{"id":1391,"date":"2020-03-25T19:51:47","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T23:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/covid19\/?p=1391"},"modified":"2020-03-25T21:25:15","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T01:25:15","slug":"otoe-missouria-tribal-council-member-diagnosed-with-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/2020\/03\/25\/otoe-missouria-tribal-council-member-diagnosed-with-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Otoe-Missouria Tribal Council Member diagnosed with COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>An Otoe-Missouria Tribal Council Member was diagnosed Tuesday with COVID-19 after struggling for more than two weeks to get a test done.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Myra Pickering shared her story on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omtribe.org\/who-we-are-media-news\">tribe&#8217;s website<\/a> on Wednesday:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>EDITOR&#8217;S NOTE: After several weeks of trying to get tested for COVID-19, Tribal Council Member Myra Pickering finally got her diagnosis. She is sharing her story and a warning with her people.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Otoe-Missouria Tribe COVID-19: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omtribe.org\/coronavirus\">https:\/\/www.omtribe.org\/coronavirus<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On March 9, Otoe-Missouria Tribal Council Member Myra L. Pickering went to work at the tribal complex. As the day progressed, she started to feel ill with flu-like symptoms. She told the front office receptionist she was headed home and would be out the rest of the day.<\/p>\n<p>Pickering went to the doctor that evening, who tested her for flu. She was negative. And because she hadn\u2019t traveled abroad, she didn\u2019t meet the criteria in Oklahoma for COVID-19 testing at that time.<\/p>\n<p>Pickering was sent home with some antiviral medication and to rest. The doctor told her when she was 24 hours free of fever and she felt better, she could return to work.<\/p>\n<p>On March 12, she returned to work where she took part in several meetings throughout the day. Including a meeting with the Noble County Health Department office and all tribal directors and executive director.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the meetings I had that day was with a person from the Noble County Health Department who explained in the meeting that since there was no community spread in Oklahoma at the time, we as a community are fine for now\u201d Pickering says. \u201cSo I personally felt OK with being at work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then on March 15, Pickering had some symptoms that felt like allergies. They progressively got worse until she was continuously coughing and started to have shortness of breath. The next day, she went to Pawnee Indian Health Service to get checked out and they diagnosed her with pneumonia, gave her antibiotics and told her to follow up with the doctor the following Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Pickering says at the time of the appointment she did not have a fever, so she did not meet the CDC guidelines to be tested for COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>On March 18, Pickering was feeling worse. She went to the Stillwater Emergency Room to get checked out, hoping for relief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey basically told me I was not considered critical and that my levels were all good so I would not be admitted,\u201d Pickering says, \u201cbut if I got worse to return back. In my opinion, I thought I was worse. I could barely breath and I did not feel good! I could barely walk across the room without coughing and gasping for air. I had no air. It scared me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pickering returned to the doctor\u2019s office on March 23, where they diagnosed her with double pneumonia. The doctor finally made the decision to test her for COVID-19 because the criteria for testing had changed since her previous doctor visits. She was advised to return to the Stillwater Emergency Room again to see if she could be admitted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey told me again that I was not considered critical and that my levels were all good so therefore I would not be admitted,\u201d Pickering says. \u201cThey sent me home, again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On March 24, Pickering\u2019s test results came back positive for COVID-19 and she was told by Pawnee Indian Health Service Infectious Control Nurse that her, her husband and son would need to self-quarantine themselves for the next 2 weeks (14 days). She was also told that the Pawnee County Health Department would be in contact with her soon.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, there is no specific treatment for COVID-19. Instead, healthcare providers are treating symptoms at home. Pickering is drinking her fluids, resting, doing medicated breathing treatments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not as sick as I was last week, but I\u2019m still struggling at times to breathe,\u201d Pickering says. \u201cI am not out of the woods yet. I don\u2019t have a fever and have been fever free for the past 48 hours. I\u2019m just coughing now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In her early 40s and healthy, she didn\u2019t expect to get this sick.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only underlying medical condition I have is diabetes, but it is controlled,\u201d Pickering says. \u201cI have no idea how I got the virus, but now that Oklahoma has confirmed community exposure, it could have been from anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pickering says the reason she is telling her story is because she wants people to take the warning seriously. It is true that this virus does not discriminate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe tribe and casinos are closed,\u201d Pickering says. \u201cI want people to listen to what the healthcare experts are saying. Educate yourself. Stay home if at all possible. Practice social distancing. This is real and it\u2019s serious. I\u2019m struggling to catch my breath and there is nothing anyone can do to help me. The Stillwater hospital won\u2019t even keep me. It\u2019s been really scary for me and my family. Please keep, not only me and my family in your prayers, but our entire Otoe-Missouria Tribe, elders, youth and our community. I do not want any of my tribal members to contract this virus, it\u2019s no good!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1392 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Myra-Pickering.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"695\" srcset=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Myra-Pickering.jpg 720w, https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Myra-Pickering-300x290.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Otoe-Missouria Tribal Council Member was diagnosed Tuesday with COVID-19 after struggling for more than two weeks to get a test done. Myra Pickering shared her story on the tribe&#8217;s website on Wednesday: EDITOR&#8217;S NOTE: After several weeks of trying to get tested for COVID-19, Tribal Council Member Myra Pickering finally got her diagnosis. She [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[188,19,187],"class_list":["post-1391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tribes","tag-myra-pickering","tag-oklahoma","tag-otoe-missouria"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1412,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions\/1412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}