Colorado Teacher and Wuhan Coronavirus Survivor Gives a Hopeful, Eye-Opening Account of Her Experience

A headache, a tickle in the throat and queasiness. That's how 33-year-old Jillian Deganhart's Wuhan coronavirus symptoms started. The high school teacher from Brighton, Colorado was one of the earlier cases as the pandemic became more rampant in the United States.

"The tickle in my throat and the headache began around noon on Sunday and then I got queasy when I got ready for bed," Deganhart told Townhall. "The next morning I had a low-grade fever."

Deganhart said she recognized the symptoms but thought "that's really unlikely. There's no way it could be coronavirus."

She thought about her interactions and who she had come in contact with. There was only one possibility that made sense: she had recently met with a student to go over missing school work. The student had just come back from Scotland and France (and possibly Italy) five days before her symptoms began.

"He didn't quarantine and he mentioned to me that a person on his plane had the coronavirus," Deganhart explained. "The only reason I was tested was because of my student's travel, not because of my symptoms."

When Deganhart had the virus at the end of February and beginning of March, testing was very, very limited in the United States. Local hospitals and health departments were selective about who received testing.

"It took four days for me to get my results back. By then I had a 100.3 fever, chills and my head was killing me," she recalled.

Deganhart said her local health department made her diagnosis easier to deal with.

"The health department was kind and helpful from the moment my results came back positive," she recalled. "They did contact tracing and made everyone aware of my positive symptoms."

Part of the contract tracing included alerting the school district Deganhart works at. The school was required to close for 72 hours while a deep clean took place. The move was precautionary considering she hadn't been to school in a week and had self-quarantined at home.

"This was happening at the same time as schools across the nation were beginning to close," she told Townhall.

Even though Deganhart could have remained anonymous and not said anything to her students, she decided to speak out about her positive diagnosis.

"I felt like I wasn’t supposed to tell because so much stigma and fear surrounding the virus. Maybe I’m not supposed to tell anyone. I’m a transparent person so I reached out to my students and told them," she explained. "I said, 'We’re all going to get through this.'"

She wanted them to know that contracting the virus wasn't as bad as it was made out to be and it was nothing like the common flu.

"It's more like a bad head cold with sinus pressure and a headache, along with fever and chills," Deganhart said. "There was no stomach issues, diarrhea or other GI stuff like you get with the flu."

The teacher felt slightly guilty for causing a disruption at her school, but the health department reassured her that she made the right decisions, which put her at ease.

"They told me, 'You called right away, you quarantined from your own family, you didn’t go to school," Deganhart told Townhall. "I didn’t feel like I could have done anything differently, aside from contracting the virus."

The most difficult aspect of the entire ordeal wasn't the virus itself but the confusion over incubation periods, whether or not she was still contagious and how long she needed to self-quarantine for. At first, Deganhart was told she needed to quarantine for 14 days after her symptoms began. When she was 10 days into her quarantine, the health department told her she was okay as long as she hadn't had a fever in 72 hours. She explained that she hadn't had a fever in over a week. The health department told her it was likely that she was negative by now.

"The health department said I should be okay to leave the house," Deganhart recounted. "I called my doctor's office and they said [that quarantine was necessary until] seven days after symptoms began and that I should be negative."

The one downside to the Wuhan coronavirus, however, was that she spread it to her family, who are also her roommates. Her brother had symptoms but the lab technician accidentally threw his swab away before running the test, so there's no way to definitively know if it was positive. Her sister-in-law, who is also a teacher, had some symptoms but still went to work. Once the school found out about the sister-in-law's symptoms, she was sent home. Although her results came back negative, she still felt guilty because of it. Deganhart's nieces both came down fevers and had symptoms for about a week, but they weren't tested.

Deganhart's father, who is in his 60s and has diabetes, had visited during the timeframe and contracted the virus. He made a full recovery, but he also infected her mother.

A couple of weeks after Deganhart tested positive, the Children's Hospital of Denver was looking for blood donors, something Deganhart wanted to do. She was unsure if she could because of her recent positive Wuhan coronavirus test.

"The doctor called back and had requested an experimental treatment with the FDA and was waiting for confirmation. He told me, 'If we get permission, we'd love to collect your blood plasma," she recalled. "The next day the FDA gave them permission."

The hospital tested Deganhart for the Wuhan coronavirus again. This time her test took three hours to come back and the results were negative.

"They did the normal full donor survey and collected 400ml of plasma. The machine was really cool. I never donated plasma before. It only took about 30 minutes," she explained.

When Deganhart donated her plasma, she was told it was going to treat a patient at a university hospital in Denver who was in intensive care with the virus. Researchers now believe that giving plasma from coronavirus survivors can help patients who currently have the virus.

What made the donation even more special for the teacher: she was a patient at Denver Children's Hospital when she was a child.

"I went to that hospital as a kid because of a blood disease and it felt really cool to go back and contribute this way," she said.

After seeing Deganhart donate her plasma to other Wuhan coronavirus patients, the whole family wants to move forward with making donations, especially if it helps other people.

The teacher has one piece of advice for those who are diagnosed: stay home, let your body rest, have Tylenol on hand and a good book to read.

Here is a report from my first cousin who is still recovering. She does Techical writing for a living, so she writes alot...

Day 7

Friends, I want to thank all of you for getting me through these last several days. It is hard to be badly sick, especially when you have to take care of yourself because nobody else can. This is when the several years I spent living by myself is really paying off because I know how to take care of myself well, so I’ve been toughing this out upstairs at home while my parents stay downstairs. They just bring trays of food to the top of the stairs for me every day... it’s like I’m their gremlin that lives in the attic and sometimes hollers at them what I want to eat.

