EDWARDSVILLE - An Edwardsville dentist who contracted the COVID-19 Coronavirus shared her story on social media as a way to educate and encourage the public to take the necessary precautions as the pandemic continues to spread across the area.
Brian Beyers Oller posted a video to her Facebook page detailing her story on how she contracted the virus, how her recovery was going, and to encourage other to treat the pandemic seriously.
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"I am here to share my story with you, not to scare you, but so I can do my part to help educate and slow the spread of this virus," Oller said in the video. When the video was posted on April 2, she was on her 16th day with the virus, and felt strong enough to share her story without tiring out.
In the first part of the video, Oller expressed her surprise and disappointment on the announcement that Gov. J.B. Pritzker was ordering the closure of all public and private schools in the state on March 17. At the time, Oller wasn't sure why the schools were being shut down because the virus had yet to make its way into the St. Louis and Metro-East areas.
"But it was what it was," Oller said, "and I spent my weekend preparing my dental business, implementing new policies for the following week. I wanted to go above and beyond the normal universal precautions to be able to keep our patients safe, our staff members safe, because I fully expected us to be busier than ever, because there was an announcement that just gave a lot of people a lot of free time. And these people were wanting to get in to get things taken care of before it hit our area."
Oller then received an e-mail for the Illinois State Dental Society that Monday morning, March 16 that recommended all dental businesses in the state cease operations and shut down for at least two weeks that would start the next day.
"This was devastating to myself and all our colleagues," Oller said. "But I knew that I had to follow their recommendations. So I had to change gears, and get all of my patients that were in temporary situations stable before the next day, because we really had no idea when we were going to be able to open our doors again. So we did just that."
Oller finished her final case that morning and closed the doors to her practice. She expressed her nervousness and fear for her employees, her patients and herself, worrying about paying her business' bills and her personal bills with the loss of income coming from the shutdown, but she knew that the closure had to be done.
She also realized how serious things were becoming when she received the e-mail with the shutdown directive, knowing that other businesses would be affected by the closures. She told her daughters that they were not allowed to leave the family home, where they've stayed in since, and they reacted with disappointment that they couldn't interact with their friends and not understanding why the action had to be taken.
"None of them are sick," Oller said. "It wasn't in our area."
After arriving home on March 17, Oller began experiencing strong headaches, which persisted for several days. She also became fatigued and had a pop-up bout with a low-grade fever, that she originally blamed on stress. Oller was otherwise asymptomatic, and the fever quickly went away. Both the headaches and fatigue stayed, and again, Oller blamed it on stress. She has only left her home once in the last three weeks, a trip the local store to obtain necessities for her family. That Friday, March 20, Oller then lost her senses of both taste and smell, which are major symptoms of COVID-19, but were unknown at the time.
"So here I am, no taste, no smell," Oller said, "very tired and constant headache. But not really knowing what's truly going on."
The symptoms persisted in Oller, and on March 25, the fever returned, and she became very ill, the same day as the loss of taste and smell symptoms were announced. Oller's condition grew worse, and both her and her family realized that in was indeed the coronavirus. She was immediately tested, and came back positive for the virus. During that time, Oller hasn't coughed or had a sore throat, but suffered from a high fever and shortness of breath, not by the classic tightness around the chest symptom, but simply from not being able to draw a full breath.
"There have been times when it's very, very scary," Oller said, "breathing's gotten out of control, and things will settle back down."
Oller also feels she's one of the lucky ones who are able to recover at home despite the horrid conditions caused by the illness.
"I will get to the other side of this,' Oller said. "With time, I know I will get there, and I cannot wait to get to the other side of this, to be done with this. But for now, we wait out these symptoms."
Oller reemphasized that she shares her story not out of fear, but to encourage people to take the current crisis seriously and to know that the virus is in the community.
"We do not know how I got this," Oller said. "We have no clue. The only thing we do know is that I have not traveled outside our community, I have had no known exposure. We now know that I have had my symptoms since the 17th, and we believe that my exposure occurred somewhere around the 13th in our community. We believe this day of the 13th, because my mom is also positive for the coronavirus. She has followed a similar timeline as mine, but started a day later than I did, and the last time we were together was the 13th. So, it is in our community, and it has been this whole time."
Oller knows that the times have been tough, but encouraged the community that they will get through this, and asked resident to follow social distancing guidelines.
"I'm so thankful that I started this before the mandate even occurred," Oller said. "And I can say today that we have been in contact with all of the staff members and the patients that I saw a week before the symptoms occurred. And all of them are symptom-free, and we are 16 days out. So there has been no exposure So there was no exposure in my office, and because I have stayed home, I have not continued to spread this, and I so thankful for that."
In conclusion, Oller knows that the community will get through the pandemic, and knows that she'll be a survivor of the current pandemic.
"So today, I beg you to please take this seriously," Oller said. "We will all get through this, and when I get to the other side of this, I will be a survivor. And I will be able to help out, however I can, to help out with this fight. But for now, I will continue my recovery at home, and I will ask you all to do your part. so we can all get through this."
