Covid Survivors

 In the list of titles that I have, I can also now add Covid survivor.  From June 21 to July 5, Kanishka & I were Covid +ve.  All is well now. But the scars remain.

Kanishka had cold and slight fever on that Saturday. We had gotten our first dose of vaccine three weeks ago. We had not stepped out at all, other than going for few morning walks or going to club-house to collect parcels. The whole city had been in lockdown since May, there was nothing to go to.  We had only met Kanishka and my family for a breakfast a week ago. Other than that, we had no social interaction. The second wave overall was also waning. 

Given all this, I was sure that it was a normal fever that when Kanishka's doc recommended a Covid test (standard protocol from her end, if fever, get Covid test), I told her to get it done only for herself. Both of us had tested in Apr, under similar symptoms, this year but it came out to be negative. But on Monday evening, her report came back as positive. 

I got myself tested on Tue morning but before the report came, I had lost my sense of smell. My house duties is to clean the cat's litter box and on Tue, I could not smell the usual fowl smelling poop. This was our cheap daily Covid test :) . By Tue evening, my report also came positive.

Immediately, we asked everyone in our family to get tested. Fortunately, all of them turned out negative. 

We informed our society management. Our society has made this into a playbook by now. Once a flat is positive, they stop all flat residents to step out. An A4 sheet was pasted on our main door calling out that we will be in quarantine till July 5. Security guard were informed and all deliveries were delivered at our door step, unlike the clubhouse for everyone else. Our cooks & maids were asked to not come until they show a Covid negative report. Our maid got around to it in 4 days time, she was negative, but the apartments where she used to work fired her to avoid any chance.  Class divide in full display.  Our cook went back to her native village and has never returned since. 

Kanishka & Anshika didi a lot of research and found a very nice homemade meals service which were delivering for Covid impacted families for the last year. Food was really yum and one of the positive delights of this experience. It was homemade but made really well. 

Through office, I got the Apollo Kavach kits for home quarantine. The Kit had everything - digital thermometer, oxymeter, masks, breathing exercise game, gloves and what not.

Then started the calls. BBMP did a lot of followups. In the early calls, they followed up regularly on if we needed a place to isolate, we needed a govt doctor or not, and how are our symptoms. BMBP built this IVR based system, everyday it would ask if we still have symptoms like fever, shortness of breath etc. Unfortunately, for Kanishka too, it was my number and I would get 4-6 calls from BBMP everyday for first 4-5 days.

Apollo Kavatch in its Covid package assigned a doctor with  consultation calls on every alternate days. Both of us were prescribed antibiotics, multi-vitamins and few other tablets. In addition, they connected us with a physiotherapist, a mental health doctor and a nutritionist.  Their calls also started.  And Apollo would also call daily to ask for vitals, O2 level, temperature and pulse count. 

After first couple of days, both of us had moderate symptoms for the next 3 days. I took the meds and slept a lot. I was not sure what was happening to me.  The first couple of days to arrange all the things to adjust to new life - office leaves, food, meds from doc prescriptions etc. There was also excitement and nervousness of being Covid positive. All this while, it became the thing that happened to others to it has happened to me. 

But the next three days were brutal. Fever, cold and most of it, body being weak, took its toll. I was sleeping for most of the time. Fortunately, the O2 was always above 96/97. Temp also never crossed 100.5, so we knew that we had to run through the course, but I did not expect that my body would become so weak. Also, I lost interest in watching any good movie/TV.  Nothing I started I liked. I would sleep through the day and then will be awake at 2 am with nothing to do. I started Killing Eve and did not like it. 

Both Kanishka & I were also wearing masks inside house whenever we would step out of our respective rooms. But by day 4/5, the doc that both of you are positive and this is not needed. Day 6 onwards was recovery and a feeling that we are improving. The sense of taste/smell was still not there but a positive energy came in.  This became the time of binge watching.

I started slow first by revisiting old favorites that I had been meaning to watch - Spotlight, The Help, some detective shows like The Client. We would come out for breakfast, watch a movie, clean house, litter, have lunch and then go to sleep. This schedule lasted another 2-3 days.

I thought that by Sunday that I am ok and I can join back but my body just gave up. I tried catching up on Slack and after an hr or so, I could not concentrate. I decided to rest the week out and join next week. Week two was strange, since by now, all symptoms had gone. Except weakness which was still there. Taste of smell/taste was still gone but that was not obstructing any functioning. Weaknesss persisted in unique ways, I would feel energetic but would feel weak after just couple of hrs. 

Our doc exercises, steaming, gargling, everything was going on. In week two, we were just on multivitamins. We got our blood tested as per do recommendation and it turned out to be all good. Now, it was to just rest out this week. 

This became binge watching. We would wrap each series in a couple of days. Detective thrillers were best because the suspense made sure we would be up. First came Mare of Easttown. It was so much fun and we could not guess the killer till the end. Kate Winslet was super fun to watch. After this, we started Sharp Objects and woah, it was something. Fortunately, we were better by this time, otherwise, the heaviness of the show itself would be a symptom. Each episode needed a breather after watching it. I loved it but it was heavy. Binge watching made us through the week. We concluded the week with Scam 1992 which was a delight to see. 

House cleaning without maid became a big chore. Fortunately, we had ordered the zoomba robot couple of weeks ago. We would keep it on every day for an hr and our cats would love it. Having Puchka & Taco around during Covid was definitely a positive thing, their innocent looks provided a lot of healing. The Zoomba robot made the house liveable. We ordered lots of disposable plates, bowls, spoons etc to avoid any washing. Eating omlette over lunch for protein became a nice habit. 

When I joined back work, all virtual only, two weeks later, it felt good to be back. Felt good to be busy again. I started at 9 am but by 6 pm, I was dead tired and I was sleeping at 7pm. First week was still tough, took a lot of time to get back in old rhythm. Second week onwards, it became normal again.

We never knew how we got Covid. It would have been better if we could blame something, a travel, or a meal out or something. Our best guess is that we got it via surface transmission done via collecting couriers. We are grateful that our symptoms were always mild and the timing of it was also when the peak had passed. But despite all precautions, wearing mask, washing hands after coming back home, etc etc, we still got it.