So today is day 14 since I tested positive for covid 19. I have thought hard about whether to share my experience of how the system has dealt with me. Akere everything we share on public platforms could have consequences and some of those can be career limiting.

Generally people don’t appreciate feedback especially negative one. At some point they will remind you about what you said and personalize it to be about themselves and not what the problem is/was. But this is my experience so I’ll share it.

Let me go back a little. Beginning of April, my older sister was admitted in a public hospital here in BCM with a broken leg. We later learned that it was more than just a broken leg, she had a serious condition. How she eventually got to the hospital is a story for another day.

So I knew from the beginning that it was going to be my responsibility to visit her in hospital. I told my asthmatic 66 year old mother that at no point she will be visiting the hospital given covid 19 and her possible vulnerability against it.

My sister stayed in hospital for about 6/7 weeks and every other day I will make the dreaded visit. Mkhuluwa told me, remember to try not to touch anything when you visit the hospital. There was no screening done at the hospital in the first 2/3 weeks of April

Anyway my sister was discharged from the hospital on the 14 of May and no better state than when she arrived. She still couldn’t walk or stand. The following day the hospital called and said they want her back the following week Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

They probably discharged her because they needed the bed. It was again going to be my responsibility to take her to hospital and so for two days in a row I was in and out of the hospital.

Thursday evening that week I started feeling flu symptoms & so did the handler but we didn’t think much of it. Friday morning I drove her to work & she told her employer on arrival during the screening process that she was feeling a bit of flu. She was told to go home.

She was given a number by her employer that she needed to call which she did. She told the person on the other side the situation and the response was that we should immediately quarantine and observe ourselves.

I assumed that this was the covid public helpline number but I later learned it was not, it was her employer support line. They promised to call the following day.

But later on that same Friday I could feel the symptoms getting stronger. The dry mouth, dry throat, headache, body ache. I was moving between being extremely hot and extremely called. I decided to public WhatsApp Support line.

The response was fast and I proceeded to do the online screening test. They recommend that I should go for testing.

I was not given a testing facility close to me despite even them asking for my location pin. Saturday morning I phoned the covid support toll free number. The lady on the other side still wanted to ask me the same questions I was asked on WhatsApp.

She asked if I was taking any meds to which I replied yes. She then says I should continue with the medication & observe how I react to it. I said “but ma’am, I already did WhatsApp screening and I was told to go test. I was expecting you to tell me a facility close to me.”

To my surprise she says, “you have to go to the doctor. You can’t go and test without a referral from a doctor.” I was now being redirected from a public health system to private. A consultation fee is R500 if you don’t have medical aid

I phoned my doctor, told her why I needed to come for a consultation (you have to tell your doctor before hand if you have any covid 19 related symptoms). Both the handler and I went.

She advised that we won’t be able to test in the designated public facility because there was an issue. She recommended that only one of us should test initially because the test is R850. Now imagine a ruralitarian with no medical aid or cash. This was already R1300

We drove to Ampath and we got there at about 12h05. We were told the lab closes at 12PM and we must come back on Monday. I phoned Hemingways Dischem and they told us “sorry, we only test from Monday to Friday and not weekends.” INCREDIBLE! WE ARE DEALING WITH A PANDEMIC HERE!

We had decided that it was me who was going to test because the symptoms were having me for a snack but we couldn’t do it that weekend. By Sunday, there was conjunctivitis on the one eye. It was hurting.

I knew what conjunctivitis was because almost ever time Mkhuluwa @sangxa dropped a medical word on the TL, I would *google khon, khon, khonja-khonjakthivitis*...anyway I sent that picture to him and he confirmed.

Mkhuluwa @sangxa knows that I have to get some kind of medical certificate from Salford University similar to Harvard Alumnus post covid 19. I have been learning.

I digress. It was really getting bad on Sunday. The virus was really trying the body in different angles. Monday came and woke up early and drove to Ampath. It’s some kind of a drive through & they test you in the car once you complete your paperwork. There were lots of cars.

It took about an hour for my turn to come and it was a quick painless but uncomfortable test. You basically deepthroat the thingy.

In the form they ask you to fill in names of people that could have possibly came into contact with after you started feeling the symptoms. So it was the handler and the unemployed housemate for me.

On Tuesday 26 May I was feeling so much better and even attended a Zoom meeting with my colleagues. I was upbeat told them that it’s definitely gonna be a negative. Ampath sent me an sms which I had