While it may seem that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is an uphill battle, one Loudoun County, Virginia, woman thinks she won her fight with the disease and kept her family safe in the process.
Now, she wants to help others who may be in a similar position.
Amy Bobchek, 52, of Leesburg, thinks she has recovered from a case of COVID-19, the disease brought on by the novel coronavirus that has put so much of the world on hold.
Bobchek tested positive for coronavirus days after she first developed symptoms on March 15.
No longer showing any symptoms of the disease, Bobchek said she is eager to be retested Thursday — to confirm she is completely free of the virus.
“I have been symptom-free for 14 days, I feel completely recovered and back to my old, energetic self and just very eager to get retested and get a little bit of clearance to leave my home,” Bobchek said.
“I had the virus; I had a fairly mild case, so my symptoms were pretty manageable at home.”
Bobchek — the chief revenue officer of a software company — said she thinks that she was infected during a business trip to New York City, between March 9 and March 12, despite taking many precautions.
“It makes sense that that’s where I picked it up… New York is ground zero for this disease.”
What Bobchek said she finds most encouraging is that while she showed symptoms of COVID-19, she managed to keep members of her family safe — by carefully taking all recommended public health precautions — including her 88-year-old mother and her husband, who has asthma.
“The most important thing that I have learned through this experience is that it’s possible not to give this disease to other people, if you have it.
“The main thing that I want people to know is that social distancing and hand-washing and sanitizing work,” Bobchek said.
Bobchek said she didn’t have a cough when she felt sick and her fever was short-lived, but she temporarily lost her senses of smell and taste.
Worried that she might infect her family, Bobchek said precautions were taken immediately.
“As soon as I started not feeling great, we immediately kind of retreated to separate areas of our home… we moved my husband into a guest room, I stayed, as best I could, confined to my bedroom.
“That really allowed us to keep that distance inside our home during that period.”
Bobchek said frequently touched surfaces in her home, such as doorknobs, cabinet handles and light switches, were constantly sanitized.
It is unclear to her exactly when she’ll be able to end her quarantine. She plans to visit a drive-through testing site in Loudoun County and expects results in three to six days.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to end isolation for people who test positive and are retested stipulate that the individual must be without fever, have improved symptoms and received two consecutive negative tests.
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Following her presumed recovery, Bobchek said she hopes to provide more than advice to help others.
She wants to play a role in the recovery of people stricken by the disease.
“One of the things that I’m really hopeful to hear is that I can donate plasma. Because there’s some evidence that the antibodies now circulating through my system might be helpful in treating other patients and I certainly want to be helpful, if I can do that,” Bobchek said.
