April 8th, Thursday: The mister came back home earlier than planned from West Bengal after covering the state elections' first phase. On the way home, he took a halt at Indraprastha Apollo to get tested for COVID19. He came back, refused my welcome hugs, did his laundry, had a long bath, and quarantined himself.
I sat near the door, he sat on the bed. He gave me a blow by blow account of the political rallies. In short, they were loud, hot, and overcrowded. News about Maharashtra's second (third? fourth?) COVID19 wave had started coming in but news channels had the mandate (from who?) to cover the West Bengal elections. But it worried him and his team. When half the mister's team got sick with high fever, nausea, or body ache, they curtailed their plans, packed their bags, and came back home. To make matters worse, their centrally located hotel had over 50 rooms booked by one of the political parties - more than 80% of them were sick too.
April 9th, Friday: From 9 AM the next day, we took turns calling the hospital to find out the test results. At 11 AM, the mister got the news that a colleague who traveled with him to Kolkata had tested positive. We were still hopeful. At 12.30 PM, another colleague confirmed that he had been infected. I was still hopeful (notice the shift from we to I). After 6 hours and 30 calls to the hospital, the mister's report came negative. We did a little celebration dance, hugged, dressed, and went out to celebrate. At the almost empty restaurant (too late for lunch and too early for dinner), as always, we ordered more than we could eat, chatted, joked, gossiped, and made plans for the weekend.
Back home, we invited over our friends to celebrate the mister's recent award for the best news producer. We made plans for lunch at their home the next day. Aunty makes amazing chole-bhature.
April 10th, Saturday: We brought a pitcher of sweet cold lassi with us. Everybody ate, talked, laughed in abundance.
April 11th, Sunday: We went to my maternal home. We hadn't met my parents and my side of the family in a long time. I took a ready-made batter for dosa and mum made sambhar. We caught up with everyone in house number 59. My aunt and her daughter-in-law weren't keeping well. They assured us that it was just exertion, effects of then changing weather. After a few hours of being at my parents', the mister's energy levels plummeted. He got his mask on and sat at a distance from everyone. Everyone said he was being silly, the report had come back negative. There was nothing to worry about. My sister and brother-in-law joined us at number 59. We had tea with them and the mister insisted on wrapping up the party immediately after that. We left earlier than I had wanted to. On the way home, the mister said he was feverish. Once back home, his temperature came around 99.5. I called a doctor cousin. He said if you have a fever, sore throat, body ache, headache - whatever the report says - consider yourself COVID19 positive. And the ordeal started.
April 12th, Monday to April 19th, Monday: It was a tough week.
A couple of days into the week, he went for another test and this time tested positive. Despite fever which came and went in waves, crushing body ache and weakness, the mister put on a brave face. Calls from concerned friends and relatives poured in with bucketloads of information on how to handle COVID19. Some suggested Ramdev's Coronil kit, others highly recommended sniffing a mix of camphor, cloves, and carom seeds. Some insisted on checking SPO2 levels every 2 hours, some suggested drinking lots of fluid. Steam, giloy juice, tulsi tea, betadine gargles, reduced sugar intake, high protein diet, a mantra to chant, keeping some money under the pillow to ward off the evil eye - these were all suggestions from our loved ones, which we listened to politely, thanked them and did whatever was possible (and sensible) to us. Having no house helps made life a little difficult, but we managed somehow. Finally, after reaching a crescendo of 101, the fever subsided. But the weakness remained. We breathed a little easy.
April 21st, Wednesday: While speaking to my mother-in-law in Kanpur, we found out that she was feverish - had been for quite some time. The excuse sometimes was too much time out in the sun or exertion. But this time, the fever came on a public holiday - no sun, no exertion. And there was a wedding in the family in a few days, with the festivities beginning the next day. We immediately booked her a cab for the next day to bring her home to us.
April 22nd, Thursday: I spent most of the morning cleaning and sanitizing my mother-in-law's room. Mummy came in the evening. She was tired from the journey and burning with 101 degrees fever. We consulted the doctor, put her in quarantine, started her on meds, and booked a COVID19 test for her (and myself) for the next day. The fever remained high, never going below 100 degrees. It came with horrible aches. Mummy is a strong woman and when she moans in pain, it means her pain is unbearable. Unable to touch or hug or hold, we watched from a distance, talked about random things to distract her, make her smile, forget her fever.
April 23rd, Friday: Swab samples were collected for mummy's (and my) COVID19 test. Despite her childlike insistence on not being hungry, not enjoying the food, we continued a stream of food, liquids, fruits. The medicines were heavy and many. For someone who took allopathy as a last resort, popping pills was torture. The fever subsided to around 99 when the pills were working, otherwise remained at 100 - 101 degrees.
April 24th, Saturday: The test reports came back. Mummy's positive (unsurprising), mine negative (miraculously!).
April 25th Sunday to April 27th, Tuesday: It has been two days since mummy felt feverish. But her body is yet to recover from the high fever's effects. She is weak and struggling with body pains. The mister is recovering nicely. The weakness reduces every day. The household has consumed around 100 tablets of medicine, 10 liters of fruit juice, 20 litres of coconut water, 2 bottles of betadine gargle, 2 packs of Glucon D, 1 bottle of sherbet, and a pack of iced tea (the last one is just me though).
The ordeal hasn't yet ended. We are still very cautious and taking all required steps for the sick to recover quickly and nicely.
Despite the hectic past three weeks which involved work from home and work for home along with nursing my loved ones back to health, I am grateful. I am grateful that the mister's and mummy's oxygen levels were normal. I am grateful that everyone we unintentionally exposed to our sick selves remained healthy. I am grateful for all my friends and family who are healthy and safe. I am grateful for the love, support, and concern of all my family and friends. I am grateful for the technology that has allowed us to stay connected despite physical limitations.
Like an ostrich that buries its head in the sand, I have been trying to look the other way whenever the news is on. But every day it gets impossible to ignore the deaths, the rising cases, the pleas for oxygen (oxygen of all things!!), medicines, injections, ventilators, hospital beds. I feel helpless. But still, selfishly grateful that my loved ones are safe so far. And I hope and pray that they remain so.
