My Brush with COVID-19

On Wednesday, March 18, I was scheduled for a regular follow up appointment with my Primary Care Provider.  On the Monday or Tuesday prior to my appointment, her office called and asked how I was feeling.

“Fine,” I said, “a mild sore throat, a little throat congestion, but I feel fine.”

When I went to the appointment, initially I saw a nurse instead of my doctor. She took my vitals (temp 97.6F), and did a throat culture for strep and a nose swab for COVID-19.

The nurse said that they would call with my test results in 48 hrs. They now claim they told me to isolate, but I honestly have no recollection of that.

Anyway, as promised, I got the call on Friday: Strep negative; COVID delayed because the state of New Hampshire was backed up on testing.

So, feeling just fine and not sick (I was pretty sick the last two weeks of January and felt really good at this point in March), I did not socially isolate. I had interaction with family (wife, children, some grandchildren, friends) and forgot about the pending test.

On Monday March 30 (12 days after the office test), I got the call from my doctor telling me I was POSITIVE for COVID. So, the very painful next step was to inform everyone I had contact with that I was positive, and they were all instructed to self-quarantine for two weeks from their last contact with me. Then the week of worry and guilt about what I had potentially done to all of those close to me and whom I love.

Fortunately, only one friend appears to have caught it, symptoms moderate, and largely over it now. My wife, children, and grandchildren, with whom I had a lot of contact, are all symptom-free as of today. According to the state of NH, I’m no longer contagious and my wife got off quarantine on April 9.

Interestingly, I informed my employer, BAE Systems, of my condition and they established a two week quarantine for me based on the date I informed them, not on the date of infection.  (They required a copy of my formal release from quarantine from the state of NH, but still established a secondary release date for me.)  It appears that many organizations are making up the rules as they go.

So what are my takeaways? First, this CAN happen to anyone. Second, and scary now, you DON’T have to have symptoms. Third, since testing is not widely available (none of those I was in contact with will be tested – they’re not in hospital and symptomatic), we have no way of knowing now who is a carrier and who is not. And equally scary for me is that no one really knows how this thing will play out.

I still have difficulty reconciling (recognizing I’m not an epidemiologist) the variation in response to this invisible thing -my slight symptoms, feeling basically fine, compared to death for thousands. Comprehending the statistics of numbers (millions of infections, thousands of deaths, death rate per thousand??) is also beyond me.

And I’m extremely grateful that no one else in my family has it for reasons I will likely never know.

In summary, classmates, life is not the same for me now compared to a few weeks ago. I have made some foolish decisions in my time, but this one probably ranks #1. If there is a blessing in it, I believe I have learned from it and will follow my wife’s advice now more than ever. (Had I followed her recommendations on social distancing early- and mid-March, we believe this would not have happened.)

Be safe, be well, be careful,

John