My Experience of Getting COVID-19 POSITIVE

皆さん、こんにちは! 
Hello everyone. This is AYANE. Nice to meet you.
In this post, I will be sharing with you guys the experience of me getting COVID-19 Infection during my summer break of Year 2.

DISCLAIMER:
It might be a little bit wordy and chit-chatting, but feel free to continue your reading if you are interested in it or stop at any point if you feel that this is a little bit boring  :)
Also, the sharing is only based on my OWN experience, perspectives and feelings, hence it might not be applicable to everyone having COVID-19 infection. 

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[ QUICK INTRO ]

Before you start your reading, just some related introduction about myself. I am currently fully vaccinated with 3 doses of Pfizer vaccines. I got back to Penang on 19 June 2022, with some outings to cafes in the week of 27 June 2022. Well, in those days, I was still fit and healthy until 8 July 2022 with the symptoms of sore throat presented. Fortunately, I stayed at home around the week due to the super-hot environment these days in Penang, except for 5 July  --- I hung out with a friend. I had already informed my friend about this just in case and asked him to keep monitoring just in case. Well, good to say that as of now he still does not have any symptoms.

 

DAY 1 - 08/07/2022

Today was the first day I got a mild sore throat with a slight cough. For the last 2 days, I didn't really drink much water due to the water crisis that happened in Penang. Hence, I was unaware of it until the evening ( thinking of it as something normal due to water intake ). I started to develop nausea, a slight fever with productive cough. Though I didn't get to measure my body temperature, I can still feel that it is rising.

At around 10.30PM, I decided to do a self-test using a saliva test kit at home. Quite nervous I would say. Initially (around a few minutes in the beginning), I thought it was an illusion due to the nervousness, making me see the second line appearing on the test kit. Unfortunately, as time went by, the double line was getting obvious and obvious......And YES, IT WAS A POSITIVE RESULT!!!


Undeniably, I was slightly panicked and 'don't know what to do' when I saw the CLEAR DOUBLE LINE. Immediately I contacted my sister who was still awake using my phone despite she is staying in the room beside me, just to prevent any further direct contact. After a while, my parents were also awakened by my sister for further arrangements on what we gonna do for the upcoming days. Well, anyway we managed to get myself isolated in one room with no further contact with my other family members. In the end, the last thing before I went to bed was eating GARDENIA bread, followed by a Vitamin C pill as told by my mum. 

It was quite an uncomfortable night for me. Not just because of some worrying thoughts, but the symptoms of sore throat nausea and feverish feeling, making me difficult to get to sleep....

DAY 2 - 09/07/2022

This was DAY 2 of me getting COVID-19 POSITIVE. To make sure that the test done yesterday was kinda accurate, I performed another saliva test again this morning. And as expected, DOUBLE LINE again (means POSITIVE RESULT!). Okay well, I really got covid-19. I informed my parents and sister about it and then reported at MySejahtera Application. I got the Home Isolation or Surveillance Order(HSO), and have to stay quarantined in my room for 7 days. Well, according to my sister, I don't have to go to the clinic and do another PCR test, as it is a confirmed case for now. I will just have to follow the HSO and update my condition at MySejahtera every day until the order ends. Of course, if there is any deterioration of symptoms like shortness of breath, I might have to go to the clinic nearby or call an ambulance if needed. But still, hopefully, things get well soon but not worse :)


Just a little bit about my condition today... A good thing to say my sore throat had gone!! What a relief~ I do still have some rise in body temperature ( It kinda comes and goes and I am not sure whether it is fever or not, but I don't think so ), nausea and productive cough. One additional symptom that I got today was chest discomfort. It's quite uncertain whether this was due to my own psychological factors or the biological factor -- COVID-19 infection, but most probably the latter one. Anyway, there was no shortness of breath for now, and hopefully not for the upcoming days. 

