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.
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.
Well-meaning friends sent me this. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
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.
So I got tested today (thank you, Zennya, for being prompt and the most affordable home service testing in the market). The result will be sent to me within 24 hrs and then… Kaboom. The nurse who did the checklist with me said I had ticked off all of the symptoms (and that moment I had a slight fever) so it’s like 90% I am positive for Covid.
If I am positive, the lab will inform my barangay and the barangay health officials will check my household. They will see if the kids and my househelp would need to be tested (they should). Considering that the symptoms started with my kids but they recovered.
I would have to be taken away to a government isolation facility for 14 days! If I could convince them that there’s nobody else left to be isolated from since they had been sick already, then maybe I can stay home??? I need to work.
I asked my cousin to drop by and teach my househelp how to withdraw money from the ATM. I gave her my prepaid ATM/debit card so in case I’m carted away by the LGU, they have money for basic necessities. Problem is some decision-making in this household still rests on me. I wonder how they will manage while I’m away.
Covid is tough for single parents. If the parent gets sick, who will look after the children? That’s why daily wage workers don’t want to get tested because as long as they’re not registered as Covid positive, they can still continue working. It’s much harder for single parents because when they’re taken away by the LGU to an isolation facility, who will feed the children?
Such is the plight of the poor with this type of government that doesn’t give a single fuck to such matters.
I realized that I lost it when I couldn’t smell my shampoo when I was having a hot shower. I was alarmed because my nose is no longer clogged so I began smelling things all around me. I sprayed all my perfumes and room scents. Nada. I couldn’t smell.
I could taste saltiness but that’s it. My sense of taste is dulled because I couldn’t smell.
I contacted the barangay officials for assistance because 1) it is my civic duty to report that I’m a suspected case and 2) the private home service Covid test that I booked is still pending. Probably demand is so high that I couldn’t even get a slot. Probably I could get better response from Red Cross with the LGU’s assistance.
So far my breathing is ok. My O2 sats are still ok. My fevers have gone down but I have diarrhea and still have those pesky headaches.
I never thought that I would be the end-user of this contraption. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
What worries me is that the protocol now is for single-bathroom households, the patient will be taken to an isolation facility. The girls will be left with just the househelp. How can I also work since chances are the Internet connection there is near-zero? My cousin said I could request to book a hotel that I would pay for so I could work. That could be an option.
But God, please don’t let it be positive. What will happen to my kids while I’m gone?
My girls are fine and now I got that nasty flu. Worse than what they had. I started having series of fevers last night and continued until today. I couldn’t file for sick leave because we’re out of one or two editors today and there were so many stories. I managed to file one story based from the round table discussion I attended yesterday.
It’s suicide, I know.
In between work I slept. Taking flu tablets and slept some more. I’m isolating because I don’t want to take chances.
The telemedicine stuff that they advertise? They’re a fluke. KonsultaMD is like a call center for doctors and you wait for a looooong time before you can get connected. With so many people sick these days, it’s a miracle that you can get through.
If I don’t get better tomorrow, I’ll drive myself to a drive-and-swab center. One app I was about to try for Covid test swab requires at least two pax. Annoying. RT-PCR tests are not cheap.
Oh wait, I can’t. I have an interview tomorrow. 🤦🏻♀️ No rest for the weary.
Meanwhile, I’ve ordered my meds through Mercury online and there’s one branch less than 300m from me. But guess what? It’s already almost 9 pm and they haven’t processed my orders yet that I will have my househelp claim for me in that branch. Why don’t big companies invest in IT? It’s like an afterthought for them. I ran out of cash because I sent my househelp to buy vegetables and eggs with the last cash in my wallet. So the only way I can buy medicines is through online means. And it’s a mess. 🤦🏻♀️
Like everything in this country is a mess.
This is Duterte’s latest public address in a nutshell.
Meanwhile, shameless Bong-bong Marcos…
I ought to be packing my bags and move to New Zealand.
Our new COVID-19 daily case has hit an all-time high of almost 22,500 today and yet the government will be loosening the lockdown. Even in my hometown all hospitals are already at capacity and can no longer accept patients.
We are really headed for disaster. The overpriced purchase of face shields could have been diverted to buying more remdesivir and tocilizumab for hospitals in dire need of it. The government goons decided that we are better off with granular lockdowns without proper contact tracing (Duque even admitted to Senate that the govt contact tracing app is useless) and mass testing. COVID swab tests are so expensive, even for the middle class.
Malaysia and the Philippines are in a contest now for who got it worse.
As for my girls, their fevers had gone down today and they were able to attend their online class. I had them take paracetamol when they had headaches tonight but their temperatures didn’t go beyond sinat so I wasn’t that worried. I need more data to gather before I schedule a tele-consult with a pediatrician tomorrow. I was kind of panicking at 2 am this morning when I woke up to check one of my girls and thought about having us all tested for COVID.
To cheer us up today, our books I bought from Big Bad Wolf in June finally arrived.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
They’re enjoying Horrible Histories. I am reading that now, too. Fascinating horrible stuff.
I’m slowly recovering and was able to co-write a time-sensitive story today about Philippine Airlines’ bankruptcy. Last week was a struggle for me because I couldn’t write. Or even transcribe an interview. Meds made me lethargic and I kept on sleeping during odd hours. At least I started the week right today, despite the lack of proper sleep because I was watching over my sick girls.
Over the weekend, a high school friend invited me to join them on their Youtube talk show, which started off like a podcast about nothing in particular that ended up as an interview platform about anything under the sun. They added me because all of them are guys–most of whom were my friends from way back high school or post-college when we played in a band. They needed a female co-host to sort of balance the show. And I think they chose me because of my interviewing skills. They were drinking buddies at some point 10-20 years ago.
So my plan to do a podcast with friends has sort of come into fruition. However, instead of a just a podcast, this is a live Youtube video show that requires me to face the camera and be presentable. Anyway, a podcast or a video talk show is one of my personal goals, including keeping this blog alive (albeit private), so I have other things aside from work that I could pay attention to.
