How I tested negative and positive at the same time - Chapter 3 (Final)

Chapter 1:  How I tested negative and positive at the same time - Chapter 1

Chapter 2: How I tested negative and positive at the same time - Chapter 2

Apr 28th Wednesday - The consultation 

My morning was as usual and there were no signs of temperature or body pains. Though I was feeling a bit tired both physically and mentally. Last few days have been a roller coaster ride for me and it had drained all my energy with it. Immediately after getting up I checked my phone for the scan result SMS and it was ready to be collected. This was my last hurdle and with a negative RtPCR result I made up my mind that it should be a formality to pick up the result from the scan center. So I quickly freshened up, had my breakfast and took my kidney scan reports with me. I was planning to visit my Kidney doctor and ask his opinion on the feverishness and start my tablet course. 

I went to the scan center and saw the same scenes. There were lots of people crowded near the sample collection area. Since I had to just collect the report I went to the reception area and showed the SMS which was received earlier. There were other people too waiting for their scan reports. And after around 5 mins of searching and scraping through the pile of reports, my report was found and the receptionist handed it to me in a neat file and big bag. It had a two page report, a set of scanned films and a CD. Not sure why they include a CD to the reports and the charge for writing to CD is 200 INR/-. They never asked for my consent too while billing for this. Imagine how many scans they would have done / and are still doing and how much they earn only through this. And I still wonder how people are still ok with it. May be they are in the same mindset as me while I was collecting my report. If it had been a normal day or a normal check up I would have definitely asked about it and still I would have ended up paying for it 🙄. But at least I would have walked away with the satisfaction that I confronted for something which is not ethical. Well that's a separate discussion. 

Now coming back to my reports. It had a lot of medical terminologies specified and there was a score at the end. This score indicates the severity of illness to the lungs and mine was 6/25 which falls under the mild category. To add fuel to the fire there is something called a CORAD score and anything equal to 5 and above is a symptom of Covid. Mine was a CORAD 5. It also suggested me to take an RtPCR to confirm. I was confused for a moment and it was because, I was not ready daa... I read the report multiple times and confirmed that it suggests I have Covid. I desperately needed a doctor opinion on this. All this while we did not consult a doctor for fever / Covid. Quickly from the scan center I went to Deepam hospital which was nearer and the only option I knew at the moment. They have a critical care facility only for treating Covid cases in a separate building which is a few meters away from the main building hospital center. 

As I entered the Covid facility there were already 5 to 7 people waiting for the doctor to arrive. It was around 10 AM when I went there. The people who were waiting were of different age categories, some old and some younger and most of them were with an attender and I was there all alone. The patients were asked to sit inside while the attenders who came with them were asked to wait outside so as to minimize the crowd and thereby restricting the chances of spreading the disease to them. I did not know what to do whether to wait inside or come after sometime once after the doctor arrives. Since in my mind I was confident that I'm normal / Covid negative. I was perceiving that the doctor would rule out the scan report since the RtPCR was negative. One person who was waiting inside was completely exhausted he seemed to be affected badly and was waiting for an oxygen bed confirmation. The situation was worst out in the city, with almost all the hospitals overflowing with Covid patients. Getting an oxygen bed / ventilator bed was next to impossible and even getting a normal bed was tough. I decided to wait inside and sat on the last row where there was only one seat and while I was waiting suddenly an ambulance arrived with an old lady. I quickly gave my seat to her and moved out, basically I was not feeling comfortable sitting inside. 

At around 11 AM the doctor arrived and started seeing the patients. After another half an hour my turn came. I showed him my scan reports and the test result. On seeing them the first question he asked was "Yaara ketu CT Scan eduthinga?" (Who asked to you take CT scan?). For which my mind voice was like.. "Sonna enga doctor kekranga oorukulla ellam paathi doctor aaitanga intha lockdown la" (Who cares Doctor. Almost everyone has become half doctor in this lockdown). Somehow I managed to convince him by saying that "Since we faced similar situation earlier in the family and whatever procedures were followed at that time I thought it would be the same and took the scan along with the test". He looked at the scan films and the report once again and said "As per the scan films and report you have Covid". He then prescribed a complete blood profile to see the viral load and other functions. And based on the results the treatment would be suggested. 

Once I came out of the consultation room, the nurse asked me who is my attender. The problem with this special Covid facility was that though they had a separate building for taking care of Covid patients, it did not have a makeshift pharmacy or an cash counter within the premises. For payments and pharmacy we have to go the main building and the access to it was restricted only to attenders. Covid patients were prohibited from entering the main building. For the blood profile I have to make the payment first and then only the sample collection would be done. Since I cannot go to the main building the nurse called the hospital helper and asked him to help me and conveyed the same to me. The helper though never turned up.  And another major problem with the Covid facility is that for the whole building there were only two nurses allocated and they were working on shifts. So at any point in time only one nurse would be available. I waited for another 1 hour for the helper to arrive after which I lost patience. I asked the nurse if I could make the payment myself. The kind nurse then took my card and details to make the payment all by herself. She gave my card to the cash counter personnel and came back to collect the blood sample. 

