This year started with an amazing note, as I became a mother in February, but soon motherhood turned out to be the one where I lived with constant fear of COVID.
On August 16, my dad did random tests in his office, where he learned that few of his classmates were positive, but he tested negative on the quick test that day. Still, to be more confident, we did his RT PCR and I wasn’t too surprised when his report came back positive. From the moment he got home, he was quarantined in his room and then we all had to wait.
Because his symptoms were mild cough with fever, the doctor advised us to admit him as he has hypertension and is also in critical time. Shortly afterwards we started calling as the whole family was scared and around 10pm on August 17th an ambulance came and picked up my dad.
That same night around 12:00 in the morning, I went to the laundry and suddenly I felt very weak. It was a chore for me to get back from the toilet to my bed when I was crawling and I realized I also had to take the test the next morning. I had a fever but prayed that this was anything other than CAVID for my 5 month old son who was just breastfeeding. But on August 19 I received my report. I tested positive and my first reaction was a big cry, but once that was done I started a series of tests in our house.
My son who was 5 months old along with my grandmother, aunt, two sisters and my husband, we all tested positive next week and started the real fight.
Since my whole family tested positive, three of our members were admitted to the hospital and we all tried to manage the house together with our COVID it was a huge task for us.
On the first day of COVID, I had a very high fever with episodes of vomiting and with that, I had to be very careful when feeding my son. The next day, I still had a fever, but that day I had a severe headache that didn’t go away with any painkillers and I felt constantly weak. On the third day, I started to feel a little better with the fever coming down, but my son still had mild symptoms like coughing and the same night I started breathing breathlessly but the doctors told us that as long as the saturation is greater than or equal to 95, don’t worry so soon. I realized it was anxiety because COVID was so unpredictable. I lived in fear every day and with my taste and smell gone, it made me even more anxious, but on the sixth day everything seemed to get a little better, my son had no symptoms and we were all recovering on our own as well.
But little did I know that publishing COVID is also a condition, so after 14 days I felt fine, but up to a month I had a severe weakness and was exhausted from basic tasks like caring for my child. But our family took almost a month and a half to recover and become negative and my grandmother and bua spent about 25 days in the hospital since they had pneumonia due to COVID.
So after a month and a half, we were all united under one roof, but thanks to technology we were all digitally connected especially with my chachu and chachi in Mumbai who were constantly supporting us.
That said, all members of my family reacted differently to COVID and it is by far one of the most unpredictable illnesses I have encountered.
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The opinions expressed in this article should not be construed as a substitute for the advice of a physician. Consult your doctor for more information.