COVID-19 isolation: Its harm and beauty
Published Nov 5, 2021 12:12 am
SURVIVOR’S TALE
By MELA LESMORAS
(Mela Lesmoras is a news correspondent from the government's flagship network, PTV-4. Currently, she is a member of the Malacañang Press Corps, covering presidential and Malacañang events. Before joining the media, she also served as a Sangguniang Kabataan chairman in Nueva Ecija.)
I am a people person. I love meeting and talking to people, from spending quality time with my family and friends to conducting interviews to people from all walks of life as part of my job. I really value social ties, and when I am in the company of others, I feel alive and inspired.
But one day, my world turned upside down. I just found myself alone — suddenly sick and isolated due to COVID-19.
It was on Sept. 30, 2021 when I tested positive for the dreaded virus. Even before getting the result, I immediately moved to a separate home away from my family, and I was later brought to a quarantine facility in Manila.
Although I was fully vaccinated against the disease, I experienced several symptoms, which started from a sore throat, followed by dry cough, colds, fever, and loss of taste and smell. One time, I even had blood in my phlegm. There were also days when I could not breathe.
However, surprisingly, it was not really the physical pain that made me sad and downhearted during that time. It was the anxiety and feeling of being alone.
I couldn't help but think about negative thoughts. As I gazed outside the window of my quarantine room, I kept on asking myself, “What will happen next? What if my condition worsens? Could I afford to pay hospital bills? How about my work? Is everything alright?” and list-of-worries went on.
I don't know but everything felt dark and gloomy. Imagine, it was a complete turn of events — from being healthy to sickly, from talking all day to perpetual silence, and from being surrounded by my loved ones to being confined alone.
But as the days passed by, things eventually got better. On the sixth day of my isolation, I just woke up in better shape, with a new outlook in life.
Instead of having self-doubt and fears, in a flash I realized, “Why don't I just make the most out of my me-time,?” “Why don't I just use this time to reflect and plan for the future,?” after all, it was only now after a long time that I had my much needed break from work, and life in general.
It was like God woke me up from a nightmare. It was like he whispered, “get going because I am with you.”
So in the same quarantine room which I used to be anxious, I decided to do the things which I loved the most. I watched K-dramas, I played games, I read books, and I enjoyed window shopping online.
Days before I finished my isolation, would you believe that I even had completed a comprehensive online application for a fellowship program I was truly eyeing but had no time to apply before?
That's when it struck me — we truly have the power in any situation. We can be sad all the way, and it's okay. But we can also choose to dance in the rain and move forward.
Last Oct. 21, 2021, exactly three weeks after I tested positive for COVID-19, I had another swab test result stating that I am now negative for the scary virus.
Currently, I am back with my family and friends again, but now I know, there is also beauty in being alone.