Diary of a coronavirus-positive Kiwi in NYC: Day 3

By Simone Nathan

Diary of a coronavirus-positive Kiwi in NYC: Day 3
Simone Nathan, a Kiwi living in New York, documents life in quarantine as she battles symptoms of COVID-19.

Click here if you missed Day 1 or Day 2.

Day 3:

Today I woke up experiencing body aches and found I had developed a violent head cold with hectic dad-volume sneezing. I ordered Tylenol, zinc lozenges, Gatorade and more loo paper to my apartment using Uber Eats’ new ‘contact free’ delivery system, where they leave stuff at your door and run away, screaming. I then washed down each individual item and performed small, tasteful exorcisms on them.

I had been very careful in the lead up to the official quarantine, self-isolating earlier than anybody I knew, completely avoiding public spaces where possible, and if I ever did venture out it was with thick gloves and a scarf wrapped over a facemask. Yet, flash forward to present day; I still got it. Not in an ‘Aged Starlet Making Her Comeback Performance’ kind of way. I got the coronavirus. 

My doctor kindly took a video appointment with me and confirmed I was experiencing the symptoms of a mild case of COVID-19. She advised me to stay home, keep calm and eat an orange. Okay, new British motivational WWII poster vibes? There was no cure out there, she said, and no tests available anywhere. Basically, she said, if you can breathe – don’t leave. The woman is an absolute campaign slogan machine and is wasting not only her own time but everyone else’s in the medical field.

I should mention here that, across all professions, I cannot imagine the bravery, grit and sacrifice it must take to leave the house and go to work every day at this time. At 7pm tonight I heard a bunch of people clapping outside my window and leaned my head out excitedly, wondering if this entire thing had been an ill-conceived early April fools hoax. I discovered later that a citywide clap had been organised on social media, where people would lean out their fire escapes to cheer for all the essential workers from medical professions to sanitation employees who were working throughout the pandemic. 

 

There’s no easy way to cut from that to what I’m about to say. Pretty soon after this, I learned the full dance to Lady Gaga’s nightmarish new single ‘Stupid Love’. It’s something that happened in my day and I would feel remiss not to mention it! I knew I was incredibly lucky that my symptoms have been mild enough to do such a thing, and do it well. I imagined how hideous and terrifying quarantine would be with kids or elderly people at home. Despite the crushing sense of solitude, I was happy to be alone. It allowed unlimited time for important tasks, such as staring out the window like a sickly child king. 

That night, my boyfriend – a musician – played me Beatles songs on his keyboard over video chat until I fell asleep. Despite the horrors of the situation we were all in, I felt that there were a lot of things I had to be grateful for at this strange time.

Read Day 4 of Simone’s coronavirus diary here.

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