nightmere come true...

 

It was the first day of my straight night shift. I had an afternoon nap and felt a little warm on my waking up. The condition had worsen through my shift and I had a feeling that I had caught it. It sucks as I had a streak of shifts pending to be done. I did not take any medication and waited until the passover. I told my colleague that I needed a PCR as I am not feeling well. The next 40 mins of waiting was a pain in the axx. I called up Ving that I might be positive and might need to go to the shelter to protect them. She was worried but nothing much could be done.

The result came out as expected and I had called up our infectious controller; she told me that I could only be placed in a shelter when the authority started to process my data; it could take 1 day or more. So I given up the idea and told Ving that I would be quarantine in Xian’s room on the 3^rd floor for the rest of the period.

I had started myself on Paxlovid and taken the medicaiton before I driven home.

When I finally hit the house, I had sprayed a load of alcohol on my body before I headed to the bathroom for shower.

After sanitizing the bathroom, I retreated to Xian’s room. My whole body sore despite of taking paracetamol. I dipped into dreamland after taking some NSAID. The sleep was poor and I had awaken from time to time.

I was not febrile however the body ache and headache was irritating. I did not get better despite of taking the antiviral regimen; instead the mouth bitterness was very disturbing.

I spent most of the time helplessly on the bed, unable to do anything during the first 2 days. I sealed my balcony by using plastic trash bag; I transformed it into a temporary toilet/bathing place. As Xian’s room did not have a bathroom attached to it, I had intended to leave the room as least as possible. The urinal, bucket, water dipper , balcony had become part of my bathroom the next few days.

I had suffered from most of the symptom described and the medication had only partially work.

Soreness was the most annoying symptom that affected me. I was disturbed by nasal congestion, bloating leading to poor sleep in the night. Sorethroat was noted but tolerable. However the mouth bitterness from Paxlovid was like thorn in the back.

My symptom had markedly improved on D3 though and I had referred to my infectious controller about early return to job. I followed the protocol and two antigen rapid test swab was done on D4 and D5. The back to back negative test had allowed me to return to work on D6. I was 5 shifts short due to the quarantine order.

Catching up the shortage was problem but yet the sequelae from covid19 was the most horrifying part.

I had problem climbing to 3rd floor; persistent bloating was noted from time to time. Insomnia was noted and I constantly waking up at 3am in the middle of the night.

Long way to recovery….

But I still praise the great one, Ving and Xian were not infected. I had a high CT value when I was tested; I was not infectious when I left for my night shift. I had refrained from using the bathroom and only countable time that I left the room. All those factors are vitals leading to a successful isolation.

renewl run 4....

 

4 months had passed since the renewal run. An agony though, but I would not want to share the fear with any of the family members. The call from the visa division came in April informing the arrival of our new passport.

As XX and Yun had their college project to run, I could only squeezed a window around early June.

It was a similar routine as the previous run. Early stopped at HSR station and hit the visa office by 11 and head back to HSR station by noon for lunch; catch the express ride by 12:30 and reach K city by 3 something.

Everything was smooth until the passports were handed to us for final checking and acceptance. While Yun was glancing through her detail, she discovered that her height was not properly stated on the passport.

The staff had retrieved our application forms and found that they had mistaken the 5 as 3 on the form; Yun was 20cm shorter than her actual height.

The staff had tried to persuade us to accept the passport and signed a papers claiming that we acknowledge the mistake and agree to accept it…. three letter words ending with F almost burst through my mouth. But, at that point, I knew that no one should be offended to facilitate the process. They told me that we could go to the IMI office for correction when travel back to the homeland.

I politely tell them that I cannot accept it and requested for a correction by IMI office back in Malaysia. I kept the “our old passport photocopy clearly stated Yun’s height and how could an adolescent loss 20cm in 5 years! you all should have double check it !” in my throat.

I told the staff that I had my passport lost and encountered an unpleasant experience dealing with the IMI staff in the past; once I signed the acceptance paper, we would be on our own and may be very helpless during the process back in homeland.

The counter staff had then called up their in charge and told us that they would returned the passport and told us that no new passport would be issued mostly and correction would be done on the pemerhatian page. I told them that I am not particular of getting a new one but at least every detail should be correct or appropriately cited. They tried to talk me off by telling me that it might take six months to get it back and I told them that we would not be travelling in the near future and as PR holder we are not worried about our resident certificate renewal.

The counter staffs had finally accepted my decision and agreed to return the passport for correction. As MAS was flying inconsistently since the beginning of the year. The mailing process would be markedly delayed due lack of flight.

We left the office with only three passports at the end; however it was an great experience to share with Yun and XX. I told them about the right attitude when dealing with such situation.

We had a great lunch at one of the classic Japanese Italino restaurant at the T city station. The curry rice was superb as we had previously tasted in Kansai. The return trip was uneventful…..

It would be another run in the future and the only thing I could do is pray to the great one.