To make my confinement a little bearable, I’ve been live streaming 24/7 lo-fi music either via Youtube or Spotify. I hope my Edifier speaker won’t conk out on me for abusing it.

I’ve been arguing with my sisters and mom regarding my Covid symptoms. They insisted that I should consult other doctors because of my lingering symptoms. To make them stop nagging me, I booked another teleconsult, which I doubt would help.

Number 1) I had Sinovac for vaccine (and my mom had it too) because we were the first batch of people to be vaccinated (people with comorbidities and senior citizens) so that’s why my symptoms were worse than my sisters’ (they had J&J) as they only had one day of fever and just loss of sense of smell and taste. Sinovac is known to be less effective for other variants of Covid compared to the initial variant when it first appeared in China. So my cousin who had Covid last year before the vaccinations began said in our chat group that it took her four months to completely recover. She had fatigue and often had to chase her breath when exerting effort, which I suffer from these days especially when disinfecting the bathroom. I no longer have fever and cough, only fatigue and random headaches, which my cousin said are normal long-haul symptoms. And also hair loss. Lots of it.

Number 2) I am also taking other medicines for my other illnesses, specifically for my PCOS, which may or may not have contributed to my heavy menstruation, which is an anecdotal but documented symptoms of some female Covid patients or those who received the vaccine. Not enough research is done on this so what can the doctors do? Prescribe more medicines when they don’t even know why are some patients are heavy bleeders and some aren’t? The most that they can do (which I read) is to recommend to the patient to supplement with iron. They cannot over-medicate me so that is that.

Number 3) People do not have uniform responses to Covid as it depends on how their bodies responded to the vaccine, the kind of variant that hit them, and other pre-existing conditions. When I had my initial dose of Sinovac, my body responded like I already had Covid: I had allergies and flu-like symptoms for 48 hours. So I guess it is not surprising that I have lingering symptoms now.

I am just thankful that that vaccine I had, albeit less effective than what others had, kept me from being rushed to the hospital. Otherwise I would have been dead by now because of lack of beds here in Metro Manila or intubated in an ICU. Because I have a chronic respiratory disease (asthma).

I also read that those fully vaccinated who became breakthrough Covid cases would have better chances of withstanding other future variants (Mu) that may come given that they have more antibodies now.

So to keep my sisters and my mom from panicking, I cited all these things.

I am fine and just thankful to be alive.

I knew all along I was positive for Covid the moment I lost my sense of smell. So when I got the RT PCR result today, it was not a surprise that there it was, in glaring red font, that I was positive for Covid.

So what else to do? Nothing really. I have my teleconsult tomorrow and I will just have to wait for the barangay health officers to contact me. And convince them that home quarantine is the best because viral loads in isolation facilities are higher and I would have to share a room and bathroom with somebody sicker than me. And besides I have zero contact with the rest of the household.

I’m putting too many tablets and capsules into my mouth that I’m fearing for my kidneys. Damn you, Covid.

On my 8th day since my symptoms started. More than 48 hrs without fever. I still get sleepy throughout the day but I’m getting better.

My mom is Covid positive. Just today.

She’s suffering from a really nasty flu and she has fever–the works. She initially didn’t want to be tested, saying it was her allergies acting up. But when she started having a fever, my older sister put her foot down and dragged my mom to the hospital to get tested. There you go.

She is fully vaccinated like me but I’m scared for her. She’s 72. I pray that she doesn’t get super weak and that she has no trouble breathing.

A high school classmate who is a nurse in one Metro Pacific hospital in our hometown said there are cases where the patient is fully vaccinated but still succumbed to Covid. That doesn’t sound reassuring. I can’t sleep because I worry about her.

I still don’t have my result. The good news is I’m on the mend; it’s been 24 hrs without fever and headaches. Just weak. My body just wants to sleep. And sleep some more.

Some friends sent me boxes and boxes of this TCM. I asked my colleague in Singapore what do these do and she said that’s for respiratory ailment and in China and HK they used it to fight Covid. She said it won’t hurt me. Then ok, I took 4 capsules every 8 hrs. A high school classmate swears by it and he said it was what saved him when he got Covid in June.

I don’t know when this nightmare will end.