KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
Carl Goldman is back home in Santa Clarita after over four weeks of quarantine due to coronavirus, COVID-19.
Back In The States With The Coronavirus – Day 41 (Monday)
I walked my final 14 steps to my door, smiled at my birthday balloon, still hovering 24 days later, and walked down the hall.
It was my final hours at Nebraska Medicine. No longer carrying the coronavirus, COVID-19, I was a free man. I felt strange walking down the hallway, a bit disoriented. My nurse strolled next to me, describing the rooms of the other patients.
I asked where my wife, Jeri, had spent her 14 days in quarantine. “Oh, that’s in the non-contaminated wing,” she replied.
I had left all my possessions on my bed in my contaminated room. They were going to be “zapped” in a few minutes and returned to me in a non-contaminated room.
Before I started down the hall I changed to a new set of scrubs. These scrubs were way too big on me. A cool breeze swirled inside the exposed opening in my back. Occasionally as we walked, I’d tug my pants higher to keep them from falling. With me being this close to freedom, I didn’t want to give my nurse any more thrills.
“I’ve seen it all,” she said after I revealed my baggy pants dilemma. This was coming from a nurse who had shoved a cotton swab deep up my butt on numerous occasions since I had volunteered for the novel corona virus, COVID-19, clinical study. For the first time during my 30-day stay at Nebraska Medicine, I was without words. I knew whatever line I came up with couldn’t do justice to my situation.
My nurse led me into a “clean” room. It was like my “dirty” room. A bed, desk, dresser with a television. A treadmill sat where I had spent weeks exercising on my stationary bicycle. I looked out my window. The view was the opposite side of the building, posing a change of scenery, facing a different medical building across the street.
The change of view reminded me of the Diamond Princess. Halfway through our quarantine onboard, our captain turned the ship around when docking after briefly heading out to sea to “empty our bilges.” There we had a majestic view of Yokohama instead of the surrealistic scene on the isolated dock, loading hundreds of our travelers in ambulances day after day.
In my Nebraska room, my new view simply looked out into another brick wall. The Pink Floyd song came into my head as I turned on my shower to no longer remain “dirty.”
My clothes and possessions were returned to me. I flipped on my television. My friend, Mark Jorgensen, was being interviewed. Seeing Mark or his wife, Jerri, or my wife, or reruns of my interviews has become the new norm in our lives. Very strange.
Life in our states is now in full flurry. Los Angeles is in partial shutdown mode. All schools are closed. I know I was returning to a different world.
I killed a few hours in my temporary quarters waiting for my flight from Omaha to Los Angeles. All the networks were texting me asking to be interviewed when I took off, when I landed, when I got home, when I gave Jeri that first hug, when I petted my dogs. I’m surprised no one asked me for pictures or video of the numerous trips I knew I’d take to the bathroom during my flight. I’m also surprised none asked for video the first time I cleaned up the dog poop. At least, not yet.
For once, I turned down all offers, no longer feeling like being in the coronavirus limelight.
Leaving my room, I was escorted by two friendly federal health officials. They were temporarily stationed in Omaha for the crisis. As we walked through double doors, electronically controlled by either touching their picture ID to a beam, or uttering the words, “open sesame,” I was led into the main lobby.
My entire Nebraska medical team was standing, waiting to say goodbye. They were my angels for the past 31 days. I vaguely recognized them, seeing their faces for the first time not hidden behind a visor or hazmat suit. I was touched and overwhelmed. I smiled as they cheered. We said our goodbyes and I was driven to the Omaha airport by my two federal health officials.
My flight was uneventful. I slept part of the way. Not having access to a television, I felt my umbilical cord to the craziness in our world was cut. It felt refreshing. I was at peace for the first time in many, many weeks.
My good friend, Bruce Burrows, picked me up in a stretch limousine, long enough for its motor and trunk to park in separate zip codes.
Bruce had a large container of my favorite Cold Stone peanut butter and chocolate ice cream, along with a bottle of champagne. I hadn’t tasted ice cream in 41 days. I knew it was the first of many things I missed but hadn’t yet realized it.
I was expecting Los Angeles to be the “Naked City.” I was wrong. Despite everything shut down, the 405 freeway was its usual bumper-to-bumper. The pouring rain added to the freeway congestion.
When I arrived home, Jeri and my dogs greeted me. After many hugs and licks I walked around to reacclimate after being away for two months.
A reader asked if I grabbed a Runza before going to the Omaha airport. There wasn’t enough time with all the zapping taking place.
