Miss Twin Rivers recounts overcoming coronavirus
‘I’m here today, thank the Lord’
ALLEN, Texas — For Miss Twin Rivers Madi Franquiz, her interest in research science and medicine took a different turn recently when she contracted COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
It wasn’t the way anyone would like to ring in a new year or learn details about a virus, but Franquiz found her 2021 kicked off with COVID. She survived and overcame it.
“I’m here today, thank the Lord,” Franquiz said, noting she’s the type of person to push through an illness. “I don’t want to be sick when I am sick, so I usually just move through.”
But having a job in food service at Starbucks, though, someone in the block of workers she’s with got COVID. “For me it started with sinus pressure, some of the gunk that you get there. I had a little bit of coughing but it wasn’t extreme,” she recalled.
Franquiz, who will represent Texarkana at this year’s Miss Texas pageant in June, had such a migraine that she felt compelled to go to the doctor about five or six days into the illness. She had a fever and chills, a feeling of being physically overwhelmed.
“The migraine where you couldn’t see, couldn’t think, couldn’t eat — you felt like you’re in a constant state of nausea,” Franquiz said. She remembers telling her dad, who took her to get tested, that if she died she wouldn’t care.
“I was just in that much pain,” she said. “And I know many people who’ve had COVID who felt the same way at a certain point in time,” Franquiz said.
Once she got tested and learned she was COVID positive, she started feeling better.
“But it’s been still a struggle. I’m still tired,” Franquiz said. She suspected she had COVID because someone in that work block got it. The work block at her job is a strategic grouping of workers so in case someone does get COVID, it doesn’t spread rapidly.
She was suspicious but didn’t have a lot of coughing. “It’s varied symptoms across the board,” she said.
During quarantine, her parents brought food to her door. They were lucky to spread out and sleep in separate rooms, she said. She wore a mask when they were near.
“For vulnerability, it was tough being alone and being isolated for so long. There’s only so many times you can watch ‘Parks and Rec’ and ‘The Office’ and be, OK, I’m feeling great about life at this point in time,” Franquiz said. “You have to pull through from inwardly and say, I’m going to get through this no matter what.”
Franquiz wants to pursue a master’s degree in microbiology, cell biology and immunology. She aims to pursue her passion for people, medicine, science and research in a fulfilling manner as a clinical research physician.
Her father works in health care, and though healthy he’s in an at-risk age group. Therefore, she wanted to make sure she stayed away from her father as much as possible when she was sick.
“I love him so much, I want him to be well,” Franquiz said. “That was really my whole thought process the entire time was make sure I protected my loved ones.”
Last year, Franquiz used her pageant platform to tout women getting involved in STEM. As Miss Twin Rivers and hailing from Allen, Texas, she’s one Miss Texarkana Twin Rivers Scholarship Organization titleholder.
She remained in quarantine for two more weeks, but she felt bad for about a whole month. “I still don’t feel normal,” said Franquiz, who’s 23.
“I’m a vocalist and so sometimes my lungs will hurt when I’m singing and it’s hard to breathe. From some of the studies that I’ve read, COVID takes out some of the red blood cells, which are the oxygen carriers in our body,” she said.
She’s still recovering. She experiences brain fog. “But I’m way better than I was before,” said Franquiz, who works a fast-paced job.
“We’re labeled as essential workers, and I think if anything this virus has shown that certain positions don’t necessarily in our society get credit that actually make society function,” she said. This ranges from garbage collectors to teachers.
“I think that’s the positive and upswing out of this, that we can learn to treat everybody with respect. Everybody makes us function, makes our society work together,” Franquiz said, noting she got back to Miss Twin Rivers duties the middle of February.
After this experience, what would she like people to realize about COVID-19?
“Number one, that it’s real. Number two, that it affects everybody differently. And so I think we should extend grace to everyone and think just as much as we would think about ourselves and protect our loved ones and yourself, we should think about our neighbor,” Franquiz said.
She’ll keep wearing a mask and taking precautions. Do our due diligence to defeat this virus, as much as possible, she said.
“I am very much so in love your neighbor as yourself, and so am I loving my neighbor well if I’m wearing a mask and that’s going to protect them? If that’s a yes, then absolutely I’m going to wear my mask,” she said.