Coronavirus Patient Story

From a U.S. Army Unit Commander

Mar 21, 2020, at 12:10 PM, a friend from the Honor Guard Area Coordinator’s Office forwarded this account from her former Unit Commander who acquired the COVID-19 infection while on duty overseas. Her story should motivate us all to heed her warning!

Coronavirus Patient’s Warning

”Long post, it’s all mine. Written by me, your boring old friend Annie, NOT shared from some anonymous person on my Facebook…

How many of you ACTUALLY KNOW someone with 🦠 Coronavirus 🦠??? …100% of you. It is me. 🙋🏼‍♀️I came to Germany and caught the global pandemic! 🤣🤣🤣 <— leave it to me, right?!?!

You all think “I’m fine. I washed my hands. I’ve been sanitizing. Nobody I know is sick…” Well… I was fine. I washed and sanitized LIKE CRAZY. I wasn’t around anybody who was sick. My building wasn’t dirty. I sanitized my workspace. I attended the meetings all clumped together with everyone else in the office. I didn’t meet anybody new, I didn’t go anywhere out of the ordinary. We were just starting the social distancing, and I laughed along with everybody else in the room. I gave hugs at special events, I enjoyed myself at karaoke night, I called the Uber. I went tanning, had dinner on the town. I self-isolated THE SECOND I noticed symptoms. I reported my symptoms and wasn’t taken seriously. I would’ve kept going to work because my immediate leadership didn’t take it seriously, but luckily the bigger bosses did the right thing.

For an entire week, I felt completely fine, and did everything the CDC, the host nation government, and my own government back home said to do. And for that whole week, I was “shedding” the virus, possibly infecting EVERYONE I came in contact with. I have NO IDEA where I got it. I was literally patient #3 or #4 (two of us tested positive at the same time) confirmed in my command. I don’t know the first 2 people who got it. I don’t know where their desks are, or if they ever even walk past mine. Nothing in my life changed, aside from the changes we were all starting to make as a community. I didn’t do anything different that my “group” didn’t do or wasn’t doing.

And I spread it. To whom? Who knows?!?! I have a verified list of at least 20 people who are now isolated. BECAUSE OF ME. And that list is bigger than that, because of the public places I was in, with people I CANNOT verify or notify. Because I had no symptoms, and no idea. I was NO MORE likely to have it than any of them. But I do. And now they all might too. And whoever they might have spread it to in their week of being exposed unknowingly, and showing no symptoms.

No, I’m not going to die. I’m not going to go to the hospital. However, mortality rate aside, THIS SUCKS!!! I cannot breathe right, now I understand what asthma feels like. It’s horrible. I have had a nagging, low-grade fever FOR A WEEK. Nothing makes it go away, it just hangs out… I COMPLETELY lost ALL sense of smell, and most of my taste. My throat hurts, my body hurts, I am tired. I am ALONE. Like 100%, all the way, alone. My 39th birthday was Wednesday, I spent it isolated, alone in my apartment in Germany. And I’M OTHERWISE HEALTHY!!! Think of those who are compromised, and what this silent beast could do to them!!!

All the sneaking out for a haircut, a quick dine-in dinner, the debit purchase at Walmart, not wiping down the gas pump… you think you’re fine, then BAM!!! You’re not! I know we need to support our locals. We personally are still paying tuition for our daughter’s cheer class that is likely cancelled for the rest of the year, because we need our studio to make it to next year. I will advance-pay for haircuts that my kids will def need after this blows over, because our hair lady is one of my BEST FRIENDS. We will still drive thru for coffee shop Fridays, where our card should be on file by now. And I know my fam is back home trying out all the take out & delivery services that our hometown businesses are offering now. Just, please everyone, do the right thing for just a couple weeks! I have an immunocompromised child back there at home. If she catches this, it will definitely KILL HER! And, there will be NOTHING I can do to get back to her! I would be stuck in Germany watching my baby suffer to death over FaceTime!

I love you all! Please stay healthy and safe! Isolation sucks, but do it for the greater good!”