As the week was busy with my routine, I woke up one morning with a throat ache, dismissed it as the air conditioner being on for too long ( thanks to the sveltering heat of Indian summers), the ache grew more prominent with my senses getting wary of the symptom and the constant news! But how ? supermarket? driving alone? ” Rubbish!” I dismissed the thought.
Next morning I woke up with a runny nose and as I walked over to clean my bathroom, I could not get the whiff of the new cleaning product which I used a few days ago! I rushed to sniff the coffee in the kitchen and the perfume on my dressing table….. a faint whiff of what smelt like a perfume! Realisation crept in and as I broke a sweat , I called my best friend ( also an obstetrician and gynaecologist) and she drove to drop me the necessary medications and equipment from a distance and convinced a sheepish me to test myself. I knew in my heart, it was me! But my mind kept telling me otherwise.
So I drove to my medical college and walked in a room full of humans gasping and clutching to oxygen and surrounded by worried masked relatives and requested for my test in view of symptoms. Perks of being a doctor , I was swiftly swabbed and lo and behold! I saw the 2 lines on the rapid antigen kit !! The reality sunk in and as I gave my details for the form and data collection, all I was thinking.. ” Me?!”
Its been almost a week of waking up with a blocked nose and itchy throat, I strictly follow the home isolation routine with 4 hourly vitals monitoring, my gargles and steam inhalation, popping vitamins and antivirals for strength and chugging more water than usual. While I stay isolated and indoor my apartment cooking my meals and trying to make sense of the situation I looked upon my phone to connect to my friends and family. While I was in luck to live alone and have no floor mates or family around, I do feel more isolated than usual with this diagnosis, and when I was trying hard to distract my exhausted body and overthinking mind, not once did I pray to the Lord.
While I sought selfishly sympathy and empathy from fellow doctors and studied for my exams in the coming months, my head was pounding with covid infection and a weird sense of fear of what next. Suddenly out of the blue, a friend from my christian group texted me , “Rosary at 8 pm on zoom. Do join” and I knew my mothers prayers were answered and I found my direction. As I joined the families and friends across the internet to praise Mother Mary and Jesus through the rosary, I felt a sense of calm and faith restore in myself. While I am well on my way of improving with symptoms and yes my vaccination early this year did help my body fight off the virus, I realised how weak my faith was as with one attack it was outa the window.
As nearly 51% of my tiny state and 35% of my country is testing positive and the 2% severe and 15% moderate symptoms are experienced by youth and finally succumbing to death owing to lack of facilities of testing and treating and poor infrastructure, the vaccine are like our sacraments fighting to keep us worthy and helping us to get through heaven in our journey with the LORD when the sin penetrated through the mask of our resilience and will power. Let us mask up and get our vaccines to fight this pandemic of sin and recklessness.
Let this virus remind us to not deny our sinfulness when called out upon but to acknowledge and surrender ourselves to the faith in the Lord and the medications advised by the doctor, and hope with all our heart and the lungs (left intact) that every breathe we take is a symbol of life and we should be grateful for every one of it!
As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
PRAYER:
Thank you Jesus, for having kept me safe from the effects of this virus. Help me lord to fight this virus and sin in my life with every last breathe and praise you through all we do. Bless everyone with health and safety. Bless my co frontline workers with health and strength to fight this battle!
Amen.
