?? What has happened to Ms Positivity?!
COVID-19 happened to me, sighs...
Met DL last Wednesday, 9 Feb. She was back from Denmark for a visit. We chatted at my place from 8 plus to 1 plus.
Yes, many many hours together. So when she told me early Thursday morning that she tested positive after having sore throat, my heart sank. My only hope was that I wasn't infectious yet coz I was still snuggling with the kids on Wednesday night!
Did ART after sending off Kai and Yang. Negative. But I started wearing a mask anyway. Still negative that afternoon.
Before this, I had been having a sore throat in the morning for many days due to snacking on LNY goodies at night, oops. A sip of water and I would be fine. But the sore throat persisted on Friday. ART was still negative. When I was preparing fruits for the kids on Friday evening, I ate the orange pieces with seeds coz Kai didn't like it *.* Then I had a glimmer of hope - I had orange on Thursday too, which could cause sore throat for me!
Unfortunately, I started developing a bad body ache on Friday night. I was also coughing a little. No fever though temperature was higher than usual. I just took my booster shot the morning of the previous Friday and suffered similarly that night too. Sighs...
Day 1 - Saturday
The double line showed up within seconds on Saturday morning. I was relieved for the confirmation though. Took paracetamol for my body ache and sat the boys down to download instructions:
- Do not go into my bedroom, my bathroom, and Papa/Yu's room where I would have my meals
- If you feel unwell (sore throat, cough, body ache), tell me immediately
- Kai and Yang will take the ART every day before going to school
- Yu will not go to school coz I cannot bring him, but I will not be able to play with him - he has to 自己搞定
But this Yu still went to jump on my bed at one point!! Got him to wash up and dumped the toy cat he was holding then into the laundry basket. Have to wash my monkey as well but maybe later coz I want to hug sthg cute since I can't hug my boys :p
Isolating in my room with my monkey
JY reminded me about N95 masks so I started using that instead of the usual medical masks. The N95 was surprisingly easy to breath in but my ears were dying in a matter of hours. So I tied my hair in a high ponytail to hold the top band away from my ears - then my scalp suffered... By the end of Day 1, I had a bruise on my nose bridge!
By Day 2, I started wearing two masks - regular when I was alone or sleeping, and N95
Yang also received a Health Risk Warning (HRW) - his second one already! - on Friday night just before I slept. Saturday morning when I told him about it and got him to do ART, he asked if it was XXX who was absent and whose whole family got COVID *.*
I opened up a new pack of ART kits on Saturday. So much easier on the nose! Even Yang agreed.
Sito has gone to KL but lucky for me, TV is a good nanny. Left them with the TV while I went to the clinic. Ran out of paracetamol and did not have enough ART kits to last the coming week.
Did another ART at the clinic. Same brand but somehow negative?! So the doctor asked to see my own ART. He said it was likely positive then but they needed a confirmation so put me through a PCR :(
And then I was back with my babies. All on the sofa - good. I just walked away to my room. Shooed the kids away whenever I needed to pass through the dining area. They have a habit of following me around during advertisements coz I'm 广告妈妈 - nope, sorry, stay away from me!
Let the kids play Nintendo the whole Saturday afternoon. Less risk for fights that would need my intervention.
But there are challenging time when the only adult in the house is down with COVID. Food should be easy - just order in, distribute, eat separately. The rest, still must do!
E.g. Yu spilled his Vitagen so I had to wipe down the table, affected chairs and pretty much the equivalent area of the dining area. Mopped three times by hand and the floor was still oily! There were oily spots everywhere the next day coz they were walking around so much. Finally use dish detergent to remove the oil :( Lucky my symptoms were ok. In fact, I coughed more when I was watching drama :p
And I wrote the above before dinner on Saturday - we had dinner at 7.30 pm instead of 5.30 pm coz our McDelivery did not happened! Driver went MIA after telling me he was waiting for the food. Called the restaurant and was told that the manager would check and call back - twice. The third time, I had to cry to make them escalate! Finally got a call to say that order was already completed but they were preparing again since I didn't received. Should have used Grab instead as I had trouble logging onto the McDelivery app so couldn't track.
By night time, I was left with mostly the cough. Turned out the body ache didn't return fully after the 7 am paracetamol wore off. This was better than the booster shot ache which lasted until Sunday morning!
Day 2 - Sunday
The SMSes from MOH kept coming... The isolation days are counted from the day I tested positive. So 72 hours would end by end of Monday.
