03/10/2020 - 14:45
- Clarín.com
- Society
The grandiloquence of the coronavirus figures (116,736 infected, 64,752 recovered and 4,095 deceased) impresses, but at some point lies in front of the minimum stories of those who pass the infection (or their mere suspicion ...) alone.
In Argentina, even with 17 infected and one deceased, the film has been seen from the outside. But not for them, the "protocolized", that only in the city of Buenos Aires are about 150 people.
They are in preventive isolation in their homes , either because they returned from a trip through areas with certain viral circulation, or because they learned that they had shared a space, a moment with someone diagnosed later . And now, weaving and weaving , they wait 14 days behind closed doors to rule out contagion. Next, the first person testimony of a woman who shared with Clarín the dense hours she spends "in quarantine."
I am in a situation of home isolation since Friday, March 5 in the morning.
I was notified on Thursday 4 at night that I had shared a work meeting with a person who had been confirmed as a positive case of coronavirus.
That night I went through many states because the public situation in relation to the subject was not what it is now: first I laughed a lot because I could not believe the bad luck I had had, then I had a lot of anxiety and that night I did not sleep at all, talking to everything the world.
I didn't know how to handle myself the next day, with work, with my children ... It was a moment of much confusion. But they gave me a number that I called and they indicated the steps to follow. I had to be in my house for 14 days and those who accompanied me at that meeting, too.
It was Friday and my children were at school. The phone was exploding, but what worried me most was how to comply with the isolation measures in a correct way towards them, so as not to worry them and to show them that I was well; That was just a preventive measure.
After thinking a thousand ways, it seemed to me that the most sensible thing was that they did not live with me during the period of isolation. They returned from school and, along with their dad, I transmitted them (keeping a safe distance), always emphasizing that my health was fine and this was only preventive. I also tried to laugh at the bad luck of the situation and that they saw it that way, as something preventive, with a lot of individual responsibility, and that it would end soon.
From there, they left and from that moment, my contact with the outside is the cell phone and the times that I spend on the balcony .
I am starting my fifth day of isolation and each day lives differently. The first two I was very anxious and it occurred to me to clean kitchen and bathrooms with a lot of lavandina (I went mambo with the lavandina! But that's it ... I missed that madness!). Monday came and I had to face a home office day in the middle of this situation. I didn't find it easy (nor do I find it) to concentrate, but I try to do it (as I get, but do it) to put my head on something else.
They call me from the Ministry of Health twice a day to find out how I am. I have to take the temperature twice a day too and call them if I have more than 37.5 ºC. Until now, it never happened.
As for the things I need, I get ready with family help. I can't have contact with them, but they leave me some shopping at the entrance of my house door and I greet them and thank them from afar. So I keep the distance.
With the boys I handle normal calls or video calls so they see that I am fine and I highlight them until they bore them (and I don't care!) That this, in my case, is super preventive.
I'm not worried about my health, but about the situation. They ask me to clear myself, but I find it hard to stop thinking about it. The times I turned on the TV to "clear myself" and watch Netflix, I ended up zapping on the news channels. As for the networks, I am interested in seeing the evolution of the topic on Twitter and seeing the main newspapers.
I have a love-hate relationship with the cell phone . The first few days, I needed so much the calls and the messages to not feel so isolated. Now I don't know if I want to be written so much. I don't know ... that changes with the days and with the passage of time.
It is not so many days and I am not living it badly, but I want them to pass soon and I am very grateful to the network that I have as support, which means that, even if isolated, everything is more or less normal.
Because when you have children, there are a thousand things you have to think about, and that was what weighed the most at the beginning. Now everything is getting comfortable and when this is over it will be a bizarre anecdote , which was possible to sustain thanks to the collaboration of the people around me.
What is Coronavirus? How is it spread and how are its symptoms?
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