173. Covid Escapades

After taking every precaution that were listed out for escaping from Covid, I still got it😊.  Even when going out for buying something from the store just outside our colony, I used to put mask and the helmet (of course, I don’t walk near distances😊), and will remove them only after coming back home.  And after coming home, I will wash my hands with handwash and also wash my legs.  Even after doing all this, I still got it!

For 2 days continuous, I had sore throat and cough.  When I checked with my cousin, he suggested that I take a Covid test.  So, I went to take the test.  I went and found myself surrounded by about 50 people, all waiting to take the test. After about an hour and half, my turn came and they took my sample.  The next day evening, the result came as positive.   The test reading was around 21.  If you have a reading above 35, you are considered Covid-negative.  After I tested positive, I sent my wife and kids for testing.  Luckily, they all tested negative.

When I look back, there could have only been 3 places from where I could have caught this.  I had gone for my first dose of vaccination on 30^th March.  During that time, there was a small rush in the line to pay the dose fees as well as during the checking of BP and pulse before providing the dose.  The second was a visit to SBI for doing some transaction.  Normally I don’t visit the bank and do everything online.  But this time, it was a necessity.  And as you know in public sector banks, there is no sense of social distancing.  And finally, when I went for the Covid test, I was in a crowd.  Even though the diagnostic centre had given token numbers to all, there was only a small entrance into the centre.  And everyone was crowded around that entrance.  And the guard who was handling this gate was not in a good mood and was not mentioning the token number loudly, which made everyone crowd the entrance. 

As soon as the test result came, I quarantined in my mother’s room in the ground floor (she was in Chennai at that time).  The room has attached toilet, a TV and couple of plug points, to charge all my electronic devices😊.  I took my mobile, laptop and the tab with their respective chargers also.  And also couple of clothes, 2 plates, one glass, one cup, one water bottle and a couple of small cups.  We also told our maid to stop coming from the next day.  We also informed in our colony WhatsApp group that I was positive.

I quarantined myself from Day 4 of the starting of the symptoms.  My wife had kept a small table outside my room.  Whenever it was food time, I used to keep my plate outside on that table and the food would be put there.  I will then take it inside the room and have it. 

Since I was alone and nobody was going to come to visit me, I tried to give the PM Modi a run by not shaving😊!  Unfortunately, so far, my beard has not grown to even 1/20^th of his!!  I also took bath only once in 4-5 days so that I could wear the same dress without having to wash them!  Once I come out of quarantine, I will dump all of them in the washing machine and do a single wash! 

Most of the time would be spent on watching serials (reviews will come later😊) during the afternoon and IPL at night.  I also missed out publishing 2 blogs as I was lazy.  The content was available, but I could not make it.  Since I was not into knowing which day it was, it just slipped my mind on Saturdays. And after that day, it didn’t make sense to publish😊!

After the positive result, I consulted a doctor about the medicines to be taken for the course. He sent me a list of 12 medicines through WhatsApp (on my wife’s phone, since I am not on WhatsApp😊).  I went to google and checked out the list of medicines. There was one for anti-bacteria, one for conjunctivitis, one for asthma-related complications, some other anti-viral medicines, one for sore throat, one for calcium-c, one for fever and some more for pain-related issues.  Through newspapers I learnt that the doctors are now prescribing for all the stuff that the Covid variants are supposed to do.  As they are not aware of the variant, they are prescribing everything😊.  I sent the list to my cousin to check with his doctor whether I need to take these as I don’t have symptoms of about 90% of the medicines!!  During the entire quarantine period, there were only about 3-4 days where the temperature varied from 99.8 to 102.8 and I felt tired.  Sore throat was there throughout with dry cough in the start followed by wet cough.  Over a period of time, the cough too reduced. 

My cousin took 1-2 days to respond.  By that time, I was on the 6^th day from the start of the symptoms.  His doctor said that as 5-6 days have already passed, I did not have to take any of these medications.  I took only Dolo 650 for fever, Calcium C chewable tablets and a syrup for the sore throat.  Additionally, my wife made me have some ayurvedic medicines.  I also did salt gargling daily and also steam inhalation (whenever I remembered😊, i.e. once in 2-3 days).

After 14 days, I was left only with sore throat.  I checked with my cousin and tested again.  On day 17, the test result again came as positive😊.  This time, however, the reading was around 27.  My cousin said that it could false-positive and I should not have the virus by now.  One of my friends said that once the virus enters the body, it stays till 21 days and then only a retest should be done.

Meanwhile, one day, my daughter also got fever and we put her in a different room and had her quarantined.  Luckily, she had fever for only one day.

Since she also needed to be tested, I thought we will go for the test together.  So, I booked slots online and we went to give our sample for testing.  This time there was no crowd and we were out of the diagnostic centre in 20 minutes.  Even though the diagnostic guy said that the results would come in 3 days, it came the next day!!  Luckily, we both were negative.  I then disinfected my room with 3 bottles of Savlon disinfectant and came out of the room, after spending 19 days in the room.

Words cannot acknowledge the patience and help that were provided by my wife and kids.  Whenever I wanted to eat, they would send something to eat.  Everything was provided in a platter without me having to do anything, other than to eat, sleep and watch TV😊!!

It’s good to be back to normal life😊! Cheers till next time!

Today’s Observation

An acquaintance is a person we know well enough to borrow from but not well enough to lend to😊