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How editor overcame COVID
TUES. | 02-15-22 | OPINION
Having COVID was not at all what I expected it to be. To be honest, I was one of the only people I know to have never gotten the virus before. Before I had it, all I ever heard from people my age was that “it wasn’t that bad” and “I felt fine.” However, this was not the case with me.
On the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2022, I tested positive. Even one or two days before I tested positive, I had not been feeling well; my throat was killing me, and I was extremely tired. In my defense, I took two at-home COVID tests the first day I felt bad and they both came back negative.
Naturally, I went about my day thinking maybe I was just stressed or hadn’t gotten enough sleep. I was very wrong. The next night, coincidentally the night before my second semester of
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junior year started, I kept waking up in the middle of my sleep because of how bad my throat hurt and all the coughing I was doing. Finally, when I woke up around 5 a.m., I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I started to get scared and the best way I can put it is that everything hurt. I was coughing so much that I couldn’t tell my mom what was wrong and I somehow also developed a fever of 103 degrees. I took a bunch of medicine to at least help me get back to sleep but there was already certainty that I was going to miss my first day back at school after winter break.
The next morning when I woke up, my mom and I headed to my pediatrician to figure out what was going on. I took a strep test, which came back negative, and then was given both a flu and COVID test. I was so sure that it was strep I didn’t even know how to react. All I could do now was hope that it was the flu, so that I at least would be given some medication to help with my symptoms. We left the doctors office and headed home where I immediately fell asleep in my bed for a couple hours. After my much needed sleep, I was awoken by my mom saying that I was COVID positive.
As I have said, many of my friends have had COVID, but their symptoms were not nearly as bad as mine. I spent the rest of that day with an extremely sore throat, only being able to use over-the-counter medications to ease my pain.
One of the hardest parts about having COVID wasn’t even the symptoms, even though those were terrible too. It was not being able to leave my room entirely and having no human interaction other than seeing my mom or stepdad for a maximum of three to five minutes when they would bring me meals or ibuprofen. I honestly feel bad for the people in my life that I was constantly FaceTiming with in those six days trying to just have a normal conversation. If you know me, you know I love to talk, and not being able to do that was the opposite of fun.
After the first four days I had finally discarded my sore throat, yet gained a runny nose and massive headaches. I began to constantly complain to my mom thinking my case of COVID would never end. However, after almost a week I finally started feeling better and was ready to rejoin society.
When thinking back on having COVID, I know this seems so odd to say, but I am glad to have gotten it when I did. I had not previously been around any grandparents and made it out safely without any really serious implications. Years and years from now, COVID will hopefully be a blemish from the past.
