I was a close contact of a family member who was found positive for Covid-19 three days after being swabbed by a nurse. I was scared and anxious and cried a lot but I was full of fighting spirit! We survived!
How it started
My husband told me that he had been exposed to a co-worker tested positive with the coronavirus. He was advised to undergo a swab test. He took it at a private testing center on the afternoon of November 5, and around 8:30 that evening we received a call informing him that his swab test result was positive. We were immediately instructed to isolate ourselves and wear masks. News spread out and some were in panic.
A contact tracer came to our house to interview us. He then advised us to pack some personal belongings for my husband including biscuits and water that he would need for 14 days. That night, my son was crying and asking if he would be confined and placed under dextrose at the Baguio General Hospital (BGH). He was scared because of social media hysteria on Covid-19. My husband was fetched by an ambulance around 10:30 that evening. I could not sleep waiting for his text for updates. He was brought to the Teacher’s Camp isolation facility at around 2 a.m.
Family members, friends and coworkers were informed, and of course they were worried about the situation knowing that Covid-19 is kinakatakutan (dreaded)!, nakakahawa (contagious)!
My niece who was living with us and working at a food shop was swabbed at BGH after an OPD checkup due to a swelling of tonsils. The following day, November 7, she received her swab result, which was positive. The next day, an ambulance fetched her and brought her to the Sto. Nino isolation facility. I was in panic, considering that two of my family members were Covid-19 positive!
I was swabbed in the afternoon of November 7 in our compound. I asked family members and coworker, for prepaid phone loads to ensure communication and daily updates. Our office director asked me how I felt – whether the test result would yield positive or negative. I was so certain that it would be negative because I showed no symptoms. While at the office and in the house, I regularly texted and called my son to monitor his health situation and to remind him of home remedy prevention. I sought help from a neighbor and my husband’s relative to check on him regularly.
Before my swab test, I texted our health staff to seek advice on what I should do. She recommended some home remedies like taking vitamin C and multivitamins, exercise, drinking lots of water, eating more fruits and vegetables, having 8 hours of good sleep and gargling with salt and warm water twice a day.
It took two days of waiting before I received my swab test result.
In the afternoon of the third day, November 10, Dr. Nelson Hora of City Camp Health Center called to inform that the three of us left in the house yielded positive swab results. I asked him then if we could do home quarantine following the contact tracer’s assessment, and our request was granted provided we strictly follow the health protocols:
- Washing of hands, physical distancing, wearing of face mask and face shield
- Disinfecting our house everyday with 1 glass of disinfectant diluted in 9 glasses of water
- Disinfecting after every use of comfort room, kitchen, doorknobs
- Sterilizing individual utensils and scheduling usage of kitchen including time of meals
- Changing beddings every 2 days and doing laundry every 2 days
- Boundaries defined: “batog mo linis mo (clean what is near you)! no more no less!”
- Designated table and chair for us to place our requests
Contact tracing
The contact tracer only asked for my office address and not the staff whom I had close contact with. He left a monitoring chart for us to list down our temperature in the morning and afternoon, including symptoms that might develop, and then instructed us to buy some medicines to ease the symptoms. I cried, telling the contact tracer and barangay health worker: where would we get food since we would isolate ourselves for 14 days. The contact tracer told us the barangay officials would request food packs for us from the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD) and it was up to us to find other ways to augment our needs.
I cried as my loved ones and others concerned were affected. We never liked to be in this situation. I tried not to be anxious and found ways to establish a support system to help us heal during the quarantine period. I sent text/private messages to my co-workers to ask if they were okay. Family members always kept in touch.
Quarantined: Nov. 6-Nov. 24
My actual quarantine period started on Nov. 6, the day my husband was confirmed to be positive for Covid-19. That day we were no longer allowed to go out from our compound. I asked our family members and co-workers to do some marketing for us including my maintenance medicine. I also requested them to bring hygiene kits and fruits for my husband. I also reached out to my barrio mates residing at Teachers Camp to give fruits to him which they did. I am thankful to relatives who brought vitamin C and my maintenance.
Every single day of my quarantine, I faced the calendar counting the days! And I always looked forward to receiving a text from someone asking, ‘How are you doing?’ my husband, my son and I kept our communication lines open, keeping in touch to support and comfort each other emotionally.
Every day we did gargling with salt and water twice, drinking sufficient amount of lukewarm water, exercising for at least 20 minutes in the morning, and exposing ourselves to sunlight while cleaning, disinfecting the backyard, feeding the dogs and doing other household chores. I’m particularly monitoring my sense of smell and taste by using vinegar and salt on a daily basis. Washing of clothes every two days was tedious work aside from increasing our expenses on laundry detergents and disinfectants like Clorox.
We were given a DSWD relief box consisting of rice, sardines and corned beef, and mix coffee, which was only sufficient for few days. And after two days, a Good Samaritan gave us fruits like oranges and apples. I requested for vitamin C from the barangay health workers but they told me to give them money so they could buy it for me. We were running out of food but somehow we still had plenty of rice. On the night of November 15, I felt something, a wheezing or rattling sound in my chest so I immediately texted our health staff about it. She directed me to take lagundi capsules thrice a day for five days together with vitamin C and multivitamins. I asked my neighbors to buy lagundi for me.
While on quarantine, I still have to attend to office obligation on the payment transaction of our squash noodle equipment project as I was the signatory in the contract with the supplier. Our administration staff came to my place so I could sign the cheque. It was a big relief for me to see her from a distance with bread and vegetables.
Again, I counted the remaining days of our quarantine with my fingers – just 3 days more to go and my husband would complete his 14-day isolation and be back home. Considering that we were still in quarantine, he still could not be with us until we completed our own 14-day quarantine. He has to extend his quarantine for 3 days at the isolation facility. On November 24, our last day of quarantine, my husband came home – the day we felt safe and were together again!