By some definitions, Glenn Adams has a mild form of COVID-19. This is what “mild” means.

Through Wednesday morning, he had been sick for eight days. He runs a fever. His joints and body are wracked with pain, according to his wife Jennifer Adams, a professor at Auburn and director of the university’s School of Communication and Journalism.

“He can’t sleep because his body hurts so much,” she said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “His fever always races at night.”

Glenn Adams is one of 29 people in Lee County — and 283 statewide through Wednesday morning — who have confirmed cases of coronavirus in Alabama. He is 46 years old and does not have any underlying health conditions.

“He hardly ever gets sick,” Jennifer Adams said. “For him to be so out of it and achy and so lethargic is rare for him. He’s had flu before, but he’ll bounce back quickly.”

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She said her husband, a director of product management for a San Antonio-based company, returned from a business trip to Australia feeling ill.

“When he got back, he was saying he didn’t feel well,” she said. “The next day he was running a fever. He was achy, his joints hurt, and he had a really bad cough.”

At first, they thought it was the flu, but a test at an urgent care facility for flu and strep turned up negative. They called a hotline to arrange a drive-thru COVID-19 test on Friday. Glenn’s test returned positive on Tuesday.

By then the Adams family had already been through ups and downs.

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“On Saturday, his fever broke and he was saying ‘I think I’m turning a corner and I feel better,’” she said. “By Sunday, it came back with a vengeance.”

Glenn Adams had not shown breathing problems through Wednesday morning. Treatment consists of isolation and Tylenol, Jennifer Adams said. He occupies the second floor of their house. She leaves food and drinks for him outside his bedroom door, though his appetite “ebbs and flows” and he ate very little on Monday and Tuesday. They communicate in their home via FaceTime.

“I don’t even want my kids up there talking to him or playing a game with him,” she said. “It’s as if he’s not here … that’s been really difficult.”

Jennifer Adams continues to work remotely while doing what she can to help her husband. Deliveries have helped the family get through. They have also gotten support from neighbors and friends, who Jennifer Adams says have been “amazing.” One neighbor left them a “huge package” of toilet paper on their doorstep amid the shortages. She also criticized what she said appeared to be a “politicized” response to the outbreak — “viruses aren’t political,” she said — and encouraged people to take the disease seriously.

“These are considered mild symptoms,” Jennifer Adams said. “I can tell you from seeing him, he would not describe it as mild.”

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com.