Tri-Citian waits in home isolation for his coronavirus test results

Reg Unterseher is counting the days until his test for novel coronavirus comes back.

The Kennewick man — well known in the Tri-Cities music community — began chronicling his medical experiences on his public Facebook page after developing symptoms that fit COVID-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus.

First it was shortness of breath and trouble breathing, symptoms he dismissed initially as caused by allergies after a bad dust storm.

But then on Friday, March 6, he started feeling “crappy, fatigued,” he said. That night he felt warm and discovered he had a fever.

At that point he was still hoping he could keep up his busy schedule of upcoming events, including speaking at a Spokane conference, helping with a major fundraiser and judging a choral festival.

Unterseher is a composer, voice teacher, associate conductor for Mid-Columbia Mastersingers, music director of Shalom United Church of Christ in Richland and a voice teacher.

But keeping up his busy schedule was not to be.

During a call to his doctor’s office on Monday he learned that based on statistics he most likely had influenza. But his symptoms seemed milder than any case of the flu he’d had, he said.

He also learned that testing for COVID-19 was not readily available, even though he is at elevated risk for a serious illness from coronavirus. His age of 64 and being diabetic put him at increased risk and he also has a history of pneumonia.

On Tuesday, his condition worsened.

Reliability of tests

He’s married to Dr. Sheila Dunlop, and a home check showed his oxygen saturation levels had begun to drop.

They went to the emergency room at Trios Health Southridge Hospital, where staff suited up in protective gear for his visit.

“The staff was frank and honest and very careful,” he said.

They confirmed with a test that he didn’t have influenza.

Then a doctor said “You very well may have COVID-19.”

He was able to get a COVID-19 test then, but does not expect results from the University of Washington lab until at least this weekend.

He’s in isolation at home waiting for the results. There are no treatments for COVID-19 beyond addressing its symptoms.

By Thursday evening he had improved some, going for much of the day without a fever, he said.

Now his thoughts have turned to how reliable the test for the novel coronavirus is — not very, he’s been told by medical professionals.

He’s concerned that even if his test comes back negative, it could be a false negative.

“I am not worried that I will die from this,” he said on his Facebook page. “My symptoms match so clearly the 80 percent of people with mild to moderate COVID-19, it is almost hilarious.”

But he is concerned that he could infect someone else if he gets a false negative result or that he already has.

Before developing a fever he spent a lot of time in public places in the previous 10 days, both in the Tri-Cities and on a trip to Portland.

He’s concerned about the limited testing being done, saying that “one of the worst things we are facing is a complete lack of information and data.”

The lack of good information about COVID-19 is part of why he decided to go public with his possible case of the disease.

“This is our best defense right now, talking to each other,” he said. “We need good information and not wild speculation.”

This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 10:58 AM.