COM Outlook Summer/Fall 2020

26 | DR. KIRAN C. PATEL COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE A s I write this, it is mid-May, and I am already more than six weeks into dealing with COVID-19. I suppose I can say I am recovering, but I am nowhere near to my old self. I hope that by the time this is published, I can say I am fully recovered. As we all know, there are patients who are asymptomatic or have mild cases. Then there are those who are severe and end up in the hospital. Thank God, I was not one of the latter. However, since I cannot define my level of illness by either of the aforementioned descriptions, I guess I will diagnose myself as a moderate case. That’s the problem with this virus. No one knows. During my illness, I have been face-to-face with only two medical professionals— the person who swabbed my throat while I sat in the car and the tech- nician who did a chest X-ray, which was negative despite ongoing chest and rib pain. We have seen the horrific pictures of what is going on in the hospitals. We get scared, we cry, and we are thankful that it is not us. We hear there are many people who probably had it but never got sick or had mild symptoms. I know people like that. Then there is my story—stuck in the middle. I experienced my first (now assumed) COVID-19 head- ache in late March. The headaches continued for about two weeks, on and off. Then I started having pressure in my chest and feeling sick. My fever never rose above 100, but I had body aches, and my head felt heavy, not quite there. Then the head congestion came, and I could not smell or taste a thing. With that came breathlessness that also caused lightheadedness and the feeling that I could not draw a full breath. There was also some inconsistent dry coughing, which appeared mostly at night. One scary night, I got a tickle in my throat that set off a severe coughing fit. At one point, I felt I couldn’t breathe and wondered if this was it. Did I need to go to the hospital? Somehow, I managed to get the cough to calm down. I tested positive for COVID-19 in early April, after discovering that my family had been exposed to another family member who had tested positive. My husband and daughter tested inconclusive—even though they had been sick before me with the same symptoms—and then negative. I was the only one who was diagnosed as having COVID-19. Even for those of us stuck in the middle, it is a miserable—and at times scary—virus. If you know of any people who believe we should rush back into normal life, have them talk to me. I’ll set them straight for you. Linda Maurice is director of community education and lifelong learning. BY LINDA E. MAURICE, M.A. Stuck in the Middle COVID-19 SURVIVOR Linda E. Maurice My fever never rose above 100, but I had body aches, and my head felt heavy, not quite there. Then the head congestion came, and I could not smell or taste a thing.