Hi Friends, I hope you’re doing well during this extended season of sheltering in place and socializing from a distance. I thought I’d share with you some breaking news on my personal health.

Last week, my doctor’s office emailed all their patients with the news they now have the antibody test available. The letter encouraged everyone who was now healthy but had been sick in the past few months to take it. On Monday, my husband, Chris, and I drove to the lab for the blood draw and the results came back on Wednesday. We both had COVID-19 antibodies.

Questions swirled through my mind. How did we contract the virus? When did we get it? Why didn’t we know we had it?

Because I had breast cancer in 2014, I’m considered high risk, so I’ve been careful to shelter in place and follow other restrictions since mid-March. Chris, with his strong immune system, has been healthy, as usual.

Thinking back to February, I remembered Chris had a slight cold that he successfully fought off. The next week, however, I got a bad case of the flu including five days with a fever. Hmmm. Now, I wonder. Could that have been the coronavirus?

For the first two days of that bout, I had a fever of 102°F. I felt miserable—nauseous, fatigued, and achy—and just rolling over in bed made me feel worse. Every bone and muscle in my body hurt when I got up to use the bathroom. I had no appetite and had to force myself to drink several ounces of water every hour.

Then for the next three days, I improved a little and my temp lowered to 100 degrees. But I still ached all over. Finally, my fever broke. It took another week or two to fully recover.

Travel Surprises

On March 9, Chris and I flew to Scotland for our annual month-long visit to his homeland. Our first night in London, we heard that flights from all of Europe to the U.S. would have restrictions put in place. American citizens were encouraged to return as soon as possible.

For a couple of days, we seriously considered staying in Scotland. Since Chris is Scottish and we visit friends and family there every year, it’s home for him. We thought we’d enjoy sheltering in place for a month in the holiday cottages we had prepaid for.

However, our parents and young-adult children in California shared their concerns with us. Chris figured the airlines would reduce their flights or possibly shut down altogether. So, we made the difficult decision to cut our vacation short and head home without our planned visits to our Scottish family and friends.

Two days after arriving home, I came down with some mild upper respiratory symptoms. I was instructed to watch out for a dry cough, tightness in the chest, or difficulty breathing but none of those COVID-19 symptoms appeared. Was it a cold or another flu? I wondered. Fortunately, it only lasted a couple of days while we were in the mandated quarantine from our Scotland trip.

When my doctor called with the blood test results this week, I was surprised to hear both Chris and I had antibodies to the virus. Because we had had relatively mild symptoms, we didn’t even suspect it.

Counting My Blessings

Every time I think about testing positive for COVID-19 antibodies, I smile. I’m so grateful I didn’t experience any life-altering challenges. Since I don’t know the significance of this positive result, I’m still taking precautions.

On the Red Cross website, I discovered that I could donate my blood plasma to help COVID-19 patients, so I’ve set up an appointment. I’m glad I took the steps to be tested for the antibodies.

In a small way, I feel like I’ve contributed by adding data to the growing number of statistics used by the scientific community to understand this particular strain of coronavirus.