By: Angela Dimaano, Features Editor
With the Corona Virus showing no signs of slowing down, many find themselves knowing someone who was infected by the virus. Whether it be Parents, Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles, virtually no one has been untouched by the virus. Physics Teacher, Anjali Abraham, had tested positive for COVID-19 a little over a month ago, but has since made a full recovery. The Thunderbolt was able to interview Ms. Abraham on her overall experience with the virus.
What was your first indication of having COVID-19?
“I’m a teacher that comes onto campus to work. In order to do that, I have to fill out a questionnaire that asks about Covid symptoms. My first symptom was a fever. When I entered that into the form, it alerted the district office who contacted me and told me to go get a test (which I was going to do anyway) while they decided if they needed to do contact tracing for staff who went on campus (they didn’t).”
How was your experience with the COVID test and what were some of your initial feelings about your diagnosis?
“I went and did my drive through COVID test (which was painful), and got the results the next morning. Kaiser administers the nasopharyngeal COVID test, which is quick but painful. If you look up a diagram you’ll see why. This is the test people talk about when they say ‘it felt like they were trying to stab my brain through my nose.’ Honestly though, it’s not that bad. It’s a little less painful than a shot. It came back presumptive positive, which automatically alerts the Public Health Department. They called me to do contact tracing, which is just answering a bunch of questions about who you’ve been in contact with. Before I got the test, I really thought I didn’t have it, because I live alone and the only people I see are my family, and none of them had been exposed. I think I was also in denile. There’s a lot of shame and guilt and fear associated with thinking you might have exposed someone vulnerable inadvertently. I was isolating anyway just in case. The positive test result was when it first fully registered that I had COVID.”
What were some of your symptoms?
“For the first few days I was super exhausted. I normally hate taking naps, but I was taking like 6-8hr naps. I didn’t notice the fever much, but I think that was because I couldn’t stay awake. After that, I had some difficulty breathing for a few days, but thankfully it wasn’t too bad. I also just didn’t have as much energy as I normally do, so I fell behind in things like emails and grading.”
Did you find teaching at home more difficult as opposed to teaching at school, taking into account your physical wellbeing?
“Teaching from home sucked for me. I didn’t have anything set up at home. I took the first week off, which meant I had to write sub plans, but I wasn’t teaching. After that, I felt well enough to start teaching from home. The biggest problem was my weak wifi. That just made everything take 10x as long. I didn’t have a whiteboard or a doc cam for most of it, so trying to teach the math that you have to do in physics was pretty difficult. I feel like I didn’t cover things as well as I should have.”
How has your recovery experience been and do you have any comments about your entire experience?
“After the first week, I was mostly okay. I got a negative test result about 5 days after my symptoms started. I still had some trouble breathing for a bit, but it was fine. I guess it’s been a month and I still feel a little fatigued going up and down my apartment’s stairs, but that’s the only lingering symptom. Please follow all of the health guidelines! It wasn’t bad for me because I’m 25. I’m so glad I was already careful because it means I didn’t expose anyone more vulnerable.”
