In our last few months in Havasu, we renovated our place, hung out with our friends on the lake, and unfortunately spent 2 weeks in quarantine because we tested positive for the corona virus.
Now, everyone has their opinions on the corona virus. Whether you believe it is real or fake, this is just to talk about our experience, symptoms, treatment, and what happened when we tested positive.
After we went home in July, we came back to half of the patients on our floor positive for COVID-19. At work we wore what we call Bunny Suits. These essentially are Pillsbury dough boy costumes that can be wiped off between each patient use. Truthfully, I felt super safe in them besides the fact that they make you sweat like crazy making you very dehydrated after 12 hours.
While in the zippered down wing of our floor we had to wear at all times the bunny suit, booties, goggles, N-95, hair net, and gloves. When going into a patients room, you hand sanitized over the gloves, then put on the gown specifically for that patient over your bunny suit, then put another set of gloves on. Imagine trying to put in an IV or do anything with 2 pairs of gloves on while your mask is fogging up...not easy!
When you left the patients room, you remove the gown and gloves, hand sanitize again, and wipe off the bunny suit. For each of your patients, for us 6 per nurse, you had to do this. It was a lot of work going in and out of patient's rooms and sometimes you had patients with COVID and some without. The worst is when you have some with and some without because:
How clean are you really after going into the rooms with patient's who have COVID? And no, this wasn't just the hospital I was at. This was and IS still happening at hospitals.
You had to wipe off your bunny suit. Take it off. Put it away properly. Wash your hands. Then you can go see your other patients. There is no way for the nurse to adequately take care of the patients. And if there is a code or rapid response...well I think you can picture what happens then.
The patient's themselves were hit and miss with how sick they were. Some were very sick. It was like they just couldn't shake the fever, fatigue, or shortness of breath. All of my patients had other comorbidities they were also fighting along with the virus. Others came in because they were lightheaded or dehydrated and were usually discharged in a few days with orders to quarantine, and prescribed antibiotics and steroids. In the end, how long had they been walking around with it? What about the people they live with? Do they have it too? Where did they get it? Is the nasal swab actually accurate? All of these questions that we may not know for years or never know.
So who knows where we got COVID. We hadn't worked with positive patients in over two weeks and had been following the wear a mask orders which we were not doing before since it was not mandated.
We had plans to take out our friends jet ski for the day and when I woke up I had a raspy voice and post nasal drip. Aaron and I took out the jet ski and I kept complaining of how achy my legs and hips were which was very weird. We shared the same water bottles all day and when we got back to our place I felt cold, which is not normal since it is 110 degrees or more in Lake Havasu. I figured it was dehydration that was causing the chills and my headache. Two of our friends came over that evening and we all shared dinner while hanging out.
The next morning I felt the same and the headache never went away after drinking water and taking Tylenol. We decided to go get me tested. Gosh does that nasal swab feel bizzare!
Within the hour I was notified that I tested positive. Aaron got tested and soon we got the notification that he was negative. I had a weird feeling about it since we had been sharing the same bottles the day I had symptoms. Our job told us I had to stay home, but he had to go to work. I informed them multiple times that we had been sharing the same water bottles all day and he will probably test positive if we got him tested again. They said multiple couples have only had one person test positive so it is okay for him to come to work.
The next day my symptoms were the same, headache, aches, and fatigue. Growing up I used a nebulizer very often for my asthma and it was usually attributed to animals or seasonal allergies. For the most part I never notice my asthma and I believe it is because of my dad pushing me to be active so now I only use my inhaler as needed. Within the last year I had to go to the ER because my asthma was acting up so bad that my inhaler wasn't enough. That being said, it made us worried on what would happen.
While Aaron was at work, he kept texting me that he felt very fatigued and sweaty. He came home and went to bed. The next morning he had drenched the bed in sweat. We went and had him tested. The results came back positive.
The days following I noticed I was out of breath quicker by just going up the stairs and Aaron felt his heart rate went up with minimal activity. We took zinc, vitamin C, azithromycin, and decadron for the 2 weeks we were on quarantine. For me the headaches were the most frustrating thing. It was almost a sharp feeling behind my eyes and then it would fade. I never had to take my inhaler.
Honestly, we were fine. The number one struggle was when we lost our taste and smell. This did not come back for at least 2 weeks. We were finding ourselves trying to find food that had texture to it so that we would taste something! It was one of the weirdest things and Aarons' go to was boxes of mac n cheese...
Our symptoms were nothing more than loosing our taste and smell, headaches, fatigue, and aches. We NEVER recorded a temperature...yes a lot of people do not have one and still test positive.
About 3-4 days after testing positive, the county health department in my home town called me. I informed them that I had been working in Arizona so the test would then be considered a positive test in Arizona not New York. A few days after that the county health department in Havasu called Aaron and asked him multiple questions. Symptoms? How long would we be off work? Are you quarantining? She asked if we needed to receive a negative test before going back to work and when we told her no she seemed kind of surprised. She told Aaron that if we still have symptoms after 2 weeks that we may be eligible for more time off since we could still be contagious. At the end of the conversation Aaron asked her if she needed to speak to me as well since I had yet to get a phone call. I then talked to her and had mostly the same answers as him.
2 weeks of quarantine and we were back to going to work. Thankfully our company paid us for the 2 weeks we missed work, but we did have to cancel the trip Aaron's brother was taking to visit us.
This pandemic is different for everyone. The virus is different for everyone. Are the tests accurate? I don't know, but I do know that there are false positives and negatives. The two friends we had over tested negative, but one of them had a ridiculous temperature for days and did not feel well. We all said he probably had a false negative.
So, how accurate are the tests and the masks? When will this be over? When will we know the truth?
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