A #COVID19 battle story. This week #COVID19 became very real. This virus that has been passed all over the globe and has afflicted more than 1 million people has now infected me. Here, in my corner of the world in Durham, NC. I am 1 of ~300 +cases @DukeHealth and ~2100 in NC. 1/n

Fortunately I have had “bad head cold” symptoms – headache, sinus congestion, cough, & myalgias when my temp goes above 99. But no fevers over 100. Very fatigued. Breathing has been stable, and overall I feel better tonight. 2/n

I self isolated from my family when I developed symptoms. I did the nasal swab test that was so painful ( @viveksubbiah, personal experience). For 1st 2 days I was anxious, looking up my test result every 20mins (it turned positive after 40h) & worried about pneumonia/ARDS. 3/n

I’m still a little apprehensive about the PE, cardiomyopathy, and thrombotic complications. But mostly reassured from our ID colleagues that the general course is mild and ARDS is the exception. 4/n

The outpouring of concern from colleagues and friends @dukemedicine have been so heartwarming ( @Daniel_J_George @AarmstrongDuke @MRHarrisonMD), as well as across the country ( @drchoueiri, @DrRanaMcKay, @shilpaonc). 5/n

My family and I are grateful to be connected to such a supportive community of friends. The head of COVID leadership @dukehealth and friend @camwolfe personally dropped off sanitizer and Clorox to keep my family healthy. 6/n

A note on quarantine – I am lucky enough to have space in our home to quarantine on the 3rd floor (our attic, as @dangeorge calls it). My amazing husband @andyzwang brings me food to the bottom of the stairs, and has been running the household. This is a Rapunzel lifestyle. 7/n

But this is the closest that I’ll see my children for the next 2 weeks, short of FaceTime and zoom. Hardest not to help 2nd grader w piano. Kindergartener w reading, &3yo w daily conundrums. And not to cuddle and love them. But distance is safest to keep them healthy. 8/n

It is especially hard as, this night 8 years ago, we went to the hospital to deliver our first baby. Tomorrow that baby will be 8 years old, and @andyzwang will need to bake cupcakes, maybe for the first time in his life. 9/n

My family has been asymptomatic mostly & healthy. If & when I recover, I will participate in convalescent plasma resrch @dukemedicine. Hope to contribute to the research for new treatments & assays. And if needed, I may be immune enough to take care of patients with COVID. 10/n

This is the oath that we pledged, to take care of the sickest. See Osler quote - If this is the case, then I have learned first-hand about #COVID19. But have much to learn still about who recovers and who dies. 10/n

I am as committed as ever to learning about #COVID19 in our pts w/ cancer & will contribute to the #CCC19 consortium. Thanks to @hemoncwarner, this consortium is now >50 sites. Urge oncologists to join & contribute knowledge for our pts w/ cancer. https://ccc19.org/  11/n

I constantly wonder whose immune system will gear up to fight off #COVID19 w/ mild URI sxs & whose immune system will go in overdrive w/ cytokine storm. We need more biomarker resrch to understand viral loads. @DrSidMukherjee's article is so eloquent. 12/n https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/06/how-does-the-coronavirus-behave-inside-a-patient

This pandemic has devastated the world, but we need to learn from it, learn from ourselves and our patients, to understand the disease and how to activate the immune system but not to overdrive. Goldilocks rule, just activated enough. 13/n

This #COVID19 pandemic has caused an economic catastrophe as almost 10 million people in the US reported unemployment. Perhaps there will be a way to develop herd immunity in enough people that eventually we can slowly gear up the economy again. 14/n

I am hopeful tonight that humans & immune systems have evolved so that we can combat this virus, & that we have scientists, virologists, & immunologists who are at the forefront of scientific discovery to develop therapies & vaccines. 15/n

I am hopeful that for my children’s children, the COVID vaccine will be one of many routine ones that they receive. An April apart from my children and loved ones now will be worth it then. FIN