughout the United States, the 30-year-old actor revealed some details to People in an article published Thursday about his run in with it — the Cali native received a dreadful call on June 17 informing him he had been exposed to the virus from someone whom he had “prolonged contact” with. His next step was to scan his body for any lesions, which he unfortunately found a few of. He decided to self-isolate for a week until he could get tested at a doctor’s office, where he got a positive result. Matt was then issued a court-ordered-stay-at-home-mandate from the LA County Department of Public Health.
That is so scary!!
According to People, during the first week of his diagnosis he experienced “intense flu-like symptoms including coughing, sore throat, and fever, and full-body chills.” He apparently would even wake up to sweat-drenched pillows and bed sheets! OMG! Matt explained that after the flu symptoms started to subside he noticed more lesions, counting 25 in total, which became increasingly painful:
“Obviously the [lesions] that already existed in the underwear area were very, very painful and the ones on my face, but I started getting them on my torso, legs, arms, shoulders, scalp; they kind of appeared everywhere.”
Ugh we can’t imagine how horrible that would be! He explained the lesions were “excruciatingly painful all the time” for a week straight, adding:
“And it was more painful if I moved the wrong way, if I irritated them, certain bodily functions that required movement. It was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced. I would describe it as like at least an eight or a nine out of 10. There are a lot of reports of people screaming, passing out, just really terrible stuff and I experienced some of that pain and I understand why.”
An eight or nine out of 10!!! This poor man! And on top of getting Monkeypox at all, he was one of the FIRST confirmed cases in the U.S. so there weren’t really any vaccines or antiviral treatments available yet. He said he merely had to “wait it out” until his symptoms dissipated. Ouch! He revealed:
“The only thing that really helped me with the pain was taking Epsom salt baths. So I took a lot of those in addition to just trying to manage the symptoms. I was maxing out the amount of Tylenol, Advil I could take. Using a lot of creams and ointments.”
He was later prescribed narcotic painkillers after the lesions became so painful that he wasn’t getting any sleep. As for his mental health throughout his isolation, he confessed:
“The first two weeks, I just kind of tried to focus on getting to the other side of it, and trying to remember that it was temporary. It was really tough around the two week mark, I remember because I was starting to get a little stir crazy inside. I was stuck inside and in pain and it was really brutal. I feel very blessed to have a strong support system. And I was very grateful for that. But mentally, it was difficult.”
What a harsh time.
Almost a full month later on July 12, Matt finally recovered and had his stay-at-home order lifted but admits he still notices some lingering signs of the virus:
“I still have pigmentation on me from where the spots were and there’s some residual soreness from areas where the lesions did some trauma to my body. And mentally, I had some pretty intense social anxiety coming out of it. It’s a very intense thing to go through and coming out of it, you feel a little bit shaken.”
Matt was hesitant to share his experience, but decided it was more important to try and bring attention to “how painful or serious this is.” Additionally, he emphasized that ANYONE can contract the virus, even though it is impacting gay men the most:
“There can be some stigma around it due to some of the ways that it potentially can spread. It is by no means only spread through sex, it is not classified as an STI, but that is a major way that we are seeing it spread and that carries some connotations with it, unfortunately, of like a scarlet letter scenario, for some people.”
He continued:
“There also seems to be kind of a rift between the messaging that anybody can get this, which is true, versus emphasizing that the primary demographic, the vast majority of people who get it, currently are queer men and a huge way we’re seeing it spread through sexual contact. And that does not mean it’s the only way. I think we can acknowledge it is primarily queer men being affected right now. And there is potential for that to spread to other communities without inducing any shame or stigma or labeling this a gay disease.”
He said it best that it’s important to acknowledge that queer men are amongst the most affected, but ANYONE can still get it. Matt Added:
“There’s no place or reason for shame or stigma in any of this. It can be terrible. It can be awful, but something that helped me is remembering that it is temporary and there is another side of it.”
We’re glad Matt recovered and is sharing his story. We all just need to take this virus as seriously as it needs to be taken to help reduce and prevent the spread! What are your thoughts on it? Let us know in the comments below.
If you’d like to see more examples of the stages of Monkeypox, check out TikTok user Tonanty’s progession (below):
@tonanty
[Images via Inside Edition/YouTube]
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