This year started off in a great way when I became a mother in February, but soon motherhood turned out to be one in which I lived in constant fear of COVID.
On August 16, my father was randomly tested at his office, where he found out that few of his colleagues were positive, but he tested negative on a rapid test that day. But just to be sure, we did his RT PCR and I wasn’t terribly surprised when his report came in positive. Since the time he got home, he was quarantined in his room and we all had to wait.
Since his symptoms were a mild cough with a fever, the doctor advised us to admit him as he has high blood pressure and is also of critical age. Shortly afterwards we started calling because the whole family was scared and on August 17 around 10 p.m. the ambulance came to pick up my father.
At noon that same evening, I went to the washroom and suddenly felt very weak. It became a task for me to get back from the washroom to my bed when I found myself crawling and realized I needed to get tested the next morning too. I had a fever, but I prayed that this would be anything but COVID for my son, who was just 5 months old and was only breastfeeding. But on August 19, I got my report. I tested positive and my initial reaction was a lot of crying, but once that happened a series of tests started in our house.
My son, who was 5 months old, along with my grandmother, aunt, 2 sisters and my husband, all tested positive over the next week and then started the real fight.
As my entire family tested positive, three of our members were hospitalized and we all tried to manage the house, along with our COVID was a daunting task for us.
The first day of COVID I had a very high fever and vomiting and so I had to be extra careful when feeding my child. The next day I still had a fever, but this day I had a bad headache that doesn’t go away with painkillers and I was constantly feeling very weak. On the third day I started to feel a little better with a fever coming down but my son still had mild symptoms like coughing and the same night I started having shortness of breath but doctors told us as long as your satiety was 95 and above , you need not worry so quickly I realized this was fear as COVID was so unpredictable. I lived in fear every day and with my taste and smell gone it made me even more anxious, but by the 6th day everything seemed to get a little better, my son had no symptoms at all and we were all recovering at the pace.
But I didn’t know that post COVID is also a condition, so after 14 days I felt fine, but for up to a month I had severe weakness and found performing basic tasks such as looking after my child exhausting. But it took our family nearly a month and a half to recover and go negative, and my grandmother and Bua have spent about 25 days in the hospital since they had pneumonia from COVID.
So after about 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.
Having said this, all of my family members responded differently to COVID and it is by far one of the most unpredictable illnesses I have encountered.
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The views expressed in this article should not be taken as a substitute for the advice of a physician. Consult your treating physician for more details.