Natalie Kikkenborg is lastly starting to really feel like herself once more — practically three weeks after the 36-year-old Westville health teacher and single mother’s temperature first shot as much as 102 levels, and over one week after she examined constructive for Covid-19.
She needs folks to see her and know what she has skilled, partly to dispel misconceptions about who’s or isn’t in danger in the course of the pandemic.
Her fever has subsided. Her splitting complications have gone away. She has regained her sense of style and scent. And he or she’s extra certain than ever that the easiest way New Haveners can defend themselves and their neighborhood is by staying dwelling to the best extent attainable.
Kikkenborg is certainly one of over 70 New Haveners to date who’ve examined constructive for the infectious respiratory illness brought on by the novel coronavirus.
Medical professionals, public well being consultants, and native political leaders have warned that the actual number of infected New Haveners is almost certainly much higher contemplating how comparatively troublesome it stays for most individuals to get examined.
According to the most recent announced statistics, 41 p.c of the confirmed instances in New Haven contain folks like Kikkenborg — who aren’t seniors, however between 25 and 49 years previous.
On Monday, Kikkenborg spoke with the Unbiased over the cellphone in regards to the bodily and emotional trial she has been via since she first developed coronavirus-related symptoms on March 11.
She additionally spoke in regards to the outpouring of neighborhood assist she obtained since her constructive take a look at outcomes got here again on March 21, following an preliminary medical misdiagnosis that she had the flu.
“My overarching feeling has been gratitude for therefore many issues,” Kikkenborg stated.
She is grateful for her physique, which seems to be convalescing.
She is grateful for her family and friends and even strangers locally, who’ve dropped off groceries at her entrance door and who’ve repeatedly checked in by cellphone and textual content and Fb to see how she and her daughter are doing.
And he or she is grateful for the chance she now has to share her story with fellow New Haveners and to bolster that this pandemic will not be some distant abstraction affecting solely Wuhan, China or New York City.
Covid-19 is right here in New Haven. Anybody, no matter their age or background or physical health, can get it. And everybody should comply with social distancing precautions to provide themselves and their neighborhood the very best likelihood attainable to remain wholesome and protected throughout this disaster.
“We’re going to flatten this curve rather a lot quicker the extra folks settle for we simply have to remain dwelling proper now,” she stated.
Kikkenborg acknowledged how troublesome that may be for a lot of. She herself is a single mom elevating a fourth-grade daughter who’s now dwelling indefinitely as colleges stay closed. As knowledgeable Zumba teacher and singer, she has misplaced practically all sources of revenue because of the broader financial shutdown precipitated by the social distancing precautions required to stem the unfold of the illness.
“It’s terrifying, but it surely doesn’t imply that you simply’re above the foundations and might take the possibilities and will be out and about,” she stated.
She cited a good friend’s current Instagram put up that encapsulated the message she most needs to share with the broader public as she continues to get well from Covid-19.
That put up learn: “Don’t change your conduct to keep away from being contaminated. Assume you’re contaminated and alter your conduct to keep away from transmitting.”
“I Don’t Bear in mind Ever In My Life Feeling That In poor health”
“I’m 19 days put up onset of my illness,” Kikkenborg stated Monday morning. “I’m feeling just about like myself.”
Over two weeks in the past, she stated, that was very a lot not the case.
She stated her temperature went from 99.1 levels at 10 a.m. on March 11 to 102 levels at 1 p.m. later that day.
That’s when she went to an pressing care clinic in Hamden. A speedy flu take a look at got here again unfavorable, however her physician nonetheless prescribed her Tamiflu, which she took for the subsequent 5 days.
Her temperature stayed at 102 levels. She developed extreme complications that radiated all through her total head. She misplaced her sense of style and scent. And he or she was so overcome by fatigue that she struggled to make the 10-foot trek from her bed room to the toilet.
“Simply opening my eyes to focus, whether or not on my cellphone or a chunk of paper, would ship a taking pictures ache via my head,” she stated. “By far the fever and the fatigue had been undoubtedly essentially the most troublesome signs. I don’t bear in mind ever in my life feeling that in poor health.”
