COVID-19 – My Experience When I Tested Positive

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Most people who fall sick with COVID-19 will experience mild to moderate symptoms and recover without special treatment.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or exhales. These droplets are too heavy to hang in the air, and quickly fall on floors or surfaces.You can be infected by breathing in the virus if you are within close proximity of someone who has COVID-19, or by touching a contaminated surface and then your eyes, nose or mouth.

The situation around us is quite funny. Most of us have started behaving as if the new normal is nothing but the normal that we have always known. More and more people have started going out and many are unapologetic about not wearing masks anymore. Traffic’s almost back to normal and crowds can be seen in gyms, malls, markets, and where not. I was just beginning to feel that wasn’t a big deal anymore and lo and behold, my entire family came out positive in the last week of August.

Most of our symptoms were similar but some.

Father: Extreme fatigue for 4 weeks, fever (99-103 degree) in the first two weeks, loss of smell/taste in the second week, fluctuating blood pressure and pulse after a month

Mother: Extreme fatigue and low-grade fever (99-100 degree) for 40 days, loss of smell/taste in the second week

Me: Fatigue and low-grade fever (99-101 degree) for 40 days, loss of smell/taste in the second week, headaches

A question arose – Were we supposed to isolate ourselves from each other or could we all live in quarantine happily together? We would get an everyday call from the Delhi Government to ask about our health, which we really commended them for. So, I asked them this and they told me that we could stay together. However, I still had my doubts because my mother had come out positive a few days before my father and me. Hence, I asked my sister who lives in Australia to check with her country’s helpline. And as I had suspected, we were to isolate ourselves from each other as well, simply because we could be at different levels of recovery and being together could impact that. So began our covid journey.

The slew of home remedies

As far as the kadhas and home remedies are concerned, we all know how it is in India. We got massive spam of recipes of different kinds from our relatives, friends, and acquaintances, but all with good and highly appreciated intentions. We usually stuck to the following home-remedies routine:

Morning: Hot water with lemon juice and gargles pre-breakfast. Coconut water and a plateful of fruits, especially those rich in vitamin C (mosambi and kiwi) around mid-afternoon.

Pre-lunch: A cup of hot water with five drops of Tulsi ark

Evening: Kadha made with three essentials, Tulsi leaves, ginger and raw turmeric, and anything more was what we had at hand that day, including cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, etc.

Before sleep: Steam with carom seeds/kalonji (later, we skipped the spices though), milk boiled with raw turmeric

How long did our covid symptoms last?

Both my mother and I stayed with symptoms for much longer than we had expected. Her fever and fatigue lasted about 45 days, while mine lasted about 30 days. I would also get bouts of headaches every now and then, and still do, but much less than earlier.

As far as my father is concerned, he was released from the hospital after about two weeks of stay. He came back with no fever and that was some respite. However, he still had a cough. He would nebulize twice a day every day for almost a week or 10 days after coming home. However, his dialysis became trickier. In every session, his blood pressure started getting dangerously low. 

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