I am 38 years old and I had COVID-19.
I work at a doctor's office in a small community.
On the Thursday I started with a sore throat, tight, tight chest in the afternoon.
I was at work. At first I thought you know, I have a cold, I picked up something.
I talked to my employer, Dr. Gibbons and I just said, you know what,
I'm really not feeling well and she said okay that's it you have to self isolate 14 days.
Do not come back until you're better.
The first few days were pretty rough. I thought you know, this is a strange cold
because it wasn't the typical cold symptoms like runny nose, it was more feeling very unwell.
So pain all through body, joints, I was very stiff, I slept a lot, headache, horrible headache.
I did have fever and chills and night sweats.
Abdominal pain, very nauseous. I didn't eat hardly anything in the two weeks that I was ill.
It was awful, it felt awful.
The shortness of breath kind of – was quite scary because it was strong.
It felt like someone was sitting on my chest. It was heavy.
When I took a deep breath, I couldn't open my lungs all the way to get a good refreshing breath in.
When I was told that I had COVID-19 – my first thought was I'm going to die
because on the news that's all you see.
And being in health care you know, we see all the statistics, we see all of the reports that come in
and you mainly only see the negative side of it you rarely see the positive – outcomes,
you know, people living, people getting strong, people having mild symptoms, that's not really highlighted
and so I felt that – that was it, once I had it, it was gonna be over.
It was devastating – for my family too.
I remember when I told my son, well when I told the family that I had it,
you know, my son right away – started screaming and he said, I don't want you to go to the hospital.
Because again that's all they see is – all they see is the bad stuff on the news right now.
I called Dr. Gibbens and explained to her that I had COVID-19.
This was devastating for her as well because everyone here in my workplace works closely with me.
The clinic needed to be shut down.
So she had to post publicly that we were closed for 14 days while we isolated at home.
Everybody in our little community panicked. People were saying, who was it?
You should tell us who it was.
Were they in our store? Did they come in contact with anyone?
Is it a worker or a patient? We need to know.
You know everybody became very panicked, very upset. I felt like it was impacting the clinic negatively.
And, you know I didn't want to get this virus.
I tried everything in my power not to get it.
It just, it happens. So I thought you know what,
I need to get this out there that it was me, because if I tell them that it was me,
and I tell them my whereabouts before and that I'm self-isolating,
you know maybe that will just calm the fear down a little bit.
So I did that. I said, hey everyone, it's Amanda here. I'm the one with COVID-19.
And you know, I told them about my whereabouts, where I had been, that I had been practicing social distancing
and I think that helped everybody kind of calm down.
And it was, it was unbelievable the amount of love and support that I got because of that post.
Everyone was, it turned everyone from being angry and upset and nervous, scared, panicked
to you know, they had heartfelt messages.
People I don't even know were messaging me,
thank you for coming out and letting us know and we had many people reach out.
We had food dropped off at our door. We met some neighbours that are really lovely.
They brought us some dinners that we just had to put in the oven which was great because
I didn't feel like cooking, I didn't feel like getting out of bed.
I didn't –I didn't have it in me. I didn't have the energy to do it.
About day eight, I went outside. I got some fresh air.
I got all dressed up in warm clothes.
I was probably only out there for half an hour
but it felt good to get some fresh air and then right back in for a nap.
About day eleven, the headache started to lift and I felt more alive and I started to you know
really disinfect the house and and get things back together a little.
It was it was kind of hard on my family with me being in the bedroom a lot.
Not many people admit that they have it or they don't want to say that they have it,
but you know, I want to spread awareness. It can happen to anyone.
I feel like I'm young and I know that there are a lot of people that are younger than me
that are getting this and becoming more sick than I was.
I want everyone to make sure that they practice social distancing –
stay home and stay safe.