Tryst with the Tiny Microbe

No sooner did I break my 21st fast on 4th May, than I started sneezing. A normal sneeze during COVID-19 times is enough to send shivers down your spine. By the time, I offered Tarawih prayer, my body had started showing all the symptoms characteristic of upper respiratory tract infection.

As a hypochondriac, I thought that the dreaded virus had finally caught up with me. Soon optimism took over pessimism and I didn’t go for any test. Couple of days passed without any significant change in my body. It was only on the 4th day that I felt heaviness in the lower lobes of my lungs immediately after taking my Suhoor (pre-dawn meal).

After offering Jumat-ul-Vida hurriedly in a nearby mosque where physical distancing was maintained, I talked to a doctor friend who is always forthcoming and informed him about the symptoms I was developing. He suggested that I should get my RAT done at the earliest.

I immediately drove to a nearby PHC and got my test done. When the nasal swab was put on the test slide, I waited with a bated breath. The appearing of red line near the letter T on the test slide indicated that I was COVID-19 positive. After dodging the virus for over a year, it had finally caught up with me. The bio-bubble I had built meticulously and methodically, had been breached by the invisible enemy.

The test result didn’t unnerve me, not in the least. I came back and isolated myself from my near and dear ones. Keeping oneself away from one’s kids is the toughest thing to do in any circumstances. I rang up one of relatives who is a senior doctor and has fought this virus bravely during the first wave of infection. He prescribed some medicine to take this virus head on. He also sent me a pulse oximeter to keep an eye on the oxygen level in my blood.

After breaking my 24th fast, I popped 3 to 4 pills and started hydrating my body with lots of warm water laced with the extract of ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, black seeds, black pepper and lemon. Fresh fruits, dry fruits, bundles of masks, gloves and hand sanitizers were stashed in the room I had decided to stay in. Rooms and washrooms were segregated, entrances marked and red lines drawn to check further spread of the lethal virus.

Self-isolation meant that I won’t be with my two kids — a four-year-old boy and an eight-month-old baby girl — for at least two weeks. I was particularly concerned about my son who had slept with me when the virus had made its way into my body. His frail body has weak immunity as he has undergone three complex surgeries at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi when he was only five-month old. By the grace of Almighty Allah (SWT), he as well as his sister was negative. We had to send him to a relative’s house to keep him out of reach of the rampaging tiny microbe.

Next day, my better-half started showing symptoms and she too isolated herself in a different room. Her isolation was heart-wrenching as she couldn’t feed our eight-month-old baby girl who was taken care of in a different room. The baby’s relentless weeping and frantic babbling made her mother weep bitterly. This is the grim reality of the pandemic precipitated by the unprecedented spread of the deadly microscopic organism.

I received a barrage of phone calls from my relatives and friends. Different potions were prescribed by different relatives based on their experience. I had to drink gallons of these potions besides the prescribed medicine.

“A balanced diet is essential for the body to fight the powerful microbe,” said my cousin sister who is a gynaecologist. She had even arranged an oxygen concentrator which would have been dispatched to me in case my oxygen saturation level plummeted. Proteins in the form of mutton, chicken and eggs formed the major portion of my diet plan which I had to follow religiously.

COVID-19 is the biggest challenge mankind has ever faced in the recorded history. We may have to live with it for quite some time. No conspiracy theory stands ground in view of the fact that over 3 million people all over the globe have been mercilessly devoured by the fast mutating virus. Don’t be complacent. Don’t lower your guard. Don’t let the ‘Enigma of Biology’ annihilate the highly evolved organism on earth.

Staying positive after getting positive goes a long way in helping your body tackle the COVID-19 onslaught. Don’t let the tiny microbe torment your nervous system before it actually traverses through your respiratory system. Mass inoculation is the only way of keeping the virus at bay. ‘Vaccine hesitancy’ won’t save us from the perils of COVID-19 scourge, ‘vaccine urgency’ will surely do. Get your jab and move on!