On a serious note though, this has been HARD. This is the sickest I’ve ever been in my life, and I know so many people are going to have this MUCH worse than I have it and will need extreme professional help. That being said, yesterday, I took a bad turn and had more spasms—some in my chest, and some that traveled all the way down my body into my legs and feet. I then lost enough oxygen that my arms, hands, feet, and lips went numb, and I couldn’t regain myself on my own. By the time the paramedics got to the house, my legs had also started going numb. I needed the help, but it weighed on me because of this situation we are all in.

What constitutes a medical emergency right now is not exactly the same that it normally would be. They are getting ready to try to save lots of dying people. If you’re not dying, you’re in the way. I don’t want to be in the way, and I also don’t want to risk making anybody else sick like this, especially people who will be caring for those who are dying from it, and especially if I’m not sure that I’m actually dying or just feel like I am. Honestly, twice this week I really didn’t know if I was going to make it through or not. Fortunately, I only had to be monitored in the ER for a several hours last night and did not have to be admitted to the hospital. They were able to stabilize my breathing, give me more fluids, and they took chest x-rays which showed my lungs were clear!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!! I have worked SO HARD to not get pneumonia!!! THANK GOD!!!!

The doctor also prescribed me with medicine to treat the spasms if they come back, and I am so grateful for the hope of relief from that. This was exactly everything I needed, and I pray that I won’t have to make another visit to the hospital. I pray the worst is over. And I fervently pray that no one has gotten this evil monster from me.

TODAY was a much easier day. At a time when I would otherwise feel so alone, I have been overwhelmed with love and comfort. I can’t even begin to describe the emotional rollercoaster I have been on the past week, but every single person who has reached out to me has touched my heart, and I have thanked God for every one of you. I’m so sorry I haven’t responded to almost any of the messages I’ve received today yet. I’ve been taking it easy at home, teleworking, and resting. I am so very blessed that my job has allowed me to work from home during this crisis. I have been trying to press on through this illness with some sense of routine and structure for my mental health, so doing my job while I’m recovering has given me a sense of purpose and keeps my mind off things that are out of my control right now.

I also made a lot of phone calls today and finally reached someone with access to my charts from my test last week, and I officially found out that I did test positive for COVID-19. At this point, I really didn’t need a test to tell me that, but having the closure is good because if it wasn’t that, I REALLY needed to know what was happening to me. So today, I am thankful for friends, family, answers, and the grace of God. GOD has carried me through another day! HALLELUJAH!!!

Day 10.

Today was mostly a restful day after a restless night. Last night, it was hard to sleep because I stayed up for a while trying to keep my throat clear, and then I had another spell of accelerated heart rate and muscle spasms. They were a lot less intense than the previous attacks I’ve had, but I am still so sore and tired that it hurts almost as bad. I’m mostly concerned about protecting my lungs and maintaining my breathing, which is hard to do if you feel like you’re having a heart attack. The only thing that’s predictable about the way this virus works is that it goes from okay to very bad very quickly.

This morning, I woke up feeling tired and weak, so I decided I needed to rest and regain strength. This was a wise choice. Each time I’ve had an attack, the symptoms have become less aggressive, but my body is starting to feel the effects of everything I’ve been through. My chest feels like it’s been run over by a train, but I can still get a full breath, so that is something to be grateful for. I still cannot taste or smell, but I’ve thought a couple of times that it might be coming back. However, my mind has been filling in the gaps so well that I can’t tell if it’s just my imagination or if it’s real. I’m sure I’ll know when I really can!

I’m also regaining my appetite for more solid foods instead of forcing myself to eat them, so I feel like that’s a good sign. I started wheezing a little bit today, which makes me a little nervous, but I’ve got inhalers, a humidifier, cough drops, lots of water and honey, and orange-pineapple juice to keep my throat as clear and open as possible. I’ve been taking zinc and vitamin c every day and mucinex as needed. I’ve been through a case and a half of bottled water.

This is day 10 of my symptoms, so I *should* be on the final climb out of this, but I have to take this one day and one night at a time. You really have to be vigilant with this disease. It doesn’t matter how old you are. I have been a healthy 28-year-old woman, strong and very physically active, with no underlying chronic medical conditions. I have honestly thought I was going to die from this twice.

This is not to cause fear or panic, but to let you know...this is real, and it’s serious, and that is why we all need to stay home for a while to protect not just ourselves, but each other, and flatten the curve. My prayer for tonight is that I can maintain my lung capacity and breathing stability and that there will be no more painful spasms. I trust God that He will see me through whatever I have left to endure of this, no matter what the outcome is. I know God will always be there and never leave. I am NOT alone. I have been so moved and humbled by the outpouring of love and prayers on behalf of me and my family as I am battling this. I have seen God at work through so many people every day of this journey, and I hope to share about that another time because it has been SO incredible.

Also, my parents are superheroes, and they have been holding up SO WELL in this situation. The prayers and encouragement mean so much to them. Please continue to pray for them in the coming weeks as we all recover from this nightmare. I am confident that we—as in, the whole world—will come out the other side of this crisis with new life and purpose. We are all going to come out of this stronger and better people with bright ideas for making our world a better place and looking out for the good of others. I can feel it. God is at work here.

Posted on 04/04/2020 11:12:55 AM PDT by Bryan24 (When in doubt, move to the right..........)

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