Sean C. Morgan
Guest Commentary
After I came down with a dry cough, headache, kidney stone-like chest pain and a sore throat that began Sept. 30, I decided to stay home from work.
My wife, Tiffany, had similar more intense symptoms, and our 12-year-old boy, Jim, began an on-again, off-again relationship with stomachaches and headaches.
I decided to go get tested. Sure enough, I received a positive result for COVID-19 on Oct. 5.
Tiffany had gone in for a test on Sept. 30, but it was the end of the day, so after calling back to the doctor’s office, I was scheduled for a test on Oct. 1. Her results came in early the morning of Oct. 5, and she’s tested negative.
We just had colds! And we could leave the house and get back to work soon!
But then, that afternoon, my result came in. I opened up MyChart and there it was: “Positive,” listed under the header “Your Value.” Right next to that was a header listed as “Standard Range,” and below that were the words “Not Detected.”
Tiffany shattered any hope that the latter was the actual test result by pointing out that “Not Detected” is the normal range of test results.
We were positive, even if her test result didn’t say so. A handout with the test indicated that 10 to 20 percent of negative test results may be positive, which suggests that the real rate of positive tests ought to be in the 14- to 24.5 percent range.
Since we’ve had a lot of questions about what it was like, I thought I’d share some details.
On some level, ours was a good result. Our illness was mild. Before this, like everyone else, we had no idea how the disease would treat us.
My wife’s grandmother and step-grandmother had both died from COVID. Three members of my second cousin’s family had really rough bouts with it. All of them live in other states.
Altogether, it’s been a relatively mild illness, though we have hated it as intensely as any other.
We feel very fortunate. I would be ecstatic if every cold were like my case of COVID. I took Tylenol a couple times for the headache. Tiffany took Tylenol and Ibuprofen a few times, but we used no other cold medicine during our illnesses.
As I mentioned earlier, it started on Sept. 29 for us, with me developing that cough, which intensified throughout the day. By evening the other symptoms had materialized for me, Tiffany and Jim; and I called in to let work know I wouldn’t be in the next day.
Symptoms were ramping up by the next day, with the addition of occasional chills. We were miserable in the morning, but like any good illness, this one had a clock. As morning passed, symptoms subsided, only to intensify at bed time.
We called our doctor, and the wife went in for her test. I drove her over to Samaritan Urgent Care. They inserted the swabs into each of her nostrils, causing her to flinch each time.
By the time I went in the next day, I was a crybaby, whining, complaining and whimpering with the best of them. It really hurt when the swab hit the right nostril.
And rightly so; the test really sucks. They tested Jim Oct. 7. He was a trooper, acted like it was nothing at all, but he did tell me he hated it as he rubbed his nose afterward. He ended up testing negative.
By Oct. 2, I was feeling pretty good. My symptoms had settled into an occasional headache and a cough with a little congestion, but even that was a subdued annoyance.
Tiffany was always just a little worse off than me, and it’s carried on that way through to at least last weekend.
Tiffany measured one brief 99.9-degree fever one morning. Other than that, we haven’t detected any fever. We didn’t lose our senses of taste or smell, although on one day, food tasted funny to both of us.
Obviously, we believe that Tiffany also was infected with the COVID. It’s the only logical conclusion. We can’t imagine that Jim wasn’t also, but he had few, fleeting symptoms.
Our experiences can only be characterized as mild. We know personally that it can be so much more, and we feel very fortunate.
We spent all of our time quarantined. We had numerous offers, from all corners of our beloved community and our circle of friends, for help along the way if we need, and we very much appreciate it.
A sincere thanks to all of you who have offered the help, to those who brought us groceries, to the one who brought us A&W one night when we were craving hamburgers, to the volunteers and Police Department staff who answered my phone calls and took care of things at work and the Harvest Festival and to other City of Sweet Home staff for taking care of a few different pieces of business.
– Sean C. Morgan, a longtime reporter for The New Era, now works as Community Services Officer for the Sweet Home Police Department.