Keya Waikar (she/her)

My name is Keya Waikar, my pronouns are she/her/hers, and I’m a junior. My family and I all had COVID-19 in the end of March, 2020. My mom was the first to feel a little sick, so she got tested at work. She received the test results the next day saying she was positive. And then within the few days after, my dad also tested positive, and my brother and I started feeling sick too.
It was a little scary because it was the beginning of the pandemic, and we aren’t sure how we exactly contracted COVID-19. And since it was still early on in the pandemic, obviously at that time wearing a mask wasn’t really a thing, though school was already shut down by then. But my mom and dad were both going into work, and since they’re both essential workers we thought that it was probably from one of their jobs, or it could even have been because of shopping in the supermarket. After we knew that my family had contracted COVID-19, we were in quarantine for two weeks.
In my personal experience, the first day that I had COVID I actually got a fever of 108°, but that lasted less than 24 hours. I had some typical flu-like symptoms such as a stuffy nose, headaches, and fatigue. I also had a sore lower back, which was really painful, and I also lost my sense of taste and smell. My sense of smell and taste is still actually slightly impaired, mostly my taste. It’s been about a year now and certain foods, such as chicken and chocolate, are the two things that still taste weird to me.
For my mom and dad, they were both feverish. We had been given an oxygen monitor from a family friend who’s a doctor, and my mom and dad’s oxygen dropped significantly. Looking back now, they say that they should’ve gone to the hospital because their oxygen levels were so low.
I’m not sure why I wasn’t more scared at the time, but I think it’s because I knew there was nothing to do and it was almost better that we didn’t have all these scary stories that we have now in a way, because I wasn’t in that mindset. But it was definitely horrible to see them in bed all day, unable to care for us as they usually do. I would be scared when going to bed because I worried about what would happen in the night, but thank goodness that they’re totally good now.
Throughout the time that my family was sick, I was in the mindset of getting to the next day. Since my brother and I were doing considerably well, it made it easier, but my parents got pretty sick. My brother and I were the ones that made all the food and we took care of ourselves on our own. I wasn’t really thinking about the worst case scenario because I was really just in survival mode, but looking back and seeing how it could have gone is scary now.