Didn't get HRW for the kids until Monday but social responsibility - I tested Kai and Yang anyway so that they could rise to the occasion...
So proud of my boys!
It happened that on Friday, we were reading a book about a P2 kid packing food for her sick mum and watching an episode of CNA's Old Enough. Then I brought them to NTUC, orientated them and got them to buy something on their own. They were very keen to try out and well, here's your chance, first of many!
Sent them out with a wrist purse and the access card on a lanyard. They came back with two pepperoni and one meat galore for lunch, and three hotdog buns for breakfast/recess tomorrow. Good job! :)
When Mum called after their pizza lunch, I heard Yang tell her, "We completed our first mission - buy pizza and three hotdog buns on our own!" :)
Yang volunteered for the second mission - to collect our dinner order from Hainan Story
Sent all kids to bed with only my eyes - I stopped at the door :p And they let me coz COVID!
Anyway, still coughing.
Day 3 - Monday
Kai and Yang tested negative and went to school. For the first time, they crossed the road to the bus stop on their own. I leaned on the invisible grille at the living room balcony and saw them cross. Very anxious. I might have looked like I was going to jump off...!
Yu had to stay home - I couldn't bring him to school and I didn't want to poke his nose until I got the HRW or unless he felt ill. Just as well coz his whole class was sent home for ART due to a positive case!
Received HRWs for all three after lunch. Time to do the inevitable... Took a long time - and two candies and plenty of leg kicking - to convince Yu to let me do it. The third attempt was successful and he felt ok with it. Phew!
When he was trying to do it on his own
Couldn't engage this boy myself so I gave him TV in the morning, some YouTube Kids during my lunch and then phonics on Reading Eggs after his ART.
Can't see from here but he was shaking his legs :p
Asked Kai and Yang to go collect ART kits at blk 180 but they said there was an error on the machine. They picked up hotdog buns for recess and dinner after that. Including the test kits in the care pack from MOH/PA/MP (?), we had enough until Friday - hope to be negative by then so I could collect the test kits to complete their HRW.
Surprise evening delivery
Dinner was Dian Xiao Er - ordered noodles and duck for them - and a lot of drama coz Kai was scolding Yang very badly for small things so I also scolded Kai. But a shower was all it took for them to be friends again. And they were having so much fun that Yang and Yu decided not to watch "funny video"; Kai was banned due to the dinner saga. So I'm happy, yeah!
These kids are so naughty but gosh, I miss hugging them! :(
The cough continued. Felt like a regular cough except that I felt a sense of breathlessness when breathing, even without the mask. But my oxygen levels were ok so I wasn't concerned about the breathlessness.
Day 4 - Tuesday
Various recent accounts told me that I wasn't going to get a negative ART after 72 hours. But I must try right? If I'm the lucky one, I can get some "normal activities" in.
Of course not lucky... But the line was very faint.
Kai and Yang tested negative and went to school. I was a bit worried coz Kai mentioned "something here" the night before, pointing to the bottom of his throat. This boy was also concerned about getting COVID as he wasn't vaccinated - so conscientious, good! But thankfully, his "something" wasn't worse this morning even though it was still there.
Yu received a HRW from school. Quite pissed coz the case was last in school on Friday but this HRW will end one day after that from me. Poor boy has to do additional ART next Monday.
Lunch was fishball noodles and bah chor mee. Was surprised to find three packs of soup but only two packs of noodles. Both driver and Grab were responsive. I eventually got my third pack of noodles. This Ding Ji gives a lot of noodles! Next time just order two and add ingredients.
Dinner was cai fan. I was wondering how they would pack it - bento boxes for all the dishes :) So good to have cai fan! Came with a big pack of curry which I didn't order, yum!
Kai's EZ Link card didn't have enough money so got him and Yang to go top up, collect my cheong sam from the drycleaner, and buy food for recess the next day. Gave Yang his card as well as they would have to go via exemption route to return home. They did this very well :)
The cough was much better. Way fewer coughing episodes and the sense of breathlessness was mostly gone. Took my last cough tablet at night. Only 枇杷膏 and lozenges left.
Day 5 - Wednesday
I was hoping to be negative but got a super faint line. So faint I need to magnify and see with glasses. Save my hope for tmr.. Kai said I should only hug him after I had tested negative the second time, in case of a false negative. So safe, I like!
