Washington coach Roth continues COVID-19 recovery

WASHINGTON - Mowing yards is a solitary existence, especially when one is used to being around high school sports teams, but Steve Roth is more than happy to avoid contact with people so that everyone stays safe and healthy.

Roth coaches a number of sports at Washington High School, but loves track and field. While he was devastated when the season was suspended, then canceled, a more sinister devastation overtook him when he contracted the contagion known as COVID-19, the novel coronavirus.

'I just want people to know that whatever it takes, we need to do it because this is not something to mess with,” Roth said.

Roth recovered without a hospital visit, although there were numerous visits to the doctor, and is now back mowing yards for the city.

'I don't have to deal with anyone,” he said about his work for the city. 'The mower is all gassed up for me and ready to go so I just get on and ride.”

Roth said he was one of the lucky ones. There are a lot of levels to the disease, from being a carrier, to developing a mild case, a serious case, or a full-blown hospital visit and a respirator and possibly death.

Roth said there was something that made his luck for him.

'I had a lot of support and a lot of people praying for me,” Roth said. 'Not sure how I got it, but I went to a couple of parties - a birthday party and a community function that I attended two weeks prior to it.”

Roth is typically used to going full speed. That is, until COVID-19 stopped him in his tracks. Whatever symptoms there can be, Roth said he had them.

'They said I was the poster man for symptoms because I got them all,” Roth said. 'Headache, coughing, sore throat, breathing was the main issue. It is very tiring. My body ached all over. I have bad knees anyway, but I had trouble standing up and walking. Taste and smell gone, breathing got 10 times worse. It was a battle trying to function. I just did a lot of sleeping because it makes you tired all the time. It is very scary when you can't get your breath. I was terrified.”

He first visited the doctor when he had a cough but they didn't test him for COVID-19 and all other tests came back negative. A week later, they tested Roth for COVID-19 and it was confirmed.

'I couldn't sleep in a chair,” Roth said. 'I had to stand up eating so the food went down easier. I was close to asking for a ventilator, but I didn't press the issue.”

He isolated himself in the basement of his house away from his wife and she developed a cough, but was not infected. They wiped things down constantly.

'I ate a lot of Tylenol and drank a lot of Gatorade and slept a lot,” Roth said. 'Watching TV, the lights of it hurt my eyes. Everything hurt and I mean everything. It was miserable.”

There was a 10-12 day period of the absolute torment, then a two-week recovery.

'It has put me out of commission for a good month,” Roth said. 'Who knows how I got it. I didn't give it to any one. I want people to see my experience as a positive.”

Roth said Washington County Public Health did a lot to help and contacted him regularly to check up on him.

'My symptoms were gone (April 13) and my fever ended a week before that, but I still have a cough,” Roth said. 'My fever was never bad but it went hot and cold and I'd get clammy hands.”

Roth said he spent a lot of time worrying about school being canceled and the track season with his seniors.

'I didn't sleep but about three or four hours every night,” he said. 'I think I worried myself to sickness. The immune system is big for fighting it off.”

After battling the virus and winning, Roth has this advice to pass along to everyone.

'Stay the distance, wash your hands,” Roth said. 'I thought I was doing all that. Again whatever they say to do, do and do it extra because it's not about us. It's about the people around you, my kids my grandkids, my dad, my stepmother, and my wife. Do what you have to do for others in your life. Do your best for them.”