My COVID Story: I developed sudden weakness and had to crawl my way to my bedroom – Times of India

This year started on an amazing note as I became a mother in February but soon motherhood turned out to be one where I was living in constant fear of COVID.

On 16 August, my father got randomly tested at his office where he got to know that few of his colleagues were positive, but he tested negative in rapid test that day. Yet to be on the safer side, we got his RT PCR done and I wasn’t much surprised when his report came positive. Since the time he got back home, he was quarantined in his room and then we all had to just wait.

Since his symptoms were mild cough with fever, doctor advised us to admit him since he has hypertension and is also in the critical age. Soon after that, we started calling as the entire family was scared and at around 10:00 pm on 17 August, ambulance came and took my dad.

That same night about 12:00 am, I went to the washroom and suddenly felt very weak. It became a task for me to come back from the washroom to my bed as I found myself crawling and I realised that I needed to get tested as well next morning. I had fever but I was praying for this to be anything but COVID for my son who was just 5 months old and was only breastfeeding. But on 19 August, I got my report. I tested positive and my first reaction was lots of crying but once that was done began a series of testing in our house.

My son who was 5 months old along with my grandmother, aunt, 2 sisters and my husband, all of us tested positive in the coming week and then began the real struggle.

Since my entire family tested positive, three of our members were admitted in the hospital and all of us were trying to manage the house along with our COVID was a huge task for us.

The first day of COVID, I had a very high fever with bouts of vomiting and with that I had to be extra cautious in feeding my kid. The next day, I still had fever but this day I had severe headache which won’t go away with any painkillers and I was constantly feeling very weak. By the third day, I started to feel a little better with fever coming down but my son still had mild symptoms like cough and then the same night I started having breathlessness but doctors told us as long as your saturation was 95 and above, you need not worry so soon. I realised that this was anxiety since COVID was so unpredictable. I was living in fear everyday and with my taste and smell gone, it made me even more anxious but on the 6th day everything seemed to get a little better, my son had no symptoms at all and also all of us were recovering on our own pace.

But little did I know that post COVID is also a condition so after 14 days I felt fine but up until a month, I had severe weakness and found doing basic tasks like taking care of my kid exhausting. But it took our family almost a month and a half to recover and become negative and my grandmother and bua spent about 25 days in the hospital since they had pneumonia due to COVID.

So after about a month and a half we were all united under one roof but thanks to technology we were all digitally connected specially with my chachu and chachi in Mumbai who constantly supported us.

Having said this, all of my family members reacted differently to COVID and it’s by far one of the most unpredictable illnesses I have come across.

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The views expressed in this article should not be considered as a substitute for a physician’s advice. Please consult your treating physician for more details.