Our friend, Greg Amsler, owns one of the top restaurants in Santa Clarita, Salt Creek Grille. Greg’s from Nebraska. His daughter lives in Omaha, very close to Nebraska Medicine. Greg promised to make me an awesome version of the Nebraska delicacy when I returned. Maybe we can hold a big Runza party at Salt Creek when the epidemic subsides. I’ll wear my ‘Huskers shirt.
Jenny Atkins sent me an article about researchers at Johns Hopkins. They’re conducting a study to determine if blood from patients who have recovered from COVID-19 can be used to save the lives of patients who have a severe case of the virus. If that’s true, I’ll happily donate gallons of my blood. I might need to restock up on my supply of Gatorade, but that’s a small price to pay to save a life.
A doctor asked me why I was given ibuprofen instead of Tylenol. Apparently, there is conflicting information. A study in France is showing Tylenol is superior to ibuprofen. My doctors may have preferred ibuprofen because of my Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). I don’t know. Everyone is going up the COVID-19 learning curve.
The Newport, Oregon police department posted a comment on my journal yesterday.
“It’s hard to believe we even have to post this. Don’t call 9-1-1 just because you ran out of toilet paper. You will survive without our assistance.” They then describe in detail all kinds of substitutes for toilet paper going back to ancient times. They even included my Sears Roebuck catalog and my Nebraska corn husk suggestions. The possibilities are endless.
I believe the city of Newport has the same percentage of non-thinkers as most communities. In Santa Clarita, if I had $1 for each listener who called our radio station during a major fire asking, “When will the fire be out?” I’d be a very wealthy man.
Many readers have been asking me to continue my journal now that I’ve returned home. I will continue for as long as the outbreak remains in our headlines. I believe my wife, Jeri, the Jorgensons and I can provide a unique and valuable perspective.
I’m also certain as the glimmer of my return begins to fade with my wife, I will share many future humorous moments. Many husbands can relate.
Walking in my bedroom for the night, my wife handed me the television remote. A first during our 29-year marriage. I treasured the moment knowing tomorrow night, her Hallmark channel will return.
Read All Of Carl’s Journals Here: Carl Goldman Coronavirus Journals
There is currently no vaccine to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to this virus. However, as a reminder, CDC always recommends everyday preventive actions to help prevent the spread of respiratory diseases, including:
- Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
- Stay home when you are sick.
- Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
- Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipe.
- Follow CDC’s recommendations for using a facemask.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.
Sponsored Articles
KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Welcome back Carl….Linda Lombardi
Señor Goldman, welcome to your home with your family and friends. My family wishes you a warm and precious life filled with good health and happiness. God bless you and protect you always.
So great to have you home and thank you for continuing to be help our system figure this virus out.
May the Lord continue to bless you and Jeri.
Glad you’re home. Welcome back. Super cool that your friend Bruce picked you up in a limo and had your favorite ice cream. He’s a good friend indeed.
Thank you for sharing your journey with us. I read every single part and shared your story and humor with my family and friends. I prayed that your tests come back negative so you can be reunited with your wife and come back home to CA. Best of luck and hope you can continue to share your humor with us while we wait for this to be over. Your optimism and attitude is what we all need now.
Welcome home Carl!! I have enjoyed reading your daily updates.
Welcome back from your adventurous odyssey at sea and on land. Thankful that you have recovered and returned safely. Thanks for sharing your journey.
Welcome home Carl. So glad you and Jeri got to be together again with your dogs. Yes I agree, you are a terrific writer with a wonderful sense of humor and you and Jeri have remained so calm it is comforting to others so I hope you continue. I personally look to you for your expertise and I feel things have gotten so blown out of portion. I think you can help to take some of the fears away from people explaining the truth and how things really are with this pandemic so people will stop being so hysterical. Thanks again and glad you are back. Looking forward to your continued stories.
Welcome back Carl! ENJOY being home. I hope you will take up some offers to appear on TV news shows. Americans need some of your heart, humor and resilience!
Welcome home Carl. You were the only bright spot in this coronoavirus situation because witnessing someone who maintained their sense of humor and their optimism during scary and trying circumstances was an inspiration to all of us. Since laughter is the best medicine, thank you for the meds everyday. God bless. Sharon
Welcome home, Carl. If your friend Greg from Salt Crek Grille doesn’t come through with that runza, I would happily oblige! I’ve got an authentic runza recipe. In fact, I just made some this week! Enjoy some new kinds of freedom. Thanks for the daily journal. It was interesting and insightful.
Welcome home Carl. What an ordeal you’ve been through. I hope to see you at Vons so I can shake your hand!
Welcome home!
Your journals felt like a respite from all of the craziness and panic and fear and dread that’s been preoccupying our country. Thank you for sharing your witty observations- I hope you continue.
