Protect the Nest

I contracted the Coronavirus over the summer and it was weird. After the first wave of had run its course, I, like many Americans hoped and convinced myself that the worst was over. I made it through the worst and I wasn’t like to others who had contracted it. Life started to return to normal again, restaurants and stores were opening back up and the hospital were emptying. Things started to get too comfortable.

I am not sure who or how I was given the coronavirus, but I didn’t even realize I was sick. Several people I knew had gone to go get tested and that’s when the realization that the pandemic was not over hit me. Then we heard back that several of these friends had tested positive, but my mutual connection between them had tested negative so I had convinced myself I was fine. The nest day another friend tested positive but this time I had been around this person, I needed to get tested. 

I drove up to the clinic and called the number on the door, I explained the situation and waited for a nurse to come deliver the test. I was on FaceTime with my mom talking about how excited I was to come home for the Fourth of July and how it was probably unlikely that I had Covid-19 because I wasn’t really around this person. After what felt like hours it was my turn for a tested so a “suited up” nurse came and told me to close my eye, tilt my head back, and breathe normally. The first nostril went fine, I didn’t even feel it, the second nostril however, that hurt a little bit because I did not realize I had to do both. Now I had to wait 25 minutes for the test to go through and tell me that I wasn’t sick.

I was wrong, I was sick. That first day is up there with some of my worst days ever, I felt like a horrible person I had been going to work and I had been around people not knowing I could be infecting them. The hours after the test were spent crying, calling people I had been around to tell them, and figuring out how I was going to quarantine in a house with four roommates.

Luckily, no one I had been around had gotten it and my roommates and I created a system that allowed me to be separate from them. While I was in my room for two weeks, I had time to think – I realized I had shown symptoms for a day, I had just thought I was dehydrated because I never had a fever. I lost my sense of smell for three days and that was the worst and only of my symptoms. The worst part wasn’t the mind numbing day-to-day being stuck in my room, it was the thought that I could have gotten others sick and that’s enough to make me want to protect the nest.