As the coronavirus cases rise in the country, people who haven’t yet succumbed to it are getting more and more anxious. So, what will be better than to get a first-hand experience from a person who dealt with this infection?
A Twitter user from Mumbai by the name of Mithila Phadke shared with everyone her experience of when she contracted the disease to how everyone (including the authorities ) tried handling it.
okay SO. We’re a family of four living in Vile Parle — me, younger sister, and our parents. since the lockdown started, the only person leaving the house very occasionally (once a week at most) was my dad to get essentials. (1/n) https://t.co/2b5zzLLfIa
— Mithila Phadke (@PhadkeTai) June 10, 2020
She started off by telling everyone how she lives in a 1BHK apartment with her sister and parents in Mumbai. Besides her father, who leaves the house once a week to get grocery, none of them goes out.
Even though her father sanitized everything after coming home every time, somehow Mithila’s sister started showing typical Covid-19 symptoms on 18th May.
diarrhoea (lolll poor thing she got the runs for DAYS), and her sense of taste was GONE and also threw up a few times. Three days in, on the 21st, I fell sick. Same way — suddenly felt incredibly tired and *had* to lie down and boom! fever. hovering above 100F.
— Mithila Phadke (@PhadkeTai) June 10, 2020
(4/n)
Then the same happened to Mithila. In addition to the known symptoms, both the sisters lost their sense of taste. They took Crocin, hydrated themselves, took rest and called Metropolis Hospital near their place to get tested for coronavirus. After getting through the hospital, they were asked to submit the Covid-19 forms.
After the submission of the form, the hospital assured them that they’ll get in touch after 2 days, but that never happened. Meanwhile, their mother caught the symptoms. Imagine the amount of stress.
later someone else told us (dad had already spent ages finding an open printer shop and printed em by now) ki no need, just submit them online.
— Mithila Phadke (@PhadkeTai) June 10, 2020
ok cool.
then they said ki they’ll get in touch with us in 2 days. did not happen.
in the meantime, mum fell sick.
(7/n)
After 2 days since the mother got the symptoms, the entire family (including the father) had it. However, in about 4-5 days since the submission of the forms the hospital got back to them and sent a technician for Covid-19 home tests.
by this time Metropolis had gotten back to us to set up appointments for home-tests (YAY!!!). they texted us the details, and then the test technician came (v nice person!!) to our house.
— Mithila Phadke (@PhadkeTai) June 10, 2020
(11/n)
Now Mithila explained in detail how these coronavirus swab tests take place. There are two tests in total. 1. where the swab goes inside the mouth and 2. where it goes inside the nose.
have u had anything that far up your nose? let me tell u, u have not.
— Mithila Phadke (@PhadkeTai) June 10, 2020
honestly though it’s not that big a deal, you’ll just scrunch up your face like you sucked on a lemon and the rest of your family will laugh at you and then YOU get to laugh at THEM and it’s done!
(13/n)
After the tests were done, the hospital assured them that they’ll get their test results by 2 days, but again, this was delayed. However, most of the symptoms were gone by that time and they got help from family friends and family doctors.
friends, amazing twitter people (s/o to @elitistsadgirl and her wonderful mum Dr Dolly!) were so helpful. along with our own doc, family friends put us in touch with theirs for more information and advice. they recommended meds w zinc, cough syrups, simple home remedies
— Mithila Phadke (@PhadkeTai) June 10, 2020
(15/n)
Finally, after a lot of calls and taking care of themselves ‘by themselves’, the test results came by and showed that the entire family was Covid positive. However, it is a general precautionary method for BMC to send officials to sanitize the entire area and the house of Covid positive patients, but that never happened.
What we found really weird was that the lab had informed the BMC and so had our doctor but for some reason, no BMC officials showed up to our place after we got the results. We didn’t get calls either. We had heard stories where they kinda turn up in the middle of the —
— Mithila Phadke (@PhadkeTai) June 10, 2020
(18/n)
The BMC landed at their place 4-5 days after the tests results and sanitized their place. By this time, all the family members had mostly recovered from symptoms.
they were done, they said ki wait 15 minutes and so we did and then we had to strip all the bedsheets and clean the floors and wipe off surfaces and scrub the produce like mad!!
— Mithila Phadke (@PhadkeTai) June 10, 2020
APPARENTLY PLANTS HAVE ALSO DIED 👇🏾https://t.co/z6FdddU5Dr
In another case of delayed work, the ward office called the family after this entire procedure was over. They asked for the family’s details and mostly asked them to stay quarantined at home for 14 days. They cited how they received the results late and according to paperwork one has to go with the flow.
building and where we had been so they could do contact-tracing. job made much easier cuz we had mostly stayed home.
— Mithila Phadke (@PhadkeTai) June 10, 2020
a bmc doc spoke to us too, gave us the emergency number (1916, for ambulances and hospital). ALSO,
(27/n)
Now the question is – what if any of the family member was critically ill? What if others who are dealing with this virus weren’t as lucky as the Phadke family, but could have lost their lives just because there was a delay in government procedure?
There could be hundreds or thousands of people who might be going out of their house with these symptoms because their tests results haven’t arrived yet. In any case, it is extremely important to be aware of one’s health and see if the symptoms start showing. Taking precaution is the best remedy as of now.
H/T : Mithila Phadke