Bienvenidos, Carl! Please stay in touch via your journals. This thing is going to be around for a while, so it’s good to hear from someone who’s been through it.
When the rain stops, spend some quality time in your garden. I think you mentioned how much you’d appreciate it when you got home.
Mimi
j
Congratulations for kicking the virus & returning home, Carl. I like Jeri! 🙂 She definitely balances your dynamic duo… It must be nice to be HOME.
As our world turns upside down with COVID-19, I continue to think of your posts. I’m thankful I am not living at my HOME in Valencia, but in Po Dunk City, Salkum, WA. It’s rural, and I just realized we pretty much live like we are quarantined with our rural family & friends coming & going. We work outside, ponder the new life live around, the incredible beauty of God’s Country, & value each moment. The fear is ramping up, and your comments in the blog help me to stay focused on something around here. Thank you so much. May peace be with you & Jeri.
So happy you’re home, and even got a chance with the remote! OMG can you even believe it? Wow. Continue journaling, you may as well, rumor has it, some people don’t want to party with you just yet. I’m so glad you’re “free”. Such an ordeal. Now the SCV ordeal. Hold onto your gushiest, things are about to get awesome ?
Gushiest not Tushie
So happy you are finally a free man!! God is great! Thank you for this blog, it has definitely brought me some peace during this crazy time. I’m ready for life to get back to normal. I hope you continue to write so we can see how you adjust to the craziness lol
I seriously got a little choked up reading this post! I’ve been loyally following you from day one. Welcome Back! Please keep us informed on how you are doing… All the Best!
Carl, can I make a suggestion.
Can you write a synopsis of your symptoms, and the treatments you received.
You should be considered PATIENT ZERO. One who contracted COVID-19 and survived.
The info released from the CDC and governments is what to do to not get the virus.
But, if someone gets it, how do they know? what can they to to survive if they are self quarantining.
We’ll be waiting for your unembellished response.
Congratulations and welcome back, Carl!!
Welcome back Carl! Glad you are okay.
Thank you for sharing your journey!!! And your blood if called upon! I can’t even tell you how much I have appreciated your blog. You keep showing up on my Facebook friends suggestions! I guess we know enough of the same people or the “big brother” has picked up me reading your blog from my phone! Either way, I have been tempted to send you a friend request because I feel like I know you after all that you have shared…I mean it’s not everyone I know that has told me about their anal probing experiences! Keep on blogging, and I will keep on reading! Cheers, and WELCOME HOME!
So glad you are finally home in Jeri’s arms. My family has been reading and watching the videos since you first became stranded. You are a shining example of keeping a sense of humor and strength for weeks on end. It’s been a pleasure to get to know both of you. Wishing you all the best and a biggest welcome home ever!
Yay!! You r a free man 🙂
Love to read your blogs. Your humor keeps me reading to the end of it…
Welcome
Great to have you home. Thank you for all your posts and interviews. You made a difference to millions of people..that is some impact Carl! Well done and here’s to a better tomorrow.
So glad you are finally home, Carl! I know we usually only hear your voice on KHTS radio when there is something big going on here in the SCV, but I have so enjoyed reading your journals. Your experience fighting this virus will give hope to others that they can overcome it, too!
Welcome home my friend we are so glad that our prayers have been answered.
Carl, I’ve been following your story for weeks from here in Kirkland, Wa., ground zero of the US outbreak. Your posts brought me comfort, made me smile and helped me know what symptoms to look for. I’m glad you are finally back home! Thank you for sharing your story with the world so we know that recovery from this mysterious illness is possible.
Bienvenido Senor.
Dear Carl,
Thank you for allowing us to share in you and your wife’s journey. It has been a life line to me for REAL information not made available to the public. I looked forward to each days news. I was a pediatric nurse for thirty years prior to becoming ill and one thing I strongly taught my families was tell the child the truth as what they can conjure up will be much worse. Thank you for your honestly. I fondly refer to you as “my friend Carl” to my family and friends now. Oh, and the first thing I ordered for supplies was thermometers! We also got Gatorade .
Thank you for participating in the study. May God bless you and yours with good health! Now go pick up some dog poop! I expect pictures !
Greetings from Los Alamos, New Mexico! Congratulations on having negative swabs and getting to go home. I’ve been following you from the beginning. I’m glad you’re going to continue journaling throughout this.
Stay healthy!
