Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
For the past two years plus, Covid, the airborne virus, has been slowly losing its reputation as a dangerous infection. People are receiving their second booster shots, and the face-mask ruling has even been lifted recently. It is no surprise that Covid is now a casual topic that people can start making jokes about online.
And since everyone had someone they knew who tested positive, being free of the infection could even serve as a ‘flex’. So that’s what I did; I casually brought up how weird it was that I had never gotten Covid – and boy! had I spoken too soon.
I thought, “This happens when you riak (brag) in life.”
This is my experience of getting Covid for the very first time.
“If she’s fine, then I should be fine, kot….”
On Sunday night, I showed minor symptoms of Covid, such as sore throat and fatigue. I thought I’d gotten it from my sister, who was on her second day of fever at the time. So, in the early morning, when she tested negative on her RTK (Rapid-Test Kit), I had assumed that my result would come back negative too. Plus, she’s a doctor, so why shouldn’t I trust her when she remained calm and collected about it?
The next day, I made plans to have lunch with some friends. Looking back, I regret not testing myself before leaving the house – especially since my symptoms were worsening.
Still, I’d taken several precautionary steps while in public; I kept my mask on at all times, kept my distance, and made it a point not to share food with my friends.
Temperature reading of a high fever. [Image taken by the author, Armani]
The “Oh No” Moment
When I got home, I had a virtual meeting to attend for work. The symptoms were starting to be unbearable at this point. My head was throbbing, and the room felt cold even with the desk fan turned off.
After the meeting ended, I decided to take a self-test for Covid and I got my results within the first few seconds of testing. The indicator line showed up immediately!
The first thing I did was inform my results to friends, family and colleagues whom I had recently met physically.
I ended up spending the rest of my quarantine feeling guilty because it had already spread to one of my friends who I had lunch with.
My first experience getting sampled up the nose
I remember thinking it was not as painful as I thought it would be. I discussed this with my sister, who suggested that I could have a high pain tolerance which is why I was not as affected by it.
She, on the other hand, was so bothered by the pain that she pushed the medical assistant’s hand while he was doing her test kit.
But the night would not end there. First, my sister’s Covid test actually came back positive. Then, the medical assistants took our vitals and found that my heart rate was abnormally high. They speculated that I had dengue on top of Covid, which meant they also had to run several blood tests and put me on drips while I waited for the results to come back.
[Image taken by the author, Armani]
What it’s like to be put on drips
Supposedly, collecting my blood sample and inserting the drips could go into the same butterfly needle inserted into the veins of one hand. But, since the vein on my left hand had started to swell up, they had to reinsert a new needle into my right hand.
All the while, the medical assistants were just standing there and marvelling at the size of my veins. One of them told the other, “tengok ni… gila besar.”
Two hours after sitting quietly with the drip flowing into my hand, I started fumbling with the wires out of boredom. With my sister’s helpful guidance, I quickened the drip so it could deplete faster.
I started noticing how my entire arm felt cold after a few minutes. It truly was a weird sensation.
They finally sent us home after the drip finished, and our results revealed that everything was normal (except with the whole Covid thing).
They gave us our medication before allowing us to go home. By then, we had been there since 10:30pm and reached our home at 3:30am. It was such a long night that we had our other sister bring us food while we were there!
Our home quarantine would start that night and only end the following Sunday (one week).
What I did while I was home-quarantined
For a whole week, my sister and I mostly slept as the high fevers came and went. We ate our medication, waited for it to kick in and continued resting our bodies.
One day, we finally felt good enough to move around, so we decided to sanitise most of the place and quarantine ourselves in one space of our home.
Of course, the sudden burst of energy would be short-lived, and I would return to lying down as the headaches began.
My sister also suggested that we recorded our symptoms for the next few days. This would give me something to do apart from scaring (and mentally scarring) her with my huge bear.
Djungelskog nightmare fuel. [Image taken by the author, Armani]
Returning to Normalcy Post-Covid
After essentially doing nothing for a whole week, getting back into the groove of working was a huge struggle for me. I was about to blame myself for being a sloth during this time before I found studies online that looked into this as more than just a result of laziness. Doctors called it “brain fog”.
It was frustrating to feel like more effort was needed to do the work that used to require lesser energy. Experiencing this was especially hard since I had only recently started my new job and was only one week into getting used to my daily tasks.
I make it a point now to be physically active and do more brain-strenuous activities, so I can feel useful again. Still, it is taking me some time to understand how healing from illnesses can take a long time.
I would now also work on being more patient with myself while I slowly move towards returning to normality.
How was your Covid experience?
Know anyone with an interesting story to share? Drop us an email at hello@inreallife.my, and we may feature the story!
For more stories like this, read:
I Got COVID-19 And All My Malaysian Boss Cared About Was Whether I Could Work
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