Posted on 04/04/2020 10:50:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
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.
They are certainly not enjoyable. Not by any means. And why they strike is still a mystery, unfortunately. A cousin died of meningitis at a young age. The (small town)doctor was at a loss not knowing what might be going on. If one illness doesn’t get you, prepare for the next.
I think I had that one about 15 years ago. :-) Thought I would die. I also started taking the flu shot and wearing a face mask during flu season and I’ve never had it again either. I wear the mask trying to prevent the strains that don’t get included in the shot.
I didn’t see the words “phantasmagorical visions” in her list of symptoms.
Fredo said he’s having them under Covid-19. Maybe his strain was laced with LSD when he caught it.
Both accounts are great.
I asked. They did not give her Quinine, well, at least Hydroxychloroquinine or what ever that is called.
“I didn’t see the words “phantasmagorical visions” in her list of symptoms.”
In some patients it attacks not just the heart and lungs but other organs and the brain. Much like a stroke victim has vision issues Fredo’s “phantasmagorical visions” may indeed be from the virus.
They didn’t have the “Wuhan flu” test when I was in the hospital in Jan/Feb so I can’t say I had it but I had the heart muscle pain and shortness of breath up front. Then two weeks later I had “phantasmagorical visions” on the back end of it. Sparkles, shimmering, brightly colored shapes, eyes not focusing correctly etc.
The big issue imo is how long the ancillary damage lasts. I saw a YouTube of a “recovered” Chinese man detailing his life after Covid. It was rough. He had difficulty breathing as he walked and it was apparent he had greatly diminished stamina. The cheery, CCP-approved “everything fine now” went over like a lead balloon.
People here were having an “unknown virus” since January. I get the feeling some of the numbers in NYC might not be Wuhan Virus.
DW and I had about of flu so bad we couldn’t move on our own, chills, every fiber of our being hurt. Our blood pressure plummeted. We had to have one set of parents care for us and another set care for the kids.
Finally made it to the ER were they said we had the flu and we would feel better in a few days. Never knew what that was or how we got it. But we thought we were dying and at one point that seemed ok.
Wicked, think your dying, flu is nothing new. What’s different is so many of us will get close together and we have social media to scare the daylights out of each other.
I was flat on my back for four days. I was a pack a day smoker then. I remember trying to smoke a cigarette just once during that time. I couldn't manage to inhale the smoke. All of you smokers out there will appreciate how bad that must have been.
I don't think I would do well with this Wuhan virus. Six years ago I ended up in the hospital with flu-like symptoms. I spent two days on a ventilator, had a minor heart-attack, a cat scan discovered a tumor on my intestines, and I lost 13 pounds in two weeks. The rest of the year was spent recuperating from quadruple bypass followed by cancer surgery.
I already get out of breath after just a couple of minutes of light exertion. In addition to any lung damage already inflicted, I found out last year that my cancer medication was causing lung damage.
Despite all this I am the major care provider for my wife who started chemo on January 30th. Since that time we have been self-isolating because of her lowered immunity and the fact that there would be no good replacement for me if I got sick. My wife's surgery has just been postponed and so her treatment has suddenly become other than the doctors originally recommended.
What happened to all the old people I remember from my youth in their rocking chairs enjoying their golden years? I been robbed.
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