EDITOR's NOTE: Rhonda Rowe is a former Yorkton This Week staff member, who still lives in the area. She was good enough to share this personal account of waiting for her COVID-19 test results. This is her story, in her words.
“Innocent until proven guilty”
In a court of law in Canada, this is our reality. It is the same in many countries around the world. One is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
Not so with the current pandemic, caused by COVID-19. If you have a flu, you are effectively “guilty” until proven innocent by the test results that will either release you from your prison of isolation or keep you from being able to go back out into the world.
This is Rhonda. I am going to attempt to chronical a bit of my journey with this reality that is currently facing me.
Let’s backtrack a little.
Monday night, I knew that I was scheduled to go back to work on Tuesday morning, after a leave of absence from work that had lasted about a month.
My muscles in my shoulders were really sore, but I often get sore muscles, so I followed my usual routine-applied Tiger Balm and went to bed early….8:30 p.m. to be precise.
I awoke at 1:34 am shivering so badly that my teeth were chattering, my whole body hurt-both my muscles and my bones. I got out of bed and realized I had a headache too-but all I could think about was, ‘I need to warm up!’ Feeling cold for me is one of the most painful sensations that I experience. Some feel horrible when they are too hot-not me-cold is my enemy.
I retrieved an extra blanket, put extra clothes on and crawled back into bed. I was unsuccessful in falling back to sleep, but after an hour and a half, I finally warmed up-but then thought maybe I should take my temperature.
Sure enough-it was 100.7 F. Great. Realization time-I was not going back to work in the morning.
My temperature continued to climb to 101.1F. I felt like I had been hit by a Mack Truck, as the saying goes.
I decided to call the Emerg in Esterhazy. The nurse on duty asked me what my symptoms were and after relaying everything to her, she said to take 2 Tylenol, monitor my symptoms and see how I was in the morning. She also mentioned calling 811, if I became concerned. I called 811 and they were surprised that my local hospital had given me that much information. They told me the same thing. I told them that I had no Tylenol. The nurse told me to see if a neighbor or friend could bring some over to me.
It’s now 5:00 a.m. I decided to try and sleep for a bit. I woke up a few times, coughing, and then finally awoke again at 9:00 a.m. and felt a little better. I messaged my neighbor, to see if she had Tylenol. She did and brought and left it at my back door. My temperature had dropped already, so thankfully, I did not need to take any.
I then called my Doctor and she asked about my symptoms and told me to not leave my home except to go to Emergency in Esterhazy at around 5 p.m. and they would do a swab for COVID-19. “Go straight home after your test and stay home until your results come back.”
No problem.
Fast forward to today, Friday, March 20, 2020.
I have been running a low grade fever since my fever went down on Tuesday, March 17, 2020. I have experienced slight shortness of breath, but nothing overwhelming. Today, shortness of breath continues, tiredness and more dry coughing than before.
People have kindly brought care packages to my back door and have kept me laughing with their funny texts and my friend’s little five-year old foster child asked me today, “Are you still alive?” Which caused both my friend and I to burst out laughing. “Yes, little one, I am still alive-this is not a recording.” Kids are the best when you need a good laugh. This 5 year old is also referring to the virus as, “the Karate virus”…so, as the Proverb says, “Laughter does good like a medicine”, and I have certainly had my fair share of laughter over the past few days.
I am also thankful to have 3 fur babies to keep me company! Social distancing is hard enough for someone like me, who hugs people all the time, but isolation from human contact has been the most challenging part of being isolated….and it’s only been three days. I cannot imagine being without human contact for any great length of time. So, as I await my test results, I am hoping that an elbow bump will be in my near future-at least its contact.
Until my next update,
Thanks to all of you who are self-isolating and being a responsible citizen and an outstanding human being.
Stay safe!
Stay healthy!
PS
I have great news-30 minutes after I finished writing this, my doctor called to tell me that my test for COVID-19 came back NEGATIVE!
Awesomeness-except she told me that because I still have another type of flu, that I should remain in isolation until I am no longer symptomatic.
So here’s to another day “in prison” albeit a really beautiful one-my home.
