Day One of Chinese New Year.
Due to Covid restrictions, we had discussed the who-goes-where for CNY visitation.
For me, I would visit my fifth sister together with Co and Baby. So did my mother and elder sister.
I went to the columbarium before the visit.
Past noon, I felt fatigued.
I lay down on a mattress my fifth sister put out on the living room floor. Co joined me as she was tired too.
Then the living room air-conditioner got too cold for me.
I retreated to the niece's room where I lay down on her bed and covered myself with a duvet. It was also very cold but my niece insisted that it was very hot.
My kind Second Nephew offered to let me have his bedroom.
So I changed venue and went to his bedroom instead.
Came night, when we got home, Co told me that she was running a temperature and had some flu symptoms. I thought it could be the air-con and did not take heed of what she said. By the next morning, her forehead was burning hot. I was quite sure she had Covid.
I got her to take a panadol and headed out to Guardian Pharmacy and bought three ART test kits, thinking that if either one of us ruined one, there was another one as a back-up.
I decided to do the ART test for myself since I thought it unusual for me to feel fatigued in the middle of the day the previous day, and I was a close contact of Co.
I was half-surprised. No symptom except fatigue.
I immediately woke Co and asked her to do the ART test.
Of course it was positive.
I didn't know what I should do for the next step so I posted the image on my Facebook and captioned it with 'Law of attraction. Everybody has been telling me to be positive.'
Friends advised me to go to the clinic to do PCR for a record, so that I didn't have to take the booster shot. I didn't understand what it meant at that time but I knew I had to go to the clinic and it would only cost $10 for the diagnosis and the medicines.
It sounded straightforward alright, but as it turned out, I went on a wild goose chase before arriving at the right clinic for my diagnosis.
Clinic 1:
It was Day Two of CNY. The four clinics within walking distance were closed. I took a bus to the next closest clinic. I almost fainted. The registration queue that remained stoic for ten minutes before it advanced by one step could be mistaken for a $8 million Toto queue! See the tiny red man right at the front? That is the next person in line to enter the clinic to register!
I thought it ridiculous to stand for so long just for registration. I surmised it would take at least two hours before I might see the doctor. I decided to give up and go to the doc the next morning.
Clinic 2:
I was happy that all clinics were open on Day Three of CNY. I walked to the clinic I usually go at the MRT and waited to be registered. After 15 minutes or so, I was called and I told the receptionist that I was "ART positive". She immediately told me they did not do the test for Covid and gave me a piece of paper which stated the two nearby clinics for Covid patients. She said they would have to refer me to one of these clinics for the test anyway.
I was flabbergasted to know that not all clinics accept ART-positive patients when Covid is so rampant now. What happens to the 'We will fight Covid together' spirit?
Clinic 3:
So I walked over to the two clinics across the road and was stunned to see one of the clinics having a Covid crowd sitting on plastic chairs and standing outside!
Naturally, I chose the other clinic which was comparatively less crowded. The man before me said he was "ART positive". After registration, he went away.
I said the same thing but the lady asked me to take a seat. I was quite happy that I was asked to wait. That would mean the consultation queue was not long, right?
After waiting for a few minutes, and not seeing the doctor calling for the next patient, I decided that I must have been mistaken.
I asked how long I had to wait. I almost fainted for the second time: 2 hours.
I said I would come back and walked home.
Then it suddenly occurred to me I had a clinic just next to my flat.
Clinic 4:
No greater joy was known than when the clinic assistant said they accepted Covid patients and there were only 2 or 3 patients before me!
Dubbed (by me) 'The clinic with the quack', but saved the day for me!
The doc did an ART test for me but did not do a PCR. According to the clinic assistant, PCR is not mandatory for Protocol 2 (with mild symptoms). PCR is only required for people exhibiting distressing symptoms eg. breathlessness (Protocol 1).
My 'first day' of getting the positive ART test result was reset to the day I visited the doctor.
After that, I was asked to stay home for the next 5 days and to do the ART test myself. I would be allowed to return to work if my test showed a negative result.
Symptoms set in
Cough, runny nose and sore throat set in on the second and third day. I gargled with warm water and salt as the sore throat was quite painful. Lozenges were not helping. Each time I used the toilet, I covered the lid before I flushed so that the germs, bacteria and virus do not fly or splatter all over the place. I changed and washed my bedsheet, pillow casings and blanket every other day or as often as I could.
My mother and siblings were worried about me. They bought different types of cleaning agents, hand washing liquid, Redoxon and drink powders supposedly to boost immunity for me. They bought food for me since I could not go out. I cooked porridge with chicken mid-wings for a few meals as I didn't have much appetite. It helped with the slimming for those few days.
I got a little depressed by the fourth day (third day counting from the day of visit to the doctor's) when I saw that my ART test result was still positive, although the line was faint. I didn't do the ART test on the fifth day as my Medical Certificate (MC) indicated that I would still be on medical leave the next day. I figured that even if it's negative, people would be unlikely to allow me to return to work.
On the sixth day (fifth day by the doctor's instruction), my ART test result was finally negative. By then, I was trying very hard to find a faint line at 'T'. I didn't want to rejoice just to be disappointed later. I checked with Co that there was really no line.
However, Co's result was still positive.
By her seventh, or eighth (by the doc's instruction), day, it was still positive. She went out anyway since the MOH directive was such that by the seventh day, a Covid patient was no longer infectious even though the result was positive.
Since I didn't lose my sense of smell or taste and my sore throat came and went away within two or three days, a clinic assistant acquaintance and a doctor friend told me it's likely to be Omnicron.
Aftermath of a positive ART test result
People were wary of me when I told them that my ART test result was positive even when I had got well for one week. My elder sister asked me to wear my mask throughout my visit to her house. My mother would hide in her room throughout my visit or stay a few metres away from me if she had to emerge from the room.
My elder sister would check with me if I had touched this and that in her house. She insisted on me using a different set of utensils and bowl for easy identification.
Baby avoided me and didn't talk to me during the whole period, probably under the instructions of you-know-who.
I had no idea how I caught the virus. My siblings were sure it was Co who passed it to me after getting it from her friend/s since she was meeting up different friends at different places for meals before that. Co deduced from my faster recovery that I must have caught the virus first.
Covid is everywhere now. Baby's piano tutor got it. Two of my students got it. I got it. Co got it. My elder sister just got it.
Perhaps when it was new to our system, it was deadly. Now it seems it's not lethal to most people. That being said, my third sister transferred my mother to her place immediately when my elder sister's ART test result turned positive. We didn't want to take chances.
Covid is settling down to be a way of life. We do what we can to keep ourselves safe from the virus. Other than that, I leave it in the hands of God. If God be willing, let me see my loved ones again.
