Recently this has become one of the most trending hashtags in INSTAGRAM . Many of us have used it for fun. But very few has got the chance to experience the real chilling experience of being in strict quarantine. Unfortunately I am one of them who is now alone inside the 4 walls of a room . I think I am making it so much twisting in order to say I am a medico who has completed a course of covid-19 duty in the ward and is now enjoying my quarantine days .
Let me first give an intro to myself. I am a physician associate(not graduated yet) , doing my internship in one of the most reputed medical institute in South India -PSG Institute of medical science and research. I followed my heart in choosing my career and now I feel proud to be a part of the war against the global pandemic, Covid-19.
Other than the videos and photos from the hospital setups that are being shared in the social medias, I was not knowing anything about the real condition inside the covid wards. Wards were filled with different types of patients. Some with ventilator support while the others were with just oxygen masks in order to keep up their oxygen saturation levels. Apart from all this, there was a different group of patients who were completely asymptomatic to the infection and doing their day-to-day routine and workouts in the wards. Most pitying thing was that all were alone, no bystanders for giving them care and mental support as well. Answering to the calls from the patients' relatives was another helpless situation as there is no assurance for the complete cure of the disease and we don’t have a treatment that’ll work 100%.
Apart from the patient care, another important thing was the personal protection. Wearing a full set of PPE kit with double glows, the suit, Goggles,caps, hood, face shields and A Surgical mask covering the N95 mask was such an awkward experience. I was feeling Nausea, breathlessness, profuse sweating with lost feeling of touch because of the numbed hand inside the glows and an irritated headache with all the bands and ties of the masks and shield around .This lasts from the moment downing to about 6 hours till the doffing moment. I would never ever forget my experience inside the PPE kit.
7 days of work followed by 7 days of quarantine. This is the hospital policy. 7 working days got over very fast as there was immense work load and pressure. But these quarantine days won't go so fast. One day would be like one week. Sitting in a room with not seeing anyone else and doing nothing but sleeping and social networking,this is what I was doing yesterday - the so-called quarantine day 1. Today, my 2nd day of quarantine, one of my friend introduced me STEEMIT. It sounds interesting and thought to have a try in this platform. Let's together see how it's gonna change my quarantine days more interesting than it used to be.