But I miss hugging my babies!!! 😭
Yu nua-ing in front of the TV
Kai and Yang were negative and went to school. I was counting the days. I was exposed on Wednesday, with clear symptoms on Friday and tested positive on Saturday. If the kids were exposed before I put on the mask, they would have tested positive already. To be safe, I'll count again from the last day I test positive. Hope they don't catch it at all!
Still coughing here and there...
Day 6 - Thursday
I'm negative, yeah!!!!
Had a scare though. I waved Kai and Yang bye bye after my alarm for 15 min went off and the tests read negative. Then I took pictures of the results - in case of queries. When I zoomed into Yang's result, I thought I saw a super faint line *.*
Took many photos with and without zoom to enlarge and see, with and without glasses. More obvious here, less obvious there. Could it be the light? Also got a message about a positive case in Yang's class - Yang interacts with this boy :( Anyway, there was no way I could call the kids back!
When they came back, I separated Yang from the rest and got him to do another test immediately. So happy to see that it's negative!
They were also pleased to know that I tested negative. Kai said earlier that I could not hug him yet but the cute thing is that he hugged me today :) I was so happy! I reminded him about what he said and he went, "Oh, yes... Oh well, it's ok!" :)
Yang was very sweet and asked me a few times whether I was really negative, or whether I still had COVID-19. He looked so happy for me! :)
After the first mandatory ART, Yu refused to take ART until the end of his HRW. I just have to take his brothers' daily negative as a proxy... He was happy to stay home for a short while when I went to grab eggs for his lunch. He was happier to be able to play chess with me.
Yu could arrange the whole thing
But I won both games, yeah! Haha, cheap thrill :p Then I made a new board with paper coz the plastic was falling apart.
When the kids were all settled down with Nintendo, I went to collect ART kits. They were out of stock when I checked in the early morning. Then the stock started coming in, and eventually the machine nearest us was in stock!
Then I keyed in my negative result :p By right, I should receive a recovery memo on day 7 but I got it on day 6 even before I submitted my negative result *shrug*
Received two surprise deliveries in the morning from RI and RT. So nice of them! I had sugar overdose - one regular Lao Ban and one almond Lao Ban, one almond soy milk, three doughnuts. Took us three days to finish 12 doughnuts but in the end, I couldn't finish the Lao Ban coz kids didn't help.
The kids had a lot to eat in mid afternoon - late lunch plus doughnuts for Kai and Yang, and doughnut for Yu. I was surprised they managed to finish dinner by 6 pm. Bought char siew noodles - the only food they like despite the vege! Only Yu had a bit of noodles left over.
Despite the negative result, I was still coughing here and there. So mask remains on, even when sleeping. Never know when a kid would run to me in the middle of the night!
Day 7 - Friday
We were all negative; Yu by proxy. Received notice of yet another case in K2 class so was glad Yu stayed home!
Decided not to cook yet so that I could finished up cleaning and sanitising. Didn't dare to clean much in the past few days else I had to sanitise more things when recovered! Grabbed dinner with 20% off self-pickup by yours truly coz I could - happy!
Even happier that I could finally hug my babies and lie down with them at bedtime!! :)
The cough kind of disappeared so the mask came off. Kai said he could finally see my real face, hoho! Weirdly, I started coughing when I laid down to sleep so I pulled a mask on. It fell off in the middle of the night though *.*
Day 8 - Saturday
Received notice of the fifth and sixth case in K2 class and that "K2 classroom" would be closed on Monday. Super vague phrasing - not sure if kids could still go. In any case, it's pretty clear there's transmission in school with a case every two days! Though the sixth case was likely from elsewhere coz kid wasn't in school. So I'm keeping Yu home first. Don't risk it.
No ART done on Saturday so we stayed in. Cooked standard porridge for lunch and my usual pasta for dinner.
Strangely, I had a sore throat and slight cough. No breathlessness. I put it down to the one third tub of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream the night before. If it was COVID again, then we were all infected already!
And I realised that while I had COVID, my nose allergy didn't happen. Great coz I didn't have to keep removing my mask to blow my nose. Now, sniffling again *.*
Day 9 - Sunday
End of HRW! All three tested negative. I took a test too coz of symptoms - negative. I put it down to the pineapple tarts last night :p But here I am, snacking on almond cookies as I type, oops...
Yang got another HRW health risk notice (HRN) last night. Saw the SMS only when I woke. So more poking until Wednesday... At this rate, how to vaccinate the boys?! So I decided to just bring them for vaccination tmr anyway!
