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Twenty-three days of isolation, illness, and boredom. That was my experience with coronavirus, but the period was not without its learnings.
The novel coronavirus came into our lives after our son came back from his college abroad. Even though he was asymptomatic, we assumed he could be a carrier. We informed the authorities of his travel history and isolated him from the rest of the family as we ourselves went into home-quarantine.
Within a week of his arrival, I came down with symptoms of headache and severe body ache followed by a fever. We immediately contacted our doctor and called a testing centre. My test result was positive.
My husband immediately got me admitted to a private hospital in Delhi. This hospital was very well equipped to handle COVID patients. The reporting chamber was set up away from the regular hospital wards.
The hospital staff, all in hazmat suits, tested my parameters and then they straight away took me to intensive care. Patients were put into a separate cabin which had the ‘positive-negative’ pressures maintained.
I was constantly monitored for the next six days – blood tests, X-rays, ECGs et al. I was on a regular dosage of immunity boosters and antibiotics.
I was in a lot of pain in those initial few days, totally crashed out. My fibromyalgia had also kicked in and I realised that I may have contracted the virus due to this auto-immune issue.
Luckily, with the painkillers and antibiotics, my fever subsided on the fourth day and the pain started easing. Barring the throat irritation and dry cough, I was now in a more or less comfortable situation.
Not the Only One Infected in the Family
Six days after my admission, my family ie my husband, two boys and house help – they got tested for COVID-19. All tested negative except my little 14-year-old son. He was brought into the same hospital on the same floor.
Thinking about him isolated from the family like this for the first time really worried me but he dealt with the illness well and on the fifteenth day he was discharged from the hospital.
By God’s grace, I too passed my test with a negative test on the 22nd day of hospitalisation.
Mother and son were safely reunited with their family after a long separation even thought the home quarantine continued at home.
Just hearing your family’s voice was a welcome, much needed change. It no longer gave us a scare to talk about coronavirus even though COVID-19 has become social stigma, which I experienced because of a few people in the neighbourhood.
They would say things like ‘why couldn’t they (my family) speak of it earlier and why do they have to speak of it much later?’ Even though we had informed all the concerned authorities well in time.
I would through my experience like to tell people not to blame someone or any community for its spread.
It’s just like another virus that is very contagious but can be fought over if we watch the symptoms very closely and take timely action.
If I as a 50-year-old can defeat it, so can you!
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