How COVID got to a family of five, and their individual fight to recovery

We are a family of five, and have been extremely paranoid about COVID since the outbreak. My father was already being treated for multiple critical illnesses, and we feared that adding COVID to his list would make things unbearable. We went out of our way to adhere to all the COVID-19 measures, and survived the first wave.

Then came the second wave, and we had our guards up once again! Luckily, I had managed to get my parents vaccinated with their first jab just in time. When the cases went up, we locked ourselves up, and diligently sanitized all our groceries, used disinfectants for washing and cleaning, and did not allow any outsiders into the house, including our househelp. Despite all this, the virus managed to enter the house.

My brother was first to show symptoms. He had started complaining about a severe headache and by evening the same day, he had a mild temperature. We immediately isolated him and arranged for all of us to get tested. My brother and my mother tested positive, and in no time we made all the arrangements for their treatment and isolation which included separating the living area, washrooms, and meals.

The rest of us in the house – my father, sister and I stayed one another side of the same house. Despite having absolutely no contact, the virus got the rest of us in gaps of 2-3 days. All five of us eventually tested positive for COVID.

We all faced our battles against the disease. It was both mentally and physically straining as everyone was down, and there was no one to care for us or uplift us but thanks to the online delivery services, our essential meals and medicines were taken care of.

In my case, it was a very mild level of infection, and I assumed it would get over soon, but I was wrong. Even a mild case of the illness can wreak havoc inside the body. The most challenging aspect of recovery was the oscillating intensity of the virus every single day.

The mild fever that I had developed on the second day completely subsided after the fifth day, only to come back stronger. Paracetamols would pull it down a notch, but it kept resurfacing until day 10. Then, there were side effects from medications, and dealing with symptoms that I had never encountered in any illness before.

Today sitting on Day 19, I have managed to get through the tough patches in recovery. This has been a long war for the family, but we were very fortunate to have the best doctors treating us. They kept a close eye on every symptom, and we recovered with medication alone, sparing us from the trauma of finding a hospital bed and Oxygen during Delhi’s second wave.