I finally got to experience covid myself.
So three months after my daughter caught and recovered from covid, I finally got it myself.
It had been pretty hot in October, even by Hong Kong’s standards. Temperatures hovered at the low thirties C (~ 86 F) for a long time.
Then it dropped to around 20 C (~ 60 F) overnight on 18 Oct. I was sharing the bed with my 3 years-old as usual, and she kept trying to kick the duvet and, sometimes, my head off. I woke up in the dead of night and felt pretty rough.
I had a fever of 38.9 C (~102 F) and a bit of a headache but nothing else. I popped a paracetamol and went back to bed.
The next morning, I did a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), which was negative. Nonetheless, I called in sick and went to visit my GP. The diagnosis was upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), and he gave me a sick leave certificate for a day.
After taking the pills, I felt drowsy and went back to sleep. I felt fine after the nap, not energetic, but good enough to take the kid from nursery to my parents’ home.
I no longer had a fever, but my throat was getting worse. After leaving the kid and wife to my parents for the night, I went back to bed. I had a sneaky feeling that I might have caught covid somehow.
I was right.
I kept waking up at night, and my throat was dry like a desert. Suspicious, I took another RAT this morning, and voilà, it was positive.
I then spent the next hour contacting my family and colleagues, letting them know I would be in isolation for a week and declaring my positive RAT result on the government portal.
My vaccine pass was instantly changed to Red Code, and I was issued an isolation order. Guess I would have to stay home for at least the next 7 days.
Right now, my throat is still very dry and scratchy, and I can feel mucus building up at the back of my throat. Apart from that, I feel okay. No runny nose, no fever, no body aches.
My wife and kid would have to stay with my parents for the next week. But that means I can sleep in my bed peacefully for now. Every cloud has a silver lining indeed!
Update on 22/10, 2 days after my RAT positive:
I actually could not sleep well. The sore throat got worst and it was hurting really bad; it felt like someone was grinding it constantly with sandpapers. I grimaced with pain when I drank anything. I tried many throat lozenges, honey syrup, pei pa koa, salted kumquats, gargling mouthwashes, basically anything I have on hand, but nothing really helped.
And then there was the coughing at night. I just could not stop coughing even though I was totally exhausted. Every time I lay on my bed, I would start coughing within minutes. It was depressing. Weirdly, the coughing would stop in the morning, and that was how I managed to stay sane for the last two days.
And it would not be completed without some hiccups from the government.
On Thursday afternoon, a government worker gave me an electronic wristband. After downloading an app to my mobile phone and walking around the house for a minute with the mobile (Yeah right, as if many people in Hong Kong can afford a place that big), I was left to my own.
But apparently, there was something wrong with my mobile phone or their app. Either way, they could not locate the wristband even though it was right next to the phone and called me the next day. After going back and forth with them for two days, the issue still was not resolved. In the end, they gave up and told me that they would mark it down on their records and not bother me again.
So I could, in theory, leave home and run some errands without the government being notified….