LESSONS LEARNED
OBU campus physician shares experiences with COVID-19
ARKADELPHIA — Ouachita Baptist University campus physician Dr. Wesley Kluck encourages people not to wait until they have symptoms like a cough or fever to get tested for COVID-19 based on his experiences on campus.
“For us, we’ve just not seen those be the main symptoms. Most of the college students who’ve come in, the most classic symptom is ‘Oh, it’s my allergies are acting up again,” Kluck, who is also the vice president of Student Development, told The Sentinel-Record.
Kluck is in charge of testing on campus. He’s recently shared some of the lessons he’s learned “as the coordinator of COVID-19 protocol and testing at Ouachita Baptist University, as a long-time Southern Baptist preacher’s kid, and most recently as a patient with COVID-19,” in Facebook posts. Kluck recently spoke with the newspaper about these lessons, as well as other facts he’s documented “while
managing the prevention, testing and treatment of COVID-19 at Ouachita Baptist University this fall,” as the Facebook post puts it.
Kluck said they’ve noted the symptoms of every patient who tested positive, a group that includes students, faculty, and staff. He said the top signs were congestion, throat irritation, loss of smell and taste, and headache.
“The symptoms that a lot of people have are symptoms they commonly have, it’s just that this year the COVID is what’s setting them off instead of the normal allergies or a cold or whatever,” he said.
Kluck’s own experience dealing with COVID-19 mirrored this, as well.
“I had a little tickle in my throat; I get it every November. I didn’t even think anything about it and I was teaching the school nurse how to do the test, just in case … I have another nurse that does all the testing and I wanted to have a backup, so she did my test and says ‘Oh, you’re positive,’” said Kluck. “And I went ‘ No, do it again.’ So she did it again and says ‘ You’re positive.’ And I said, ‘ Well all I have is a little tickle in my throat, I get that every year. It can’t be COVID.”
According to Kluck’s Facebook post, some other common phrases they heard from those who tested positive were:
• “Feels like every sinus infection I ever have had.”
• “I’m tired, but I’m always tired.”
• “I’m achy but I’m an athlete and I get achy every day.”
According to his Dec. 7 post, there were 195 positive cases, and of all testing that was done, the overall positivity rate was 10.4%.
Kluck said it’s worth getting tested if you have any symptoms, even ones that you have normally.
“Yeah, Christmas, New Year’s, you’ll have a big upswing if people don’t do the testing, for sure,” he said.