Part of coronavirus quarantine ‘big blur of nothingness’
“When I heard about the virus in Wuhan, I figured it might be like the swine flu or some kind of avian flu. Where it’s a big thing somewhere else, but not here. But as soon as it came to the United States and started spreading, I cut off contact with my grandparents, my girlfriend and everybody like that. I isolated myself at my apartment. I heard it was affecting older people. Since I usually spend two or three days a week with my grandparents, I didn’t want anything to happen to them. It wasn’t too terrible because I live with my best friend of 16 years. But I’m so used to spending time around a bunch of people. Just sitting at home, you have books to read, you have the internet, but it doesn’t make up for that face-to-face human contact. So after about a month, I decided to go out. I visited my grandparents a little bit. Stayed a few times at my girlfriend’s house. I still worked, of course. And I went over to a friend’s house, had a beer, watched a movie. Then, almost immediately after that, I started feeling sick.
“The first thing that clued me in was I couldn’t smell anything one day. I woke up, and just nothing. In hindsight, I was probably sick way longer than I initially thought. A few days before that, I had muscle aches and a migraine. At the time, I figured it was just from exercising or something. I wasn’t too worried about my personal wellbeing. I’m young and relatively fit, and I don’t have any pre-existing conditions. But I was worried about my co-workers. Because if I had been sick, I might have spread it to them without knowing. I consulted with a couple of them. They said if you think you have it, we’d rather you go home. I decided to go home until I got the test. I went to CVS, where they were doing self-testing. It involves putting a rather long swab up into the back of your nasal cavity. That was one of the more difficult things I’ve ever had to do. Just the willpower to stuff a Q-tip all the way back in your nose. It’s like the last thing your body wants. I was coughing and hacking the whole time. Then, four or five days later, I got a call to confirm that I had the coronavirus. Oddly enough, I was kind of relieved to know that I was actually sick and not just being paranoid. More than likely, I got it from work. I do customer service. I work around 200 different employees and 1,000 or so customers a day. So maybe I got it from one of them. There’s no telling.
“My roommate left work as well and decided to quarantine with me. Since I had it, he figured he’d get sick, too, and just hang out with me. We didn’t separate from each other or anything. We still played cards and watched movies. But he hasn’t gotten sick at all. For me it was mostly muscle aches and lethargy. I couldn’t walk down the stairs without being out of breath. There were three days where it’s all a big blur of nothingness. I was so lethargic and sore that I made a little pallet, and just kind of laid down on the living room floor and watched TV.
“I was out of work for 26 days. It feels good to be back. I wear my mask. I wash my hands. I don’t hug people or shake hands. It’s the social contract thing. Take care of yourself and take care of your family. But also do your best for everybody else. Try to be responsible and care about your fellow man. That’s all we can do right now. Because nobody really knows what’s happening in the next few months or the next year.”
— Caleb Stewart
