A nasty virus that no-one wants to get
It is seven weeks since Warragul couple Terry Hennessy and Magret Rea returned from Turkey and went into self-isolation.
At the time, Australia was at the beginning of restrictions. Non-essential activity had been shut down. Stay at home restrictions had not been announced.
Terry and Magret were the first locals to test positive to coronavirus in Baw Baw Shire. There have been only three since.
When The Gazette first spoke with Terry and Magret, they thought they were over the “worst” of their symptoms, saying they both experienced flu-like symptoms that peaked with temperature spikes and hot sweats.
But they weren’t in the clear - the virus continued to take hold.
Terry and Magret are now in the “recovered” statistics. This is Terry’s story of their COVID-19 journey.
“After being tested and confirmed we were positive we were so thankful that we had made it back home after travelling for 38 hours. As we were not feeling too bad we kept saying how lucky we were.
The initial symptoms; extreme tiredness, sore throat, fever, diarrhoea, headache, loss of taste and smell and runny nose were starting to clear up.
Whenever we did anything that required a little exertion we would then feel a little short of breath. I was getting better day by day but Marg still had a persistent cough. We were contacted by the Health Department every day to inquire of our progress.
Marg’s coughing got worse, she would cough and cough until she would start vomiting, the Health Deptartment said to keep a watch on her breathing and if it got worse call West Gippsland Hospital.
On Saturday after having a phone consultation with a GP we called an ambulance and Marg was admitted to the the hospital for observation for several hours. I picked her up later that night and brought her home, she had been prescribed some drugs to ease her coughing and feeling of nausea.
By 4am on the Sunday (eight days after our test) Marg’s breathing was much worse, I contacted the hospital and then took her back. She was admitted to an isolation room on the ward, put on oxygen and they then started testing.
Bloods, x-rays, oxy levels etc. The iso room has fresh air pumped into it and can be rather cold. Marg only had the clothes she was wearing when I drove to hospital and was feeling the cold. As I was still in isolation and the clothes would be contaminated if I put then in a bag and no one could come into our house to collect them we had to think outside the square.
Marg came up the idea, A friend, a nurse, came to the house, put on a mask and gloves and took clean clothes off the outside washing line and placed them into some clean bags.
The hospital tests showed that there was shading on the x-rays which was diagnosed as pneumonia, and so they started a drug regimen to combat it. Meanwhile the Health Dept cleared me after checking I was free of most symptoms, they issued me with a clearance certificate to say I was free from isolation. I was able to deliver more clean clothes to the hospital reception.
After many more tests, more blood tests, another x-ray the doctors started saying they were happy with the progress. On the Saturday, seven days after being admitted I was able to collect her from the hospital and bring her home.
She started to improve in leaps and bounds, but all the antibiotics she had been prescribed meant that her immune system was very low and she was suffering from Candida, more prescriptions and thankfully that has cleared up.
For Marg the main symptoms were the body aches and pains.
We both still feel a little breathless after any prolonged work. My sense of taste is slowly coming back, Marg’s taste and smell senses are working fine.
We have both been cleared by the Health Department but that advice is only because we had been free from symptoms for more than three days. We are doing the same as everybody else, staying home unless for shopping or medical appointments.
I have a nephew who is a specialist anaesthesiologist, he has advised us that it will take many months for our lungs to fully recover. So we are just waiting till we are able to travel again and will continue to get out and explore the world.
As the orange man in the USA keeps saying “I’m not a doctor, But!”. This is one nasty virus, stay at home, wash your hands and practice social distancing. Believe me you don’t want to get even a mild case.
And like everyone else, we are missing out on celebrating family gatherings, including our son in law’s birthday and our youngest grandson’s second birthday.”