One symptom that I think would be quite interesting is that I experienced lots of burping (AKA: belching) during these few days. I came across some research papers that showed that some patients did present with various gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea etc, and there was a minority of patients who did have burping problems at the beginning stage of COVID-19 infections. If any of you are interested in the issue, kindly click on the links below to read more about it:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7180357/
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7484601/ 
3. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/covid-19-gastrointestinal-symptoms-and-complications?search=covid-19%20gastrointestinal%20symptoms&source=search_result&selectedTitle=1~150&usage_type=default&display_rank=1

DAY 3 - 10/07/2022

Today was the third day of me getting COVID-19. Unfortunately, both of my parents started to experience some similar symptoms and when they performed a self-test... IT WAS POSITIVE!!! So, for now, everyone in my family got infected, except for my sister, who didn't really get direct contact with us these few days as she was working. Actually, for the upcoming Saturday, we planned to celebrate my grandmother's birthday with my other relatives by having a dinner gathering. Sadly to say, with this condition, I don't think that we will be able to attend the gathering. Anyway, hopefully, my sister would be saved from the infection as she had quite important travel in the upcoming weeks for her work. 


For myself, I didn't really have bouts of fever anymore, leaving coughing and flu. On the other hand, my cough and flu got very serious today. It had been a long time since the last time I got such intensive coughing during my high school time (Form 4). I still remembered that back in the days, if I got coughing, it would be quite violent up to having the symptom of nausea. Well, it was really suffering. But anyway, I just hope that this type of coughing won't last that long ( like up to weeks ) to avoid any undesirable complications afterwards; particularly to my lungs and my throat. 


Undeniably, it was a torturing night again. I couldn't really sleep well with the bouts of strong productive coughing and sneezing. My nose was blocked at times. What's worse was that I got a high fever tonight, which eventually made me feel very heaty. Really suffering... Well, in the end, I started to feel some slight pain in my tummy area. I wondered whether it was due to gastric or the uncountable times of   'explosive' coughing and sneezing. I could also feel that my throat was quite uncomfortable due to the irritation by the coughs and sneezes.


Anyway, I was still able to get into sleep afterwards with a trick --- eating throat-soothing herbal candy to relieve my congested nose and reduce the coughs. I managed to cool down my body temperature using cool fever as well. It was still uncertain whether the trick works for others, but at least it works for me haha. But be careful if you were to eat the candy and lie down on your bed at the same time. You would not want to choke yourself! 

DAY 4 - 11/07/2022

The fourth day of me getting COVID-19... Sadly to say, my coughing and sneezing were still there, which means another suffering day for me. It was still a productive cough, but sometimes the phlegm no longer be clear, but in yellow colour. ( still, this just happened rarely compared to the clear phlegm ). What's heartwarming today was that my sister bought me a bottle of cough syrup from the pharmacy. Perhaps she did hear my terrible coughing sounds from the next room yesterday night. 


Anyway, not much relief from yesterday for my coughing especially. At some points, I even nearly vomit due to the pressure from my coughing. Terrifying... I could feel that something was gonna come out of my throat. Unfortunately, despite eating the cough syrup, I suffered from another hard-to-sleep night due to the terrible coughing. Not much from sneezing, as my congested nose was about to resolve. I woke up quite a few times during the night due to the unexpected coughing. To get better sleep, I tried various sleeping postures just to minimise the coughing and make me feel more comfortable --- INCLUDING SITTING! 

DAY 5 - 12/07/2022

Although I didn't sleep well last night, I did not seem to be sleep-deprived, as I got to sleep until noon today. When I woke up, I could feel that both coughing and flu were getting much better, especially flu. Though the coughing was still there, and again, sometimes with yellow phlegm; most of the time it would be a clear one. 

Unfortunately, still, it was not a good sleep for today, but much better compared to last night. There were still times whereby I woke up at night due to a sudden cough. 

DAY 6 - 13/07/2022

Good to say, my flu had gone; no more congested nose HAHA. Anyway, I still had the symptom of a productive cough, but not that frequent. I just felt that there was some phlegm left in my respiratory tract that need to be cleared up. Of course, today I got better sleep but still not that good enough for me to enter deep sleep easily. 

DAY 7 - 14/07/2022

Today was the last day of my House Surveillance Order(HSO), the last day of my quarantine. My productive cough was still there, and I guess it might take quite a period of time to go away ( if according to information from some of my parents' friends ). I did perform an RTK test today, but the result was still POSITIVE. I would continue to stay at my home nevertheless, just in case. 

.....THE END.....

With that, it came to the end of this post, sharing some of my experiences of getting COVID-19 during the House Surveillance Order period.

Here is a quick summary of my symptoms:
1. Sore throat 
2. Fever
3. Chills
4. Productive Cough
5. Flu
6. Belching

NOTE:   Symptoms presented may be varied in different people :)