BY MINDY KEPFIELD

Staff writer

Brenda Moss still gets a tired from time to time, but she is happy to be back at work at Hillsboro Senior Center after having COVID-19.

She is relieved that diligent mask wearing and social distancing meant Hillsboro’s seniors were still able to have meals delivered even though dine-in service was suspended.

“I was just thankful nobody else here got it,” said Moss, who said the health department did not have to test any of her co-workers.

“I had not been around anyone for 10 minutes or longer and I wear a mask at all times,” she said.

Her daughter, Ashley Etheridge, who works at Kids Connection Day Care, and son-in-law, Monte, feared they could be asymptomatic and quarantined, but both tested negative.

Her 8-year-old grandson Blake, whom Moss babysits, was watched carefully for days by his doctor, but never developed symptoms.

Moss does not know who gave her the virus, but said she developed a terrible sore throat around the last week of July.

She uses a pulse oximeter because of other health issues and noticed her oxygen levels were dropping.

She was tested for strep and COVID-19 in St. Luke’s emergency room.

She admits she was scared when the test for the virus was positive.

“Everyone thinks you have to get on a ventilator right away, but I didn’t even have to go ICU,” said Moss.

Instead, she was transferred to the fifth floor of Ascension Via Christi, St. Francis, in Wichita.

There she was given oxygen, steroids and other medicines to fight the virus.

A recovered COVID-19 patient turned up with Moss’ blood type and she was given plasma that weekend.

“By that evening I was feeling better,” she said.

Hurtful comments from strangers who feared she might have given the virus to someone else stung.

“When somebody comes down with it,” she said. “I always say just to pray for our community and our county, and pray for those involved because they need to hear that.”

She urges anyone who is not feeling well to get checked out by a doctor. The sooner you are treated the better your chances of recovery, she said.

“It is real, some people think that it is not that real, but it is real,” she said.