Usually the blood sample would be drawn via a syringe and transferred to a small vacuum tube labelled with patients name. But in my case there was only only vacuum tube available. So she draw some blood in that available tube and some more in the syringe tube itself. It was not labelled. Both the samples were then handed over to another helper to pass it to the lab. The nurse gave instructions to the helper that since the tube was not available the blood is collected in syringe itself. And request the lab personnel to shift it to a tube and label it as soon as they receive it . I was worried and not sure if the helper got exactly what the nurse had told and hoped that nothing is messed up. After I while a person from the lab came to the facility and got the clear instructions and wrote down the name in tubes. Later I was asked to come back in the evening to collect my reports. While all this happened I still had not got back my card. I conveyed the same to the nurse who took my card and neither the amount was processed. After 10 minutes I received the debit message and hoped that my card will be returned soon. Another half an hour went past and whenever I saw the nurse she understood that I was waiting for my card. I too understood her situation and did not compel her. I then went out for a walk as I was feeling thirsty to have tender coconut and came back after a while. This time again when she saw me still roaming around she asked if I had got my card back. She then quickly went to the main building and got my card back along with bill. I went back home after that.

Since I was already in quarantine I continued to be so until everything was clear. I had my lunch and took rest for a while. To my surprise this evening I was feeling normal as I would feel in the morning. There were no symptoms of body pains / fever, otherwise I used to start feeling wired and feverish during the evening time.  At around 7.30 PM I went back to the hospital to collect my reports. They gave me the lab phone number and asked me to check if my reports are ready.  Though the lab was inside the main building not sure why I was asked to get the reports whereas it would have been an simpler task if at there had been an better coordination between the lab and hospital. When I called the lab to enquire about the reports they said it was almost ready and a couple of reports would take another half an hour. I was ready to wait and at around 8.15 I called them back and they said all the reports were ready to be collected. Since I cannot enter the building I went up to the entrance and asked if they could walk out and hand me over the report. They bluntly rejected it and said that they cannot do that. Although I explained them that I had no attender with me to collect the reports on my behalf still they rejected it. Worstu behaviour daa daai.. Luckily there was a security person who was outside who was doing a casual talk with his colleague since it was already late and less crowded in and around the hospital. I asked him if he could get the reports for me and gave him my bill for reference. He politely accepted the request and asked me to wait outside. And within minutes he came back with the reports.  

Upon checking the received reports almost all the values were out of the reference values. This clearly indicated that something is basically wrong inside. I then waited for doctor's consultation. It was already 9 PM by then. This time there were even more people waiting for the consultation. While I was waiting a weird thought came across my mind. During the first wave when I happened to go through all this process (Scan and Hospital visits) as an attender and whoever I saw then be it a security guard/helper/receptionist/sweeper they were all still working with same enthusiasm. Now I had two thoughts 

1. How come they don't have any fear for this Covid and still continue to work without any proper protection. Most of the workers did not wear the mask properly and some even did not bother to wear. Especially the scan center was worst experience for me. 

2. Though we take so much precautions and protections we somehow get infected. These people are in direct contact with the virus / virus infected people and still it does not seem to touch them. "Oru Vela ivanguluku mattum special medicine kuduthirupaangalo illa ivangaluku immune system semaya irukumoo" ( Wonder if they have got any special medicine / if they have a great immune system)

I know it's silly to think this way, but these are some weird thought which keeps crossing even when I go out to buy groceries / vegetables and see people being careless. 

Coming back to our story.

The doctor arrived late around 9.30 and as soon as he arrived everyone started surrounding him. The desperation and fear being the primary reasons. He was managing it for sometime until he lost his cool and shouted at everyone. "I'm here to see everyone why are you doing like this. I literally don't know who is a patient and who is an attender here. Please be seated and others please wait outside" Saying this he went inside and called another doctor for help. They both took alternative patients. And when my turn came I showed all my reports (RtPCR, Scan and Blood profile) This time I explained him from the beginning right from Chapter 1 till here. He patiently heard it, I even showed him the kidney scan reports. On analyzing all the reports he confirmed that I have a Mild Covid and prescribed the usual medicines. He advised self isolation for another 10 days and gave tablets for the same. But he said I had to concentrate more on the kidney problem and get it cured as soon as possible and it can cause problems in the future. But starting that night I did not have any symptoms related to Covid

The next 5 days was a usual routine for me. Eat, Sleep, Rest, Facebook, YouTube and repeat. Though the doctor advised 10 days I was getting bored by the 5th day and my health had improved by Day 5. Thankfully there was nothing major / serious and I was able to come out unscathed in this Covid attack, at least that is what I think. Needless to mention there was one more person who went through all this with me and extended her full support to help me overcome it. Otherwise chapter 4 and 5 would have been inevitable. (Imagine Covid as Thanos and Aisha as Iron Man in the climax scene of Endgame :P) 

If you have read till here. I truly appreciate your patience and extend my sincere thanks to you. Hope there are no more waves in the future and wish each and everyone a happy and healthy life ahead. Do take vaccine at your turn. 

Special thanks to those kind souls who reached out to me after my first post to enquire about my health and to those who followed up about this post and made me complete it.