A McCracken County woman thought because she’s young and healthy, if she caught coronavirus, she would heal quickly and move on. After contracting it and suffering a myriad of symptoms for nearly three weeks straight, she said going out to eat isn’t worth the risk.
Misti Wagner and her boyfriend, Brian Gibson, thought they were doing the right things when they took a motorcycle ride on Nov. 8. She said about 12 people total took the ride to a restaurant in Tennessee where they sat outside to eat and socially distanced from others. She also noted she rides while wearing a full-face helmet.
But four days later while at work, Wagner noticed the beginnings of a scratchy throat and a cough she attributed to allergies before she got a call from one of the other women in the group. Her friend tested positive for COVID-19.
Wagner went to a pharmacy and got a rapid COVID-19 test, with a negative result, and out of an abundance of caution decided to work remotely the next day. The following day, which was one full week after the motorcycle ride, the symptoms hit hard.
“Saturday morning about 3 a.m. I woke up and I had 102 temperature, I had night sweats, my ears felt like they were going to explode, there was a lot of pressure in my left ear, and my throat felt like it was almost closed and it was burning like fire. It's a fire feeling that I've never had in my ears and throat before,” she recalled. “It was torturous.”
Wagner started to lose her sense of taste and smell, suffered joint pain and muscle aches, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, short-term memory loss and “brain fog.” She wasn’t surprised when the rapid COVID-19 test she took on Monday was positive.
For the next several nights, she slept upright in the recliner because she was uncomfortable, she was scared, and she was trying to keep her distance from Brian.
“Probably for two weeks, I was afraid to go to sleep because I wasn't sure I was going to wake up. I would wake up in the middle of sleep and I would feel like I was drowning. It felt like there was a faucet running from the back of my brain down into my throat and I absolutely could not get my breath. I felt like I was in a pool and I couldn't get out of the water,” she recalled. “Thankfully, that has stopped. I don't have the terrible coughing and the terrible drainage feeling that I had there for about two weeks. And that was probably the scariest part.”
Several sensory-related symptoms persist for Wagner, even nearly three weeks after the initial symptoms began. She said bread feels like raw dough in her mouth, french fries feel like raw potatoes, and onions taste like a garbage truck smells. She struggles to hear human voices but sounds like the wind blowing or her dog’s nails clicking on the hardwood floor are amplified. Her hair is starting to fall out and she recently developed “COVID toes,” which she says is painful.
Wagner said in her 44 years, she’s never been an anxious person, but anxiety has also been a lingering symptom. She said it occurred to her the other day while she had her stove in self-clean mode, she would have to solely rely on the smoke detectors in her home in case of a fire because she still has no sense of smell. She said she always cleans with bleach and relied on her nose to tell her if it needed more diluting--now she worries that she’s unable to sense if the chemicals are so strong she needs to leave the room.
“I have a fear of not knowing what's around me, or you know, something that might be dangerous. I can't smell it and my hearing is off,” she said. “I'm hoping that I'll just wake up one morning and I'll be able to smell and taste and I won't be tired. But it seems like the opposite is happening. It's like I wake up and I think, ‘Oh, gosh, now today I have COVID toes. Great. What else is 2020 going to give me?’”
Before contracting the virus, Wagner was outspoken in her opposition to the government-imposed mandates related to public health in the midst of the crisis. She said she would wear masks into businesses because she didn’t want the business owners penalized for her disobedience, but she and Brian didn’t really change any other social habits.
After having contracted the virus, Wagner said she hopes sharing her story will serve as a cautionary tale to others. She said it’s not worth going out to eat, it’s not worth visiting the grocery store several times a week in-person, and it’s not worth socializing.
“I just hope people will think about the things that can potentially happen to them if they catch it. If they're outside and they think, ‘Oh, I'm outside, let's all take this selfie together face-to-face. We're outside. We can't catch it.’ Yes, you can,” she said. “I just hope people will think about the bad effects of this if they were to catch it and get a bad case because that might keep them from doing some of the things they do.”
Regarding whether or not her opinion on government mandates related to the virus have changed, Wagner said her opposition remains.
“I'm all about freedom. So I do think people have the right to choose. I can't say that my views on the government mandate has changed. It was my choice to go into a restaurant and sit down and eat. I didn't have to do that. Nobody forced me to do that. But I had the freedom to do so if I wanted to. And I did. Did I pay the consequences? Yes,” she said. “But I don't believe that it came from any restaurant because I'm pretty certain the day that I caught it, I was outdoors. And outdoors is supposed to be safer than indoors, but my opinion on that has changed. I do feel like you can catch this outdoors.”
Wagner said Brian has been tested several times since her first symptoms began and he’s remained negative. But right at half of the people in the group who went for that motorcycle ride in early November tested positive. She said the age group ranges from early 30s up to 70, and the younger members of the group had the worst symptoms.
“I was the worst. There were a couple others that have had it pretty rough, but not as bad as I had it. The strange thing is the two of us that are the youngest of the group that caught it, we've had it worse than the older people in the group that actually have an underlying health condition,” she said. “It's like the older of the group fared a lot better than the younger ones did. And our group ranged from 31 years old to 70. I thought I was like, probably one of the healthiest out of our whole group and I got it the worst. And that's probably what has been so mind boggling for me, because I really did not think if I caught it that I would get that sick. I thought, ‘Oh, well, I'll just get it. I'll get over it. And then, hey, I'll be immune for two or three months.’ No, I'd rather not.”
Wagner said a Facebook support group recommended to her by another COVID-19 survivor has been helpful in her ongoing recovery. She said it’s a place where people share their side effects, ask questions, seek prayers and share treatment successes. She said being able to share in the experiences and recovery helps survivors not feel as “crazy” as they navigate the variety of symptoms, and it’s something she recommends.
