The COVID diary

No, not the COVID diaries. Just diary, singular. This is the story of my COVID experience in one post. I didn’t think to write it day by day; I didn’t have much energy for the four most intense days of the virus.

I live with asthma and was double vaxxed, so I was extremely lucky my symptoms were relatively mild.

I had been so careful: I only left home when necessary, I wore a mask... And yet, I caught COVID.

On evening of the sixth of this month, a dry cough and a tickle in my throat seemed to arrive out of nowhere.

The next day, I had flu-like symptoms: aching muscles, earache, a runny nose plus congestion, headache, and a weird tingling in my back (or my lungs?) when coughing. Then fatigue arrived to join its friends the next day. My cough moved into my chest.
All of these symptoms hung around for four solid days before abating, and my cough for a few days more.
Now, all that’s left is fatigue and a slightly reduced lung capacity.

I thought about going to get a PCR test on day two (in the absence of a rapid antigen test - more on that below), but I felt unwell enough that the idea of driving around looking for a testing centre that was open (many having closed and not reopened after Christmas) — or queuing for hours only to be turned away — was less than appealing.

I had ordered Rapid Antigen Tests (or RATs) at the end of December, and they hadn’t yet arrived. Whether I forgot about that, or was just desperate (like thousands of others in the same situation) to find RATs, I found some online and bought them. They arrived two days ago, 17 days after I ordered them.

I received my first RAT order a week after my symptoms began and tested positive for COVID. This was unsurprising to me, as our State Health Minister had advised us all to assume we had COVID if we had symptoms. I had mentally prepared myself for it.

I was able to find good information online about supplies I’d need and how to care for myself at home. Following those guidelines helped me and helped 'reduce my viral load’, as healthcare providers call it. I also found it calming to arm myself with information. I’d add that remaining as calm as I could was also very helpful.

I remained COVID positive for at least 12 days, and tested negative on day 14.

My COVID experience has taught me that preparation is important, however the multiple changes to (read: watering down of) government guidelines about what constitutes a close contact, whether or not I could or should get a PCR test, and the advice that a RAT was sufficient to confirm COVID (when very few RATs, if any, are available in the first place), leaves me thinking it is sadly up to individuals to prepare for COVID. Not everyone has access to the resources to do that; some are vulnerable.
Yet our governments largely appear to have left us to our own devices anyway.

I’m grateful to have passed through this experience relatively unscathed, and with access to everything I needed to care for myself.

I know many others haven’t been so lucky, and I don’t take that for granted.