NEWPORT — The pain pulsed through her body to the point her toenails and the strands of her hair hurt, but “you don’t believe its COVID for the second time.”
Pauline Chapman, 48, of Newport, first was tested for the coronavirus on April 1. Late March is when a cough started to nag her, but she continued to work her two full-time jobs until the incessant cough prompted her to take some vacation time from one of those jobs. This was around the time COVID-19 awareness and conversations were starting to shape across the country.
She called her doctor and described the cough she couldn’t shake. She was advised to take some cough syrup, but when her inhaler (Chapman has asthma) didn’t alleviate the feeling of a closed throat, she went to the emergency room.
“They still didn’t test me [for COVID-19 yet at Newport Hospital],” Chapman said in a phone interview with The Daily News on July 15. At that point, hospital officials were only testing patients ages 67 and up, she said.
Chapman was screened over the phone by the Rhode Island Department of Health but was told testing, for her, probably wasn’t necessary, she said. Still, Chapman fought to get tested, and eventually secured a slot. The results came back positive on April 3.
“I cried,” Chapman said. “My job was saying I had it, my kids were saying I had it.” She noted that, along with asthma, she deals with other medical conditions, including heart issues.
She tested negative for COVID-19 on April 18, so Chapman returned to work. But in mid-June, she noticed she felt fatigued. Then she went into an 85-degree house and felt cold. “I could barely walk,” she said. She tested positive, again.
“I have a cough, obviously, and upper chest pains,” Chapman said when asked how she’s feeling these days. “My chest feels heavy, [but] I can get up.”
She lives with her youngest daughter, who is 18, but she’s been “negative” for the virus thus far, Chapman said. “I stay in my room — she’s downstairs, I’m upstairs.”
But 14 of Chapman’s family members have tested positive for the virus, she said. They’re all doing OK, she noted. Chapman’s not sure if they contracted the virus from her, and she’s not entirely sure how she herself got the virus, neither the first nor second time. She was careful, she wore the mask, she used the hand sanitizer and donned the gloves.
″[Some people] think that they can’t get it,” Chapman said. “They think it’s a hoax, [but] it’s now taken the lives of the younger ones [and] there’s more side effects every day.”
Asked if she’s been administered an experimental drug like remdesivir, Chapman said “they haven’t given me anything ... not one drug.”
Chapman said gets 20 minutes of sunlight a day. “They don’t tell me to rest too much.” She’s been advised to take small steps each day. She has to test negative twice before she can return to work. She was tested on July 17 and told The Daily News the following day she was waiting for the results.
“Wear the mask,” Chapman said. “Stick with your same circle ...the [large] gatherings, don’t do it.”