Her physician really helpful that she get examined for coronavirus, so she drove right down to a drive-through testing station in Stratford.
“Pulling into the testing web site was surreal,” she stated. Like one thing out of a sci-fi film.
The entire medical personnel had been wearing hazmat fits. The one who examined her caught a swab up her nostril and counted down from 10 from behind his masks and face defend. Inside 48 hours of getting examined, she obtained phrase that she was constructive for Covid-19. She has been in self-quarantine at dwelling ever since.
“There was some disgrace in realizing I might have probably contaminated somebody within the time after I was asymptomatic and likewise within the time after I thought, based mostly off of my appointments, it was the flu,” she stated.
In a public Fb video she posted on Saturday commemorating one week since she discovered she has coronavirus, Kikkenborg stated that she has discovered some consolation in realizing that, by donating blood, she may be capable to contribute to a possible treatment for the illness as somebody who has contracted it and is now recovering.
“There’s a lot guilt related to that,” she stated in regards to the potential for infecting another person. “However to know you can save folks on the different finish helps me grapple with that guilt.” She stated her daughter has not developed any coronavirus-related signs.
Whereas she has been homebound, associates have dropped off groceries and added her and her daughter to their Instacart accounts. She stated she lately spoke to a good friend from her front room window; that bodily current if distant social contact offered a much-appreciated balm for her current isolation.
“Above All: Keep Residence”
Requested what suggestions she has for folks seeking to assist those that have developed coronavirus, Kikkenborg stated, “Simply letting them know that you simply’re there. It doesn’t take a lot. Only a easy, ‘Hey, if you might want to discuss, I’m right here.’ Simply nicely needs are all it actually takes.” She stated the considered making an attempt to feed oneself is “furthest out of your thoughts” when going via one thing like Covid-19, and so any grocery or take-out drop-offs are at all times appreciated too.
“And simply preserve your distance,” she continued. “Hold you well being and security” as a way to be a assist to another person in want.
“It’s so towards human nature to be socially distant,” she stated. “However that’s completely what we have now to do.”
Kikkenborg is a employees singer at a church in Norwalk; two of that church’s members lately died from coronavirus. Kikkenborg stated she has been open together with her fourth-grade daughter about Kikkenborg’s personal sickness, in addition to in regards to the members of their church household who’ve lately died.
“I feel it’s very simple to really feel faraway from it when it’s not in your rapid circle,” she stated.
That’s partly why she went on Fb and made that video about her prognosis. “I wished folks to see my face” and to see that anybody, even a wholesome skilled health teacher in her mid-30s, can contract Covid-19.
Kikkenborg stated she lately took her first Zumba class since falling in poor health a number of weeks in the past. It was co-taught by an teacher in New Haven and one other teacher in Costa Rica.
She stated she meant on calling in and watching. She wound up dancing at dwelling for 45 minutes.
“Inside a couple of minutes, it felt like regular,” she stated in regards to the Zumba Zoom class. “It felt like my on a regular basis class.”
She slept for six hours in the course of the afternoon the day after the category, she stated. Which is sort of uncommon for somebody who often teaches two to a few lessons a day, six days per week. However, she stated, that’s solely anticipated, as she continues to be recovering.
She stated her plan proper now’s to isolate for no less than per week after her signs have utterly gone away, after which to get examined once more. Since medical suggestions across the pandemic are altering so rapidly, she stated, she’s unsure when precisely she will likely be deemed medically all-cleared to finish her quarantine and resume her life post-Covid.
“I do know it’s arduous, as a result of we’re all going stir-crazy,” she stated in her most up-to-date Fb video. However for now, essentially the most compassionate factor that one can do—for oneself, for one’s household, for one’s neighborhood—is to comply with the social distancing suggestions designed to “flatten the curve.”
“Keep wholesome,” she stated on the finish of her video. “Keep along with your households. And above all: Keep dwelling.”