When talking about my Covid experience I’m sure that I have similarities with many other people. First it was the confusion of it all and not knowing exactly the severity but still following what you ought to do. Then I went into quarantine and wore my mask and tried all the new online ways to stay in touch with friends, next I started making my own earrings and selling them on Etsy and of course, I made my own bread. These were bingo boxes of the early part of the pandemic that I had checked off.
Then summer came and, like a lot of other people, I had to cancel a trip I had planned, I was bummed about it, but there was more going on that it seemed minute. Anyways, I decided that as long as my friends were getting tested regularly we could see each other outside with masks. Like when I celebrated my best friend from high school’s 21st, it was just us two on separate sides of his backyard, cracking a cold one. I was getting into the groove of this new routine of life and figuring out what I can and cannot do without compromising my health or the health of those that I care about and those around me.
Such as, my mom is immunocompromised and if I wanted to see her, I had to get tested and quarantine for 10 days before I was allowed back in the house. Sure I can go out there to visit with my mask, but since I wasn’t allowed in the house, needing to use the bathroom was an interesting adventure and to me–kinda funny.
It wasn’t until October that I got Covid. My early warning sign for that was my gland in my cheek where the jawbone connects was so sore. This was on a Wednesday that it started and it was so annoying, I thought I was chewing too aggressively with my food so I went easier on that. It wasn’t until that Saturday night that I had the uncontrollable urge to cough. I thought that the air was getting drier and that was the case. I decided to go to sleep and it’ll be gone in the morning. I was wrong, the cough was still there and I was getting nervous, so I called my mom and I told her how I felt, which was fine but this cough was strong. She said that she thought it was probably something to do with sinuses and to still get tested when possible. Feeling a little better with my mom’s prediction, I went off to go film, masked up and ready to work. It was an outside shoot and I got to be alone since I worked with sound equipment and the audio was a bluetooth operated system, yet looking back, this was a mistake on my part because I could have put the other people on set at risk. While I was on set I also twisted my ankle, I’m telling you this because when I got my test results back positive, my ankle was still swollen, I was on my period, and now I knew I had Covid. What a triple threat of feeling the absolute worst.
After I knew I had Covid, I let everyone on the film set know about it and luckily, everyone came back negative. The next days were filled with letting my teachers know that I could not come to class, even if they were online, because of how tired I was. That’s something I didn’t know about getting Covid is how much sleep you will need to get over this. My symptoms were as follows; my throat was sore, the Covid Cough™, I was hacking up phlegm, and I was sweaty. When I first found out that I had Covid, I was scared. I knew a lot of people recover pretty well, but that anyone can get a horrible case and end up in the hospital or worse.
Nearly two weeks later, I was feeling way better and I got a call from the health department in Milwaukee telling me that I wasn’t contagious anymore. That was a relief! However, what I did learn was that I would not be able to get tested for three months since the test can still show up positive even if I am healthy and not contagious.
Since then I have been trying my best to be more conscious of my surroundings, especially wearing my mask in my apartment building even if it’s just to take out the trash. And now with new strains of Covid appearing, I have been double masking, going to shops during their down times, and supporting my favorite local coffee shop in a Covid safe way!