KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Zoë Jones said the pain got so bad she would sit on the couch and cry.
The Missouri Western State University student from Cameron, Missouri, visited New York City around March 12. The city announced and began implementing stay-at-home orders while she was there.
After her return, Jones started showing symptoms of the virus. From coughing to body aches and a fever, she had just about every symptom of COVID-19 in the book.
“Any time I try to take a deep breath it was really, really rough. I’d start coughing and it would hurt a lot more. There were several nights where I was just sitting on the couch with mom and I was just crying. I just needed it to be done. It was so painful,” Jones said.
Her family took her to Cameron Hospital for a test. It took one week to get the positive test results back. Jones also tested positive for pneumonia.
Jones self-isolated at her mother’s house in the meantime. Her mother and brother quarantined in the same house. Her father and his girlfriend quarantined in their home, too, because they had contacted Jones after her return from New York City.
Eventually, Jones’ mother, father and father’s girlfriend all started showing the same symptoms. Some with varying degrees of fever, but all had cough, shortness of breath, diarrhea, loss of smell, loss of appetite, body aches and headaches.
“It was unlike my migraines. It was really, really painful. And the chest pain started getting a little bit worse,” Mimi Jones-Lachi, Zoë’s mother, explained.
Her parents did not get an official COVID-19 test. All of this was happening in March before Missouri ramped up its testing capabilities in April. Medical experts advised the family to treat their symptoms as if they were COVID-19.
Jones-Lachi said managing her daughter’s fever was their top priority. Tylenol and other medication kept it somewhat in check.
She also sanitized the house, didn’t share anything between the people quarantining in the house and frequently washed sheets and clothing.
The family never felt like any of them needed to be hospitalized.
Jones said staying calm was her biggest coping mechanism.
"On the days where I wasn’t calm, those were the days where I was freaking out, those were the days that are the hardest to get through,” she admitted.
Her younger brother has not shown any symptoms, despite living in the same house as Jones and their mother. Jones said her brother has remained very isolated in his own room and used his own bathroom.
It highlights how social distancing can help keep someone healthy.
Everyone in the family feels much healthier now, about 99 percent of their normal selves. They will stay in quarantine until Saturday.
