Quarantine Day 5

Obviously things have taken a dramatic turn as I am almost a full week into quarantine. Things are okay, Dave and I don’t want to stab each other yet. Oh, and we might have already had coronavirus.

Let’s back up. Monday I started work, which was really exciting. It wasn’t the busiest of days, as half the team was in our office, another office, and the other half (well third) was working from home already. We got to all meet each other, as well as one of our managers, However, we didn’t actually start any training or working. We wrapped up the day at 2:30 and I headed back into a semi quiet NYC.

By Monday night I got the call that we were WFH indefinitely. I was in the middle of a workout, as I’m trying really hard to stay active, and wasn’t that surprised. Tuesday morning came and went, and didn’t feel that different from my 10000 million months of unemployment after law school. The only difference so far felt like the mental aspect. Knowing I shouldn’t go outside, or see other people, I already felt trapped. And I wanted to eat everything in the house. So to overcome this, I decided to go for a walk. Of course it was raining, but it didn’t really matter, the fresh air felt so good. I walked about two miles, first west, then back east near Penn Station and back to the apartment.

West was empty. We live pretty far over, so I only walked another few avenues, but I hardly saw anyone. The scary part was walking back through Midtown. I struggle between being a New Yorker, and also being an anxious mess, and the climate was just enough to put me closer towards anxiety unfortunately. As I got closer to Penn Station, the only people out (for the most part) were homeless people and people that seemed mentally unstable and had just been released from the hospital. I mean full on in scrubs and carrying clear plastic bags that said “Patient’s Items”. I just didn’t feel as safe as I usually do when I’m walking around NYC & Midtown. I try and avoid 7th and 8th ave anyways as I usually find them too filled with homeless or tourists, but the lack of tourists exposed the homeless population and the city felt even more bare.

By the time I got back from my walk, Dave was feeling pokey. He kept saying he was fatigued and felt achey, but couldn’t put his finger on it. By 6pm he was in bed after a nap, and by midnight he was properly sick. I panicked (no literally) as I thought it was a stomach virus, and spent the next 12-24 hours panicking that I was going to be sick too. By mid-Wednesday morning, Dave had stopped being physically ill, but the fever had kicked in. I spent the day doing pretty much nothing, until I felt my fever kick in at about 6pm. I hadn’t been physically sick like Dave, but I did have pretty bad stomach cramping all day.

Thursday and Friday were spent completely in bed (whereas I had been staying on the couch in fear of catching whatever Dave had. I watched SO many movies. In fact, I’m going to make a list of them in a later post to recommend or not recommend. So stay tuned!

Thankfully yesterday Dave was already beginning to feel better. My throat began to bother me a little and a couple of times my chest felt tight or like a weight was on it. However I made it through most of Friday without having a fever (it was low, 99.1). Today I feel better, still a little tickle in my throat ( a small cough and slightly sore) but no fever!

So if TL;DR- we don’t know if it was coronavirus. We couldn’t get a test (obviously). But NYC seems to be a real hotspot right now. We got an email a few days ago that one our of doormen thinks they have it (but couldn’t get tested obviously) and someone in Dave’s office that was visiting from the UK also had a fever, chills, etc.

Probably not surprising we couldn’t get a test, but what surprised me were the restrictions on the qualifications. We called the hospital and were told that because we hadn’t been out of the country to Iran, Italy, China, etc. or been in contact with someone who had been out of the country who tested positive AND we didn’t have shortness of breath, we didn’t qualify for a test.

Also, for all we know it could’ve been a flu. However, we both got flu shots and have never had the flu before. And it’s weird it was so quick. But we looked up all of our symptoms and they do seem to happen also. I had no idea about the gastro symptoms specifically, but it seems to be legit.

America is going to fucking fall apart without testing. Even though at this point most people are staying home, the number of cases are growing each day. I was reading an article today (even though I’m trying really hard not to read too much news, and definitely not right before bed) that South Korea has tested hundreds of thousands of people, while the US has only tested about 25,000. I can’t find the exact article to source it for you guys (I think it was a pop up notification on my phone) but if you google South Korea testing v. USA testing, the numbers are right there. Even this article from a week ago shows how different the numbers are.

It’s scary to me that there are already shortages in NYC and sources say that we are still about 45 days or a month and a half away from the peak of this outbreak.

Look, I’m no expert. I have no idea what’s going on more than anyone else. I’m home, bored out of my mind, and scared about what’s to come. When we were sick, I cried to Dave, terrified we were going to die even though we are both young and healthy.

As always, I just want to let everyone know I’m here for them if they want to talk, and I plan on posting some stuff that’s kept me entertained at home in the meantime. For now, I’m going to stop counting the minutes on the clock as time slowly ticks by and be grateful that Dave and I are once again healthy.

xx

j

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