KILLEEN, Texas — Roughly three weeks after diagnosis, a Killeen man described his diagnosis and recovery from the coronavirus.
Jim Everard, an Army veteran, said he was diagnosed after feeling sick for about a week. Advised to stay home from work, he said after it persisted for a couple days he called his doctor.
"The big thing is I didn't want to contaminate other people, especially people with compromised immune systems like my boss," Everard said. "He has luekemia, so I didn't want to come in contact with him."
Everard said his doctor told him to go to the emergency room but to call ahead before he arrived. When he got there, he said they tested him for everything his symptoms could be, except COVID-19 because his symptoms were mild.
But, with his tests for flu, pneumonia and similar illnesses negative, he said his doctor advised him of the diagnosis, citing the need to save the few available tests at that point for more severe cases.
"He said, 'You have all the symptoms, you're negative for everything else you could possibly have, so all we do is pretty much say yeah, you've got it,'" Everard said. "'Go self-quarantine for a minimum of two weeks and once your symptoms are gone you should be good to go back to work.'"
Everard said at its worst, he felt like he had pneumonia but his wife and two sons got it, too. He said his younger son had "straight flu-like symptoms," but that they've all recovered.
Although he said he wasn't scared of the diagnosis or during the recovery period, he said he is worried about the impact the pandemic might have on the economy by the time it passes and said he wants people to be cautious without feeling scared of what's happening.
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