Andy Daniels lived by the book when it came to following all the COVID-19 rules.
He wore his mask. He practiced social distancing. His Indianola State Farm office has been doing mostly curbside service for months.
Even during a mid-July vacation, the rules were followed.
“We were social distanced on the beach,” Daniels said. “We were masked in the restaurants.”
But somehow, somewhere, the otherwise healthy 54-year-old picked up the novel coronavirus, and a particularly nasty version of it.
“I’m relatively healthy,” he said. “That’s what kind of surprised me.”
It was at the tail end of that beach vacation that the seasoned insurance agent began to feel somewhat off.
There was a little bit of fever on Friday, along with a cough, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle until returning home the next day.
He contacted Dr. Eddie Donahoe, a close friend on top of being his family physician for years.
He was prescribed hydroxychloroquine, zinc, Decadron and a ZPack, but he could not get the medications until the following Monday.
Still, there were no signs after two more days that this would be anything dissimilar to the common cold.
“I thought this thing isn’t going to be that big of a deal,” Daniels said. “On Monday night, the fever started going up. Tuesday, I kind of kept a little fever during the day, but Tuesday night is when it got bad.” By early Wednesday morning, the menacing cough had turned into something more dangerous, and the slight fever from days before had come back with a vengeance, spiking at over 103 degrees.
His wife Karen texted family friend and Nurse Practitioner Lindsay Burke, who promptly told them to visit Indianola Family Medical Clinic.
Later that morning, they were both tested for COVID-19. The tests eventually came back positive, but that was no surprise.
His chest x-ray that morning revealed double pneumonia.
By this time, Dr. Donahoe had gone out of town, so it was Nurse Practitioner Terry Dorsey and Dr. Hannah Ray who took over Daniels’ care.
He was taken off the ZPack and placed on another antibiotic, along with nebulizer treatments. By the time it was all said and done, he finished two antibiotics and two ZPacks.
Still, Daniels’ second chest x-ray was worse than the first one.
When Dr. Donahoe got back to town, he put Daniels, who was being treated at home, on two liters of oxygen.
He had to keep a close eye on his oxygen saturation levels, to make sure they did not drop too low.
“I would get into a coughing spell, and they would go down,” he said. “Then I would relax and get my breath, and they would come back up to 93 or 94.”
Over the course of the past three weeks, Daniels says COVID-19 has swept through his family and his agency.
“The good news is that we’ve all had it,” Daniels said. “My whole office has had it. My family’s had it, so we’re all bulletproof now, I hope.”
He is indeed better, although his voice is still weak from the pneumonia and coughing.
A Different Kind of Sickness
There are all kinds of illnesses in the Delta, most notably the famed Delta Crud that although can’t be found in medical journals is too common to ignore.
This was different, though, Daniels said.
COVID-19 was not the Delta Crud, nor was it like the flu or the common cold.
“The fever was not a normal fever like a cold, where you have chills,” Daniels said. “It was burning up hot. It was on fire. It was not chills. It was weird.”
That fever spiked six consecutive nights.
The cough itself was debilitating, he said. The fits would last for several minutes.
Daniels was unable to sleep normally because of that.
“I couldn’t lay all the way down flat,” he said. “The coughing was the bad part. I just had a really violent cough. I couldn’t stop. I’d cough for three or four minutes, and finally get my breath back.”
COVID-19 sets itself apart from other illnesses in other ways, particularly in the way it attacks seemingly healthy patients, while some with underlying conditions show few symptoms.
Daniels exercises regularly, and for a man in his mid-50s, he doesn’t have a lot of health issues.
His wife, Karen, dealt with a slight cough, a headache one day and a little congestion the next. There was also the common loss of taste and smell that comes with the virus.
Nothing more, which was good news for Daniels, because he had someone who was relatively healthy in his home to look after him.
A Man of Faith
The state’s hospitals continue to face ventilator and ICU room shortages, and over 160,000 people have perished nationwide as a result of COVID-19.
Knowing all that, Daniels said he was never afraid.
“I never had a fear,” he said. “If it turned south on me, with my faith, I know where my destination is. I never was afraid.”
There is a verse Daniels says his family has lived by for decades. It’s Psalm 118:24, “This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.”
“This has been our life verse for my family for a long time,” he said. “Good or bad, happy or sad, this is the day the Lord has made, and I choose to rejoice.”
Daniels said he has also been reminded of another Psalm, “Our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him.”
“I draw strength from that,” he said. “I don’t have to know why he does what he does. I just trust he knows what he’s doing. There are no surprises with Him.”
“You Don’t Want
This Virus”
Daniels’ ordeal with COVID-19 was bad, but the results could have been worse.
He says that he prays for all of the individuals who have been affected by this virus in the worst way, including the thousands who have died and their families.
He was fortunate it did not attack his body more aggressively than it did, but he says it was serious enough that he can assure everyone who hasn’t had it that they do not want it.
“You do not want this virus, or at least the version I got,” Daniels said. “It’s not a hoax. It’s not just the flu. Wear your mask. Be smart.”
Daniels hopes that his experience can be an inspiration to a world that has become deeply divided when it comes to COVID-19.
He points to the New Testament, in Ephesians: Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has forgiven you.
“We need more of this during this crazy year,” Daniels said. “So much misinformation is out there. You can find whatever opinion you want to subscribe to. What hurts my heart is the vitriol on social media, the name calling. ‘If you don’t agree with me, you must be stupid.’ The anger.’”
Daniels says he hopes everyone realizes how blessed they are, even if times are rough.
No matter what, he always returns to that verse, that ancient Psalm that brings him comfort.
“This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.”
