The day I published my last post Feb 2nd, I felt I was coming down with a cold. The evening before, I had developed a post-nasal drip which was creating a slight irritation in my throat. I didn’t think much of it but the next day, I had a slightly runny nose and by the evening, I felt like I might be getting a cough. Luckily, I had a couple of rapid antigen Covid tests (RAT) at home so I did a test. You can imagine my horror when it turned out to be weakly positive. So weak in fact that I thought my eyes were deceiving me.
As you can see above, the test line on Day 2 is just visible. Luckily I hadn’t gone out that day and it is easy for me to isolate myself as I live on my own. I alerted anyone I had been in contact with in the previous 5 -6 days but luckily nobody was experiencing any symptoms. The next day, I had a slight intermittent cough and a very slight feeling of tightness in my chest, perhaps a little more tired than usual but nothing so bad as to keep me in bed. I phoned my family doctor to let her know and she confirmed our Public Health Guidelines that I should remain in isolation for 5 days after the onset of symptoms. She sent me a very useful site created by the University of Toronto which answered many of my questions and concerns: ConfusedAboutCOVID.ca (https://dfcm.utoronto.ca/confused-about-covid)
Luckily, I had cooked food in my freezer and enough to do at home to keep myself occupied. My symptoms didn’t get any worse and by Day 5, I felt pretty much recovered. Thank goodness that I’m double vaccinated and had a booster in early December as I have no doubt that my symptoms would have been much worse otherwise. I was looking forward to coming out of isolation on Day 6 but thought I should test myself before I ventured out. As you can see above, my test was still positive. My doctor said that I was likely not highly infectious at this stage and that I could go out for a walk but that I should wear a mask and remain socially distanced. I managed to get through another few days of no social contact and made an appointment for a haircut on Day 11 so I thought I should test myself the day before. To my complete surprise I was still positive. Another couple of days of no social contact. When was this going to end? Well, it did today, Day 13 and I’m finally negative. My fridge and freezer are empty but I survived and didn’t get very ill. Hallelujah! Thank you God and thanks to vaccination that I only had mild symptoms.
You may be wondering what the main picture has to do with any of this. Nothing at all but I felt like the heron in the photo, isolated and waiting… but now, thankfully, I can spread my wings again.
