Memoir of an intern doctor…day 271……Straight Outta Quarantine. COVID-19 Negative

14 quarantine days and 2 nasopharyngeal swabs later, a girl is finally free and can return to work.

Disclaimer; I did not have COVID!, but was a contact of a high risk COVID patient.

On 21st June, while doing my 24 hour duty at the casualty unit, I managed a young man who had just arrived from JUBA, south sudan where he had been sick and been on treatment for 3 months but with no improvement. Even when he had arrived from a high risk area, he didn’t have any of the other obvious COVID symptoms. Notably this patient looked very sick and had unrecordable blood pressure. The immediate instinct like any doctor would do is to intervene immediately and save a life. Which is exactly what I did. About 16 hours later after consulting the team at the Elegu border post, we were told that this patient had screened COVID-19 positive.

I had been the primary attending doctor to this patient and had had the most contact with him for approximately 12 hours and so it was wise that I get quarantined to protect everyone in this community. I was quarantined with 5 other staff members (names withheld) who had been in contact with this patient, and the patients I had seen within those hours when the patient was at the casualty unit were also traced and isolated.

First swab result

You might wonder what 14 days felt like, but I can simply say it was an emotional rollercoaster. From days of self blame, to days of being blamed by others, to days of happiness and falling in love with myself, to days of a countdown, and finally to acceptance of this whole situation. I’ll be honest with you that I did not even once worry about turning COVID positive when I finally go through the testing process. I wasn’t. My biggest worry was more about how I’d spend all these days for someone used to a very busy schedule of work, work and work. I initially started writing about my quarantine experience on my blog, but decided to just stop and give it all to you at once. If you read previous posts on this blog, you will see what my first days were like.

I resorted to a flexible schedule to pass time. I decided to go bed late so I could wake up late say around 9:30 to 10am. Then I’d do a morning workout almost every morning for 25- 30 minutes, take a long shower and then face my day at around 11:20am. I started a quarantine diary which had a detailed account of each day (this is for my kids to read in future), completed most of the research work which had been hanging, caught up online with friends (we had wifi for sometime), watched tv (we had a common room with TV and subscribed DSTV. We had permanent seats in this common room and sat at about 2metres distance apart), read non-medical books, watched movies. I didn’t read any medicine. I wasn’t in the mood

There were moments that kept us alive while in quarantine and this was mostly from the social support. Phonecalls, text messages, gifts from people which were delivered through the appropriate (protected) people, friends showing up to the compound to just say hi through the window at a distance. I love you guys. Everyone that was there for me and my colleagues. I can’t list the names because I would probably forget some people, but this love. I can’t repay with just words.

We had the first samples picked off on day 5, got results on day 9 and we were all negative. The next samples were taken off on day 14 and we all still turned out negative. And here we are with big smiles of joy.

My lessons from this are actually not many, because I’m not sure there are things I would have done different especially in terms of saving this man’s life. But I’m very grateful to GOD for helping my colleagues and I to keep it together till this day with no concerns.

Very grateful to the administration of Lacor hospital, the COVID taskforce team, the psychosocial team for taking very good care of us. Our friends and family for not leaving our side. Only GOD can bless you for us.

PS; I’m getting acertificate for this, and I’m adding it to my CV. Watch me!