Testing Positive

I tested positive for covid a month and a half ago and joined one of the 100+ million people that have tested positive since the pandemic began.

It was a shock and one of those things that you don’t ever expect to happen to you, even though the odds weren’t tiny.

For almost a year, I had been really careful, always wearing a mask outside, working from home, and only leaving the house once every couple weeks for groceries or going on few socially-distanced hikes.

Over a weekend in early January, I went to the grocery store and on a hike. I started to have a mild cough and sore throat on a Saturday afternoon and after about an hour of lingering cough, I got a sinking feeling that I had contracted covid.

So I went and got tested and a few days later I got the email:

Your COVID-19 RT-qPCR test was POSITIVE, meaning that the virus that causes COVID-19 was detected in the specimen you provided.

Fuck. I really got it huh…

After it kind of set in, I texted the few people I was around in the days before symptom onset and suggested they get tested as well. I was relieved when they all ended up testing negative. It also meant that I must have caught covid from a passing stranger.

For the next two weeks, I sealed myself up in my room. I got comfortable in there and tried to keep a calm and positive mindset. I mostly worked like normal, except for taking it a little easier to rest and try to get better.

Like a good public health major, I kept a daily log of my symptoms and health, and was fortunate to only have mild cold-like symptoms the whole time:

I never had a fever, and never lost my taste or smell. On a few days, I felt some general fatigue but I’m not sure really sure if it was from covid or my heightened anxiety. I was very worried that things would take a turn for the worse.

After my isolation period, I got tested again and was glad to test negative.

The next day, after a light rain, I was finally able to go outside for a run and breathing in the crisp air felt amazing.

The whole covid experience was pretty surreal and I feel very fortunate to have had a relatively light bout with the virus. Please keep wearing your masks and staying safe!