Waiting is the worst

So, this past Sunday and Monday were the worst in a while. And of course, it had something to do with COVID-19. Here’s the story of how waiting is the worst.

Everything is not as it seems

Last week Sunday my mother-in-law got back from work in Pretoria. She flew there and back. When she got back, she said that she didn’t feel well, but nothing serious. However, the next day she had gotten worse and went to the doctor. He said it was bronchitis and sinusitis. She got antibiotics and a few other meds.

After the course of antibiotics and meds, she still didn’t get better. Actually, she got worse.

So, they went to get her tested for COVID-19. That was this past Sunday. My husband and I went to my parents for Sunday lunch and we were sure that she would test negative because she always got bronchitis this time of the year and she’d been taking a lot of stress.

Late that afternoon, my father-in-law said he wanted to talk to my husband and me. That’s when I knew she had not tested negative. He sat us down and explained that mother-in-law had COVID-19 and they would keep to themselves. In her defense, mom in law had been keeping to herself ever since she came back because she didn’t feel well.

I didn’t think we had it

According to my reasoning, we have been exposed to her for about a week. I think she didn’t have bronchitis but COVID-19 since she came back, and we didn’t develop any symptoms. Also, I had COVID-19 earlier this year. I found out on 1 April that I had it, which is the worst day of the year to give people that kind of news. But I digress. I know how I felt when I had COVID-19, and I didn’t feel like that at all. I didn’t have the same muscle pains or quickly changing symptoms.

So, I was pretty sure we were negative, but since I was still doing my teaching practicals, I had to go for a test to go back to school.

The test

Monday morning first thing, my husband and I went to the drive-thru testing station in town. The test wasn’t as bad as the previous one, where I almost puked on the testing assistant. Within about 45 minutes, we were done and had to wait for the text message with the results.

Waiting is the worst. We had to wait about four hours for the results. I couldn’t go to school, which means I will have to work in that day next week. If the test came back positive, then I would have to wait two weeks before I could go back to school—that was something I really did not want because we’re flying to Australia at the start of October.

So I sat at home, waiting anxiously for the results. I couldn’t focus on anything. All the doubts kept playing around in my mind. What if I was asymptomatic? What if the scratch in my throat was COVID-19?

At this point, I will say that we have gotten our first jabs of Pfizer and we drink Ivermectin every two weeks as a preventative measure. (Yes, I know Ivermectin is bad for you, but the fact that I would rather drink horse deworming medicine than end up in a South African hospital should really tell you what state our health care system is in.)

The results

And so the waiting continued—for five hours. I couldn’t do anything productive like I wanted to, so I just ended up filing a lot of papers that I had been putting off filing. Guess I was kind of productive, after all. After checking my phone every five minutes, the results came through. My husband and I both tested negative. Thank the Good Lord for that.

So, I could relax and continue with my teaching practicals as planned (although I had to swap some stuff around, but it was nothing major).

Waiting is the worst, by a long shot.

Lastly

Do you have any stories where you had to wait for good or bad news? I’d love to hear about it in the comments?

Relieved meh.

Michelle

P.S. If you’d like to contact me, feel free to comment below, send an email to thatmichelleperson@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter @M_ClutterBox.