Local Nurse Recovering From COVID-19, Two New Cases In County
Local Nurse Recovering from Coronavirus.
It started with a cough. Aaron Gaynor woke up on April 28 and coughed. Gayor works with COVID-19 patients every shift at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, so the nurse knew there was a very real possibility that he caught the highly contagious virus.
That cough kept Gaynor from going to work that day. He took an on-line screening test and went to Swansea for a lab test.
The next day his test confirmed he was positive for COVID-19. At that time, Gaynor still felt good, he said.
By the next day the symptoms hit – fever, chills, body aches, continuous coughing, and extreme fatigue. “I slept most of the time,” Gaynor said. “I had absolutely no energy.”
A few days later he lost his senses of taste and smell. “I love coffee, but it still doesn’t taste good to me,” Gaynor said. He lost twenty pounds in two weeks.
Since Gaynor didn’t have the most serious symptom of breathing issues, he was not hospitalized. “I was able to stay at home. The vast majority of people affected don’t have to be hospitalized,” he said. “You don’t want to be in the small percentage that needs hospitalization.”
Gaynor had advantages in his recuperation at home. His age of 47 and general good health put him in a low-risk group.
Read his full story, plus get updated on the two new cases recently reported in the county, all in this week’s issue.
