On a Wednesday in May, I suddenly had trouble breathing and my heart kept racing. Additionally, my throat was scratchy and I lost my sense of smell and taste. I felt super fatigued and I had a hard time formulating clear thoughts and concentrating.
I went to City MD and got a COVID test. As professional as the staff was, they were very much overworked and rushing from one patient to the next. They did not have the time to answer my questions or make a proper diagnosis, so we stuck to just giving me the test.
While I waited for the results, my partner and I decided for me to quarantine within the apartment to make sure that he did not catch whatever I had. He stuck to the livingroom/kitchen area, while I was limited to the bedroom with cautious visits to the bathroom. We kept the door closed and whenever he would bring me something, we would both wear masks.
At first, that went pretty well. I was also too tired and uncomfortable to mind. But after the 5th day, this complete isolation got to me. The lack of face-to-face and physical interactions as well as being confined to indoor again bothered me and brought on a slight depression. My head knew that it was the only reasonable thing to do, but my heart was questioning the measures we had taken. Days can feel endless in certain situations.
The results took about a week to come back. “Not detected”, such a medical and legal way of saying “negative”. But I was still feeling terrible and my lungs had started burning. So I was worried. I found out that false negatives were quite common in the early days of a COVID-19 infection. After talking to a medical consultant at City MD on the phone, I went in for a second time to take another COVID test and figure out what was going on. I was given the test and they also took an X-Ray of my lungs to make sure that nothing was critical.
I did not get an actual diagnosis, but the second test also came back as “not detected”, so I was not going to fight the results. By that time, I had quarantined for 14 days anyway, so I felt comfortable leaving my confinement. I will never know what I had during that time and I still felt off for a while, but luckily, I did not register any longterm symptoms.
How about you?
Did you or anyone you know catch COVID-19?
Cover picture was taken in Brooklyn, New York (USA) in May 2020
Missing the beginning of this serie?
Life in a pandemic #1: The start of a crazy year
Wandering Explorer Travel 
I can just imagine how scary and worrisome that experience was. Glad to hear you didn’t catch the virus though!
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Thank you 😇
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I have known people who had COVID. I was tested a few months ago but had a negative result. The isolation involved with quarantine is hard to deal with, for sure.
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Glad to hear that your test came back negative as well.
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It’s a tough time to get sick these days. Glad you took proper precautions and even got tested … twice! I haven’t had COVID-19 and I don’t know anyone who has (knock on wood). Stay safe.
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Thank you. You, too, stay safe and healthy.
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Scary, indeed! There have been a couple of times I swear that I’d caught COVID-19, even if the symptoms appeared a bit abnormal (e.g. stomachache, burning chest, dry hacking cough…). I never gone to get a test and the symptoms eventually went away, but it really is frightening to think that you could catch it at any time. Good to hear you made it through (and hopefully, it wasn’t COVID)!
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Agreed, in a way it is so tricky that the symptoms are so random and could be coming from just anything else… as long as you have a mild version 🙈 My biggest concern was to potentially infect someone else, that’s why I felt so strongly about getting tested and quarantining.
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