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DENVER (KDVR) — Veronica Markley gave birth to baby Luna at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in June of 2020, and her experience was anything but typical.

Markley had tested positive for COVID in March, which was early in her pregnancy.  

“I was so, so, so sick,” she said.

After ending up on a ventilator at PSL, Markley was full of questions.

“Is my baby ok? Am I ok? Am I going to wake up and not be pregnant anymore?” she recalls.

But, she and the baby pulled through. Markley spent two weeks in the hospital and went home to recover. It was a very difficult process.

Then in June she went back to PSL to have her baby, only to be told she had tested positive for COVID once again.

“They came in and they were all dressed In their PPE, and my heart just sank. I was devastated. I cried uncontrollably,” she said.

That was early in the pandemic, and doctorts did not have the information they have now.

Plans were initially made to separate mother and baby after birth, and to put the baby in the NICU. But, then an infectious disease doctor gave Markley some good news.

“He’s like, ‘I’m 99% positive that your body is just shedding the virus, and that you’re not contagious. You’re going to be fine,'” she remembers.

Mother, daughter, and the rest of the family were fine, and they were grateful. 

Now, months later, she knows doctors have a different approach.

“I tend to discourage repeat testing once the diagnosis is made for at least several months,” said Dr. John Hammer, an infectious disease specialist at Rose Medical Center.

“We know that the PCR test can stay positive for days to weeks after an initial positive, but that really just represents the shedding of RNA, just parts of the virus. It doesn’t represent live virus,” Dr. Hammer said.

Dr. Hammer tells patients who test positive to isolate for ten days, and even if you have persistent symptoms, it does not necessarily mean that you have active virus.

But, if you recover and get sick again months later, there is the possibility of reinfection.

“On occasion we have seen reinfections. This is not common, but it can happen,” Dr. Hammer said.