Jenn
Reading your journals about your COVID-19 ordeal has helped to ease my fears. We are now experiencing a new “normal” and it’s weird and scary. Restaurants closed, lines and empty shelves at the grocery stores and the whole toilet paper thing. Society has been turned inside out. I hope your return home will be positive and people will be kind. This will pass, life will return to normal, dog poop will be picked up. Thank you Mr. Goldman for sharing your journey with us. May you continue to stay healthy and enjoy being back home with your wife. Welcome Home.
Congratulations, Carl–and Jeri!!
I’m not sure how I came across your journals, but I’ve been captivated from Ohio, and am now a fan of KHTS! While reading your journals, I’d wonder if I could adjust as well as you did to being isolated and quarantined. On your birthday, I envisioned myself at the end of the day in fetal position, sucking my thumb, totally feeling sorry for myself. Then I remembered what you said about the many cameras in the room, so maybe I’d just feel sorry for myself. I would only hope to be as optimistic and strong as you were throughout your extended stay in Omaha. If I have to be hospitalized, I’m going to ask to be transferred there! Heehee!
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and humor day after day!
Welcome home Carl! What an ordeal you’ve been through. I’ve been praying for you, your wife, and your cruise friends. So glad to hear you’re clear and back home. Mike 🙂
Welcome home carl , so happy for you…God bless you and your family and may he continue protecting you all.
Oliver
So many prayers for you and Jeri over these past 41 days to now celebrate your unity at home. What a celebration you must have in your heart and home! Thank you for journaling and educating us on this health experience. Welcome home back to our community and our celebration that you are now safely here.
Carl, you have provided real insight into this terrible virus, from its inception; so happy you are back to “scoop up the poop”!….please know we in Alabama, and around the world even, have appreciated your journaling. I have shared them on Facebook…You are amazing!!
OMG I’m almost as happy as you that you’re finally home!!!!!! Thank you for sharing all of this from day one! WELCOME HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations Carl! I’ve been following from Nebraska and Florida thruout your experience.
You’ve questioned many times why your wife never turned positive. Just wanted to point out that preliminary studies posted today are considering that the CoVid19 may have a preference for a particular blood type. Interesting, yes?
Enjoy your freedom
Carl, Parabéns!
Feliz em saber que deu tudo certo.
Abraço!
Welcome home, Carl!
Welcome home!
Glad are home safe.. please keep us posted. Reading your journey has been comforting.
Congratulations on being released and arriving home safely. Enjoy your life again!
Many blessings your way Carl! I am still dealing with this, my cough continues and Ive now lost my appetite for 3 days trying my hardest to stay hydrated, yet the thought of food is alien, never gone through this, I’m normally a hungry jack. So scared, Im going on 2 months and one week since symptoms first began. Not sure what to do. Been home the whole time.
Thank you Carl for sharing your incredible journey.
Dear Carl-
Thank you so much for sharing your journey from the first moments of being quarantined to your joyous reunion back home. I have been reading your blog since the beginning. Your ability to find humor and share it with all of us during this scary time has given a lot of us valuable information as well as a sense of peace. Thank you for participating in the Covid 19 clinical trial and enduring all the probing to your various body openings . You and Jeri are truly an inspiration. I too hope that you will continue your blog.
All the Best to you and Jeri. Welcome Home to Santa Clarita
I am so happy to hear that you are home with Jeri and your dogs! Thank you for journaling this long scary journey that you both have been on. I don’t know if I could have kept it together like you did Carl. Your journal has kept me a little calmer. I look forward to reading more.
So happy for you to be home and back to normalcy? Of sorts! It’s been quite a journey for you and l glad l didn’t miss it. Well, l really am glad l did miss it! Thank you again for your candor and honesty. It was refreshing. I start my own journey Monday going live for long distance learning for my middle school students whom I’m sure are ready to school me! We disbanded school last Friday with students taking home all books as well as assigned chrome books. This week l have learned more about computers than l ever wanted to know. I wish you well on this next part of your journey!!
I have followed your story from Texas and I am so thankful you recovered and are now home with your loved ones. To be honest your journey has given me hope for what the world is facing. Thank you for sharing and thank God you are home may you have many more blessings !
I found some of your posts from the ship only by chance, but lost track of you until you turned up on CNN today. I am glad to see you are doing well, & now I can follow you again. Please stay well. Take no chances. We don’t know yet whether we can be hit more than once by the beast or its progeny.
So happy to finally read this update!!! Have been following you for weeks now and haven’t heard an update on or local news channels. So happy you are healthy, feeling well and home safe.
As an original follower I am so happy this is the ending…
The world is different…we all have our “new normal.”
I’m happy you made it home- the non-thinkers are a truly special crowd, we like to call them The Walkers roun’ here…
Now that you’re home, you should know both Contagion AND Outbreak are available on Netflix. Haha