2022! I have big plans! New job, scaling our rental business, starting this blog, launching a course! But, I had to be brought down to earth by Covid-19. At least temporarily. As most physicians I know, I have followed the guidelines from the beginning. Getting the vaccine when it first became available to healthcare workers, got in line for the booster. I washed my hands several times a day, I social-distanced, wore the masks. I even sanitized the groceries before we knew better! For almost 2 years, my husband and I have kept our family of 3 safe. We did not restrict travel, but always followed guidelines. At the very end of 2021, it finally caught up to us. So, here’s the timeline of my time with Covid.
December 25, we travelled by plane to California. We wore KN95 through out our 3 flights out of West Virginia. No delays! No cancellations! We even made our dinner reservation at the beautiful Orange Hill Restaurant, with a view of LA.
December 26. We made our way to Disneyland! We felt safe doing this as supposedly, they limited the number of guests per day. On the website, they strongly recommended vaccination or obtaining a negative test prior to entering. I never had to show my vaccination card and no one asked for a negative test result. Needless to say, it’s the holiday and so Disneyland was crowded! We tried our best with social-distancing but was nearly impossible, even with lightning passes limiting our time spent in line. Anyway, as Disneyland trips go, ours was magical and memorable as always. December 27. spent this day meeting with family and friends at a seafood place. We were a small group, my husband and me, a cousin and his wife, and a couple friend from WV who had moved to LA. We masked until it was time to eat. Food was good although we had to wait more than an hour for it! Isn’t that the narrative these days.. they were short-staffed and so we gave them grace and patiently waited. We were rewarded with a free appetizer and another dish that another table couldn’t wait on anymore! December 28. This is Covid day one, I felt a slight throat dryness. Still didn’t think much of it as I’ve had dry throat or sore throat through out this time, which didn’t turn out to be anything. I felt confident of the preventive measures I’ve done. In the evening, we tested as a family, in anticipation of staying in a shor-term rental with with 2 other families. The tests came back negative. Hooray!
December 29. Day 2. Woke up with the same scratchy throat, no fever, no myalgia and no other symptoms. Family members feeling fine. We made our way to Joshua Tree. Met with the the STR homeowner who is a med-school friend. We sang (sang!) karaoke. Just because. We’re Filipinos, it’s what we do. And this detail is important! Later in the evening the rest of our family came. The adults are all vaccinated and boosted. The teenagers below the age of 15 are completely vaccinated. We hugged, we ate, we laughed.
December 30. I woke up flushed, had myalgia and a worsening sore throat. Alarmed, I tested. and voila! This time it was positive. I isolated in the bathroom until my husband could bring me to a hotel to isolate. Meanwhile I called my contacts above to get tested. My close contacts from December 26-28 were feeling fine. My friend that I sang with was unfortunately not. He immediately had symptoms and tested positive the next day. So, I began my isolation. Counting from when my symptom started, I had to spend New year’s eve and day in isolation. I rested, slept and welcomed the opportunity to be able to do so.
Per new CDC guidelines, https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s1227-isolation-quarantine-guidance.html I came out from isolation at Day 6, continued to mask. At this point I’ve infected 2 more of my own and 3 down the line. Omicron, as we now all know, is very contagious. As of this writing, which is day 9 from my first day of symptoms, I am almost back to normal other than fatigue, occasional headache and a slight loss of taste and smell. Most of my positive contacts are feeling better as well. I informed them early as soon as I found out and so they were able to quarantine and limit further exposure.
Despite our best efforts, Covid had caught up to us. Thankful for vaccines and boosters! Without which, I and my contacts would have had more severe symptoms.