I tested Positive for Covid19

On March 18, 2020 I tested positive for COVID-19 Corona Virus. I wanted to share my story so people can have some hope, experience and to let any one ask any questions in this frightening time.

I also wanted to thank the many people who helped me get through this. I especially want to thank my caregiver, cook, cleaner, disinfector, nurse, mother of my children, enforcer, dog sitter, rock, full time work from home employee, keep shit all together for the family person, love of my life, who all happened to be the most amazing person who I get to call my wife, Patricia Yonkers. Thank you for taking care of me in these extremely stressed times. I LOVE YOU Patty!! I also want to thank all of my family, especially my brother and friends who have constantly been worried and checking in on me and providing essentials like meals, masks and wipes. I also want to thank two of my friends who really kept my spirits up by sending me funny, inappropriate, sometimes political texts. They are both sick, but in a different way. I love you guys! I also want to thank my amazing team at work for constantly checking in with me.

Here is my story. On Tuesday March 17, one of my co-workers said you look red and tired in the afternoon. I felt fine, but just tired which I thought was from all the stress of trying to put a constantly changing plan in place for work operations. On Wed, March 18th, I got home early from work and my wife said you look red and I want to take your temperature. I had a very small cough which I did not even realize I had. I coughed every 10 or 15 minutes. My temperature ended up being 101.2 and my wife made an appointment at Northwell walk-in clinic. It was a bit surreal as they did not let me in until I had a mask on and would not let my wife in at all. They scanned me over and said we are going to give you the Corona Virus test. I was hoping I would fail this test. They originally told me 5 -7 days to get a result, but I ended up getting results back in two days confirming I had the virus.

When we returned from the doctor on that Wed evening, my wife immediately quarantined me down to the basement even though we did not have results. From that point on, the entire family wore masks except if we were by ourselves. She constantly was disinfecting and cleaning. I have been living in my basement for 2 weeks to quarantine myself away from my family where I ate all of my meals, slept, worked and watch tv too. I was very stressed over this, but kept a lot of emotion inside. I did not want Patty any more stressed than she already was. I woke up Thursday morning completely drenched in sweat where I immediately got up and had to shower, then I got the chills. I had to take a nap right after the shower because I was exhausted. By that afternoon I felt somewhat okay, but I constantly had a headache and fatigue. My description on how I felt is that I had a 5 day hang over without the nausea. I suggest to anyone who drinks coffee to continue to because I think I had caffeine withdrawal. My fever really never went up over 101 the rest of the days I was ill and usually was close to normal in the morning and would increase to a little over 100 in the evenings. All these temperatures were taken without medicine. Friday to Tuesday , was a repeat of Thursday, except it was a little better each day. I believe on Saturday I realized I totally lost my sense of smell and taste when a very close friend of mine dropped off a bacon egg and cheese sandwich and I could not taste the bacon. How disappointing!!

On Sunday, March 22nd, We received a call from the Suffolk County Department of health. We explained how I was feeling and the plans my wife had put into place and the nurse was extremely pleased with our plan. She said so many people are not doing anything. The nurse said my entire family was on a mandatory quarantine. We did ask if we could walk around the block and she said yes. She encouraged it. She did say do not go to restaurants, food stores or any public places including using public transportation.   

I tried not to watch too much news, but the kept saying or at least I kept hearing day 7 or 8 is the critical day because things could turn bad on that day. I was so stressed about this day that I thought at times I was going to have a heart attack as my heart was racing and pounding. I kept this too from my wife. I woke up on March 24 and I did feel a little congestion in my throat and lungs and I was thinking, okay, this is going to be the day where I am going downhill. I have had pneumonia before and I had it in my head that is what was coming tomorrow. I was also very very stressed that I would spread and give it to my family, especially my one son who has asthma and my co-workers. I decided to sit in the back yard and as I was sitting there my chest was getting very tight, more anxiety than the inability to breathe. I was completely freaking out on the inside, but from the outside it looked like I was just catching some sun rays while sitting next to my pup. We kept our puppy also away from me for two weeks. She also knew something was not right because she kept her distance from me, but always sat somewhat near me when I was outside instead of her usual jumping on top of me. I settled myself down and went back into the basement.

My wife during this time was constantly changing the sheets, doing laundry, working full time, disinfecting, bleaching stuff, cooking, caring for the kids and following up on their school work and providing me with 3 meals a day and countless refills of water. I had sleepless nights where I was wondering what would happen to my family if something really did happen to me. Again, this is where the funny inappropriate texts made me laugh and really helped me. I would go back and read them and watch the videos just to laugh more.

Finally, I woke up on March 25, 2020 with no sweats, no drip, no congestion, no fever, no headache and no chills. I felt about 98% back to normal. I felt like the 1,000 pound gorilla came off my chest. I felt like this was an extreme turning point for me both physically and mentally as I now was half way through my mandatory quarantine, my family is still healthy and I feel great. I wrote up to this point in my story on the morning of March 25, 2020 as I really did not want to document it until I knew I was out of the clear. The evening of March 25 was very depressing for me. I had a low grade fever of 100.2 even though I felt great. I was so frustrated I could have cried. Each day there after I felt back to normal and each morning I would have no fever and then just a low grade about 99.2 in the evenings, but I still got better. I was finally removed from quarantine and it was the best feeling to get out of that basement.

I have now tried contacting several hospitals to get tested so I can donate plasma since I now have the antibodies and do not have to worry about contracting it again. I pray we all get through this quickly. Thank again to my wife for getting me through this. I love you.  PS Feel free to ask me any questions.

Jeff