COLUMN: My four-day COVID-19 scare
Staff Reporter Katie Hixson
I live in a house with my four roommates -- Grace, Jenn, Shelby and Taylor. We all moved in about a month ago, and honestly, it’s been a blast.
Our house has the biggest front porch I’d ever seen, so we’d spend almost every night out vibing to music. We’d stay up, have deep talks about life and play Cards Against Humanity until 2 a.m.
That first month was perfect. For a minute there, I almost forgot about the pandemic, but with just a few short text messages, our little piece of paradise came to a screeching halt.
“I think I might be sick guys,” Grace said in our roommate group chat.
At first, we joked about it, but then we started to realize what this could mean. One infected person in the house means we’re all quarantined -- no grocery store runs, no going to class and no visiting family or friends.
The conversation got more serious. We began questioning whether to get tested. We dropped everything in a panic and started calling hospitals, clinics, care centers, drive-by's and literally any place that could administer a COVID-19 test as quickly as possible.
We finally found an urgent care center in Midland that offered free COVID-19 testing with no appointment or referral needed.
That next day was disastrous. We were turning on each other, yelling, fighting, crying and praying.
You know the saying, "there is calm in the eye of the storm?" It's true. After Grace returned from her COVID-19 and antibody test, things went silent.
Nobody spoke a word. The tension was suffocating.
The fact still remained that Grace was feeling sick, and she could be infected. So, she stayed in her room and wore a mask in common areas.
To make things worse, we received a soul-crushing text message that evening. Another friend of our's had tested positive and her roommate started showing symptoms.
“You've gotta be kidding me,” I shouted.
I told my roommates about the new situation and all of them had the same gaping expression. This day couldn’t possibly get any worse, we all thought.
We had an hour and a half to get to Midland to get tested, so we all piled into my car and drove to the clinic. The person administering the tests told us to come inside the building and divided us in half -- Shelby and I in one room and Taylor and Jenn in another.
That night, the stress lingered like a heavy cloud over us. We were exhausted, irritated, upset, astonished and everything in between.
While we awaited our test results, our friends would go grocery shopping for us and we would pass the time painting and binge-watching "Dexter" together. Things started to look up.
Four days after our tests, we all received the news that our tests were negative. We all cheered, cried and danced in relief.
But even after the good news, we couldn't go back to our old way of life. Now, more than ever, we know how important it is to stay safe and healthy.
We don’t let any other guests, except significant others, into the house and we use hand sanitizer and wear our masks at all times in public places.
I know some people will not take this pandemic seriously until they have a COVID-19 scare. In the last five months, we’ve gotten a little too comfortable. We’ve forgotten about the fact that the virus is still here and it's not backing down.
People will forget the severity of the situation until their way of life is threatened by one positive test.
