The “thing” that everyone is fearing the most right now, COVID-19, hit our family on Tuesday June 30th. Lewis, my husband, went to work that morning feeling great, he said around noon that day he developed a slight cough and had a headache. He said he just thought it was the Saharan dust in the air. By that evening he was starting to feel worse. We immediately quarantined him to the bedroom and I immediately got on the phone looking for somewhere he could go and get tested. That in itself was like a nightmare.
The scariest part of the whole experience was not knowing what to expect or how it was going to affect each person in our family. Lewis has high blood pressure and some may say he is overweight, Kyrie has asthma, (which is considered severe), Kylie has Down Syndrome, with no known medical problems otherwise but still. As far as I know Hayden and I don’t have any underlying conditions, but does that really matter?
You just don’t know, but for sure the virus is real. How it will affect you or a loved one is an unknown. It is very scary and what we didn’t know was whether or not the worst was at the beginning or would it come later. All of the med clinics in San Antonio had anywhere from a 300-700 minute wait and you could not sign in online. The doctor’s office in Devine said they could test but that results would take about seven days. We didn’t want to wait that long especially for the sake of the rest of us.
Frio Regional hospital in Pearsall was doing testing and said 48-72 hours for results. Because of all of the articles and talk about Dr. Neel I had him start taking Melatonin, but only 30mg at night because I was afraid to give him too much. I decided I needed to have an actual positive test result before calling Dr. Neel at his office. I called Frio Regional first thing Wednesday morning and got him an appointment for 11:30. He went to get tested feeling very fatigued, had muscle aches, and still coughing with decreased appetite. They told him there that the results would take 5-7 days. We were frustrated and wanted to know.
At that time the rest of the family was feeling fine. By Thursday, a co-worker of his contacted him and said he was positive, that he had gone to a clinic in San Antonio, FastAid Urgent Care and got a rapid test. We were sure after that Lewis had Covid-19. I packed him up and he went to stay at the ranch away from the rest of us as he was still feeling very bad and by then had lost his sense of taste and smell. He was starting to have fevers on and off but nothing he needed to medicate for.
I was starting to feel pretty achy by then, but I really believed it was stress from the situation at hand and worried about the unknown and what effect it might have on the rest of our family. Kyrie, our youngest who has asthma stated that she didn’t feel good. When I asked her what she meant by that she said “I don’t know, I just don’t feel good and my throat kind of hurts.” Hayden, my 16 year old is over all of the quarantine by now and said “can we all just go get tested so that we don’t waste 4th of July for nothing, I mean I don’t want to have to stay home if dad just has a cold or something?”
I called FastAid Urgent Care and they said they were doing rapid test but only as a walk in and they only did 200 a day. They said they opened at 9:00 a.m. so we got up Friday morning and got to the clinic about 7:20 a.m. We were about 20 in line. When we finally got in to be tested, we experienced the worst test ever. The nose swab they did was no joke, it was awful. After we were done we headed back home waiting for the call. Unfortunately 3 out of 4 of us tested positive. Kylie was the only one that tested negative.
I knew then that Lewis was going to be positive too. I called him and told him he could come home, there was no need to quarantine alone any longer. I then called Dr. Neel’s office and they gave me a regimen for all of us. Lewis started taking 20mg every 2 hours with 50mg at night because his symptoms were not improving, I was to take 50mg at night based on the symptoms I was having at the time, which was only the body aches and headache, Hayden was to take 30mg with his only symptoms being gastro-intestinal and fatigue, and both girls were to take 20mg each, Kyrie was a bit fatigued, said she just didn’t really feel good, and had a bit of a sore throat, Kylie still felt fine. We were to also take Vitamin D3 and Vitamin C.
Then I had to make the dreaded calls to everyone we had been in contact with. Luckily that circle was very small but it still wasn’t an easy feeling. By Saturday morning Lewis was feeling 90% better than he had since Tuesday, my body aches and headache had eased and everyone else was feeling okay. We have a temporal thermometer and seemed to catch fevers here and there but no one ever had to medicate for them. Sunday, Lewis was feeling even better and everyone else was about the same. Monday I developed a rash all over and lost taste and smell, Kylie who had tested negative had a low grade fever, but after it went away it did not come back, Kyrie and Hayden were both symptom free and Lewis was feeling like he could run a marathon. We finally got his test results back that day and, as expected, it was positive.
By Wednesday my rash was gone and I had my sense of taste and smell back. As recommended we still continue taking the Melatonin and vitamins even though our symptoms were gone. Lewis started doing some work outside but would find that he would tire much more quickly and easily than before so he would really try to take it easy when he began feeling that way so that he didn’t risk relapsing. The rest of us continued to just stay in and rest.
We are very thankful for our friends and family that called and checked on us daily and for the HEB curbside service that was brought to us by family!
We were lucky and can say it wasn’t absolutely horrible, but it seems like more and more people we know are becoming infected and everyone’s story is a little different whether it is for the better or worse.
Everyone should still be very cautious. I am a firm believer that the Melatonin worked. I feel like that is what made the positive turn around for Lewis and kept the rest of us with only mild symptoms that did not worsen. I would encourage anyone that is experiencing symptoms to definitely call Dr. Neel’s office for a regimen set for their individual symptoms and needs. I definitely don’t want to go through it again so we will definitely continue to be cautious as there is not any solid research that says once you have had it you won’t get it again.
By Joanie DuBose