My COVID Ordeal

By Siddhartha Dua

No matter how well prepared we are, no matter what the situation is in the outside world, still we don’t expect bad things to happen to us, we feel it is others who will face the music, it is others who will bear the burnt whereas we will remain secure from all the ills bedeviling the world however we are dumbstruck when things take an ugly turn and our lives come under the Kosh. Something similar happened to me on the 29^th of March a day before Holi, on that fateful day I started feeling unduly tired and feverish. I took it like any other normal fever and was unperturbed. I decided to go to the office the next day which was Holi as all my other colleagues were either on leave or reluctant to come on Holi.

I had an inkling that I might be affected with COVID so I maintained a social distance from my colleagues during my duty on Holi. As I returned home I felt fatigued and as a precautionary measure decided to maintain social distance from my other family members, I also told my boss that I will be on leave as I am suffering from fever. I consulted the doctor who advised me to immediately undergo a COVID test as by now I had lost my sense of taste and smell and was prepared for the worst as the symptoms which I was experiencing were of covid and as expected I tested covid positive much to my dismay and horror.

As reality dawned upon me I decided to get the covid samples tested for my wife and children the very next day, giving covid samples is not easy for anybody, least of all for children. None the less it was to be done as by the second day my wife also started getting the symptoms, unfortunately, she also tested positive. We were in the midst of an apocalyptic Covid wave as all of us were getting positive. Even though my children tested negative and we were slightly relieved but Alas! It turned out to be a false alarm.

As it was still early days into the second wave and it had not unleashed its deadly fury we were cautiously optimistic about all of us recovering from this disease. We consulted the doctor over the phone and started taking the treatment as per protocol which was a combination of multivitamins like Zincovit, Vitamin D, and antibiotics in Azithromycin.  Both of us were recovering and with Dolo 650 our fever was under control but little did I know at the time that it was just the beginning of a long ordeal. Both I and Geeta isolated ourselves and the children were staying with their grandparents.  There was a glut of bad news awaiting us, our house was sealed by the district authorities. A civil defense volunteer was asked to maintain a round-the-clock vigil outside our house ostensibly to help us but it actually exacerbated our problems, in the hindsight and considering the experience of other states I feel the situation in Delhi was much better than the catastrophe that happened later.

After a few days on the 5^th of April my daughter also started experiencing a high fever and as she was staying with my elderly parents who are in their seventies situation was getting grimmer by the day. We were in for a rude shock, from a trickle of bad news there was a glut of bad news as covid was taking our entire family in its vice-like grip.

My sister who is in the USA was getting extremely fidgety as each one of us was being afflicted with this disease, by now the second wave also raised its ugly head and the situation was about to become alarming. Thankfully my daughter needed only paracetamol for four days and her fever gradually started receding, but covid was not giving us breathing space it was time for my father to fall ill.  Even though he maintains his fitness levels for his age but as the situation was getting murkier every day we were really worried, moreover his fever was also not coming down it was then that on the insistence of the doctor we got his HRCT done, after seeing the film and other vital parameters like CRP it was decided by the doctor to shift him to hospital for better care. One of my cousins who also happens to be a doctor helped us in getting admission to MAX Hospital Patparganj which was not easy at all as the second wave was expanding at a rapid rate and gobbling up everyone. Cases were rising exponentially, injections and medicines were scarce and our already dilapidated health system was running for cover.

Gory mind-numbing images of people dying on the streets, outside the hospital for lack of oxygen and unavailability of oxygen beds were splashed across the front pages of all major international newspapers. Even crematoriums and burial grounds were overloaded with the deluge of dead bodies which were coming. Even people who owned a fortune couldn’t get their kin admitted to the hospital for there were no beds. It was such a painful sight.

These were unprecedented times and unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures, people were falling like pins, the mood was getting somber every day. However, as Max is a good hospital and that time we could get the required care and by God’s grace my father recovered from covid and was discharged on the 16^th of April. He was administered steroids and was very weak after the treatment, it took him a good one month to fully recover from the disease.  As he was recovering from Covid my son also showed Covid symptoms, however as per the protocol and as told by the doctor we relied on paracetamol and he recovered as well. My mother was also infected and showed similar symptoms by now we were sure she also had covid but her fever lessened as she took her medicines and followed the protocol as advised by the doctor.

I required the fitness certificate to join back my office and also needed to test negative, however, my test came out positive even after 17 days which made me jittery, however as I told this to my doctor he said it is normal, you can test positive till two months after contracting Covid. Thankfully my Covid result turned out negative and soon I resumed my workplace and was ecstatic that I have recovered from Covid but this was not the end of the ordeal.

Covid wave has raised its ugly head and there was mass death and destruction which took place, two of my dear relatives my dear massi and my beloved brother succumbed to this deadly disease leaving all of us teary-eyed. This deadly covid raised its fangs and it was engulfing people in its grip. The worst part about coronavirus is that it doesn’t allow us to bid farewell to our dear ones even for one last time. Only one person has to perform the last rites depriving the person of dignity even in death.

This diabolical pandemic snatched two of my loved ones from me and brought a tremendous amount of pain and misery for all those afflicted by it.

Now experts are warning about an imminent third wave in which children might be infected, if we have seen anything in covid second wave the third wave presents an extremely devastating scenario, our policymakers failed to envisage a possible second wave and the destruction it will cause. Health care facilities need to be set up expediently and let us not let our guard down at least till fifty percent of the population is fully inoculated.

You never know when will the virus attack again. Let us do our bit get vaccinated and follow all the protocols else there is an imminent threat of looming third wave which is not going to spare us. Let us live our life to the fullest contribute in whatever small ways we can and serve humanity.

Image Credits : Google Images