What happens when you tell people you were tested for COVID-19? SF family found out

ByJuan Carlos Guerrero KGO logo

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Anxiety rises for SF family after coronavirus test

The wife of an ABC7 News producer has been self-isolating in her bedroom for five days now as a precaution while she waits for a coronavirus test result. Sharing her story publicly has raised her anxiety that she will be shunned by society.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KGO) -- ABC7 News Producer Juan Carlos Guerrero has been chronicling the toll uncertainty is taking on his family as they wait for a coronavirus test result. Follow their story, with all the updates, here.

What happens when you are open about being sick and have been tested for coronavirus? One thing is for sure, your anxiety goes way up.

Yesterday, my wife and I shared on ABC7 News that she fell ill last Friday with a fever and a cough. On Monday she was tested for coronavirus but we won't know the results until the weekend.

We have a dog and we had to tell our two dog walkers about the possibility. They both decided to stop coming to our house. Their reaction is understandable, but it still hurt. My wife feels shunned and she worries that even if she tests negative for COVID-19, she will continue to be treated like she has the plague because she decided to share her story.

"I became afraid of being the poster child for coronavirus. A lot of people are in the same situation that I am in, but they do it privately. Going public has made me feel a bit of a target," expressed my wife, Ma. Leticia Gomez from the bedroom, where she has been self-isolating since she started to feel sick.

She still has a cough but at times trouble breathing. There is still a chance this is just a cold or flu, but we want to be certain. I am not showing any symptoms, but I am restricting my movements outside our home as a precaution.

But I can't stay completely isolated because I need to take the dog out on walks and pee breaks. We live in an apartment without a back yard. Usually, walking a dog is a social experience for the owner and the pet. Owners get a chance to talk with other dog people and the dogs get to sniff each other out. Now, that experience is limited. I stay away from other people and other people stay away from me as a precaution. Only the dogs still approach each other.

Today, my wife got an email from Kaiser and for a moment was excited that it was her test result. It wasn't. It was a message from her primary care physician.

"It said that she is sorry that I am locked up in my room. To hang in there," she told me.

Every time the phone rings, we look with anticipation if it is Kaiser with the results, but they warned us they could take five to seven days to come back. That is a long time to wait when you are confined to your bedroom and feeling better every day. But this is about not infecting others, and until we are sure it is not coronavirus, we will treat it as a dangerous infection.

Go here for the latest news, information and videos about the coronavirus.

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