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Undiagnosed With Coronavirus

by Andrew Tuttle
06/04/21
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Author’s Note: In light of the emails released implicating Dr. Tony Faux-ci, I am retelling my wife’s experience with contracting coronavirus in March 2020. This is the first of three posts.

Part 2: Confirmed but Still Undiagnosed with Coronavirus
Part 3: Finally! A Positive Coronavirus Test

My wife returned from a business trip to Denver a week ago Thursday (March 12, 2020).

After our travels to Rwanda, Italy, Amsterdam and Atlanta in February it felt like playing fire with the coronavirus running rampant. So far, so good. But I asked her before she left if she really needed to go and followed with, “Tell work you’re not traveling anymore after you get home.”

On Friday (March 13), the day after she returned home, she complained of throat irritation and attributed it to the dry air in Denver. Makes sense. But then she learned someone who she worked alongside in Denver called out because of coronavirus type symptoms. Or the flu.

Saturday wasn’t much better but she seemed no worse for the wear and continued about her daily weekend life. By the afternoon she was running a fever. A low grade fever, 99.5, but a fever nonetheless. She had something.

Her condition deteriorated by Sunday as the cough she felt coming on the day before arrived along with shortness of breath. Fever broached 100. The body aches were mounting. She was cold, she was hot. All signs of a fever and the classic signs of the annual flu. She spent an hour navigating her company’s healthcare system that granted access to an on-call nurse. They said to go to the ER. OK, she was feeling bad, not dying.

A return call from the on-call doctor at her regular clinic came shortly later and she said “Don’t go to the ER leave that for those truly in need.” We agreed.

By now, I was feeling a slight pressure in my chest similar it seemed to how my wife described her initial chest discomfort before the cough set in. Was it in my head? I don't know but otherwise, no symptoms.

Monday (March 16) was no better. Her fever topped 101. She had difficulty breathing but she could breathe. Putting on pillow cases winded her. The fatigue set in. And boy did it. Somehow she managed to work. She normally works from home anyway so she put fires out via email and phone. But she longed to simply rest.

She called her regular doctor and the nurse aid recommended urgent care to get a complete assessment and hopefully the flu test. We made an appointment and got right in, surprisingly, on Thursday (March 19). I stayed outside as she texted me the inner workings of urgent care. We were hoping for a positive flu test and a prescription for Tamiflu. My brother had nearly the exact symptoms two weeks earlier and Tamiflu, as he put it, “Made me feel like a new man.”

After about 20 minutes inside urgent care she texted, “I have it.” I never felt so happy to hear she had the flu. A short while later she texted “Flu test was negative.” Wait, what? Our communication got crossed. She didn’t have the normal flu. Her next text said they were x-raying her lungs and if they see fluid we were off to the ER.

Fortunately, her lungs came back clean. Unfortunately, that was the last checkbox needed for her to get permission for a coronavirus test. She said the attending physician’s assistant came into the room looking ready for surgery when informed of our trip to Italy. Supposedly, some cases have developed after 14 days from first exposure.

If we were exposed in Italy it likely would have been from the dozen or so Chinese tourists on our flight to Italy five weeks prior. We never set foot in northern Italy. We left Italy, four weeks prior to her symptoms developing.

It was the trip to Denver.

Regardless, when was I going to start with symptoms? Whatever I felt the day before was gone.

Her fever, lethargy, decline in appetite and cough remained through that Thursday (March 19) when we heard about the use of anti-malaria drugs to combat the virus. My wife wasn’t getting better but she wasn’t exactly getting worse. Urgent care prescribed her an inhaler to breathe better and codeine for the cough. She doesn’t cough all that much but when she does it comes out forced and aggressive. She said her chest hurts from the cough so she tries and limits coughing as much as she can.

She still just wants to sleep. And sleep. And sleep.

Later, that same Thursday afternoon, we called urgent care and inquired about the malaria drugs that were making the news. Why not? If she doesn’t have coronavirus, chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine has a track record of safety and won’t do much harm. And if she does have coronavirus, who knows, maybe it works. We explained this to the female urgent care doctor in Sherwood, OR, who said, “We don’t do that in this country.”

(If I had her name I'd identify her. She should not be a practicing doctor.)

Initially, I did not take it as American pride or arrogance though it could easily be taken that way and quite possibly what she meant. Then I thought her bent was more towards “I wish I could but I can’t.” I concluded later this was all about President Donald Trump. Can you believe a doctor denied the use of a life-saving drug because of politics? And now we know, with the revelations from the Faux-ci emails among many others who have come forward, the drugs could have helped my wife.

So no malaria drugs. I guess we won’t bother trying the drug cocktail that has shown 100 percent efficacy in a well-controlled study out of France.

If we want it why can’t we have it? What would a proven safe malaria drug do even if it didn’t work? We both were on another anti-malaria pill for the trip to Rwanda with no side effects. Took it for two weeks. And, an old school antibiotic for a potential cure. WHY NOT? Even if she can’t get tested, WE WILL TAKE THE DRUGS!

At this point I have yet to show any symptoms.

On Friday (March 20), I called my doctor to ask about whether after all the time has passed without symptoms, so am I out of the woods? It was also my way of maybe trying another route to get tested. Unfortunately, I was told I have 14 days after my wife’s fever returns to normal to anticipate symptoms, if she indeed has the coronavirus. No luck on getting tested, either.

Today (March 21), a week after her fever started she still has a fever. It hits 101 and Tylenol brings it back to low 100. We switched to Tylenol after hearing about the problems with ibuprofen.  She has slept all day. I washed two cars, used clay on one of them followed by a wax. She has no idea I was outside all afternoon working on the cars.

And I have yet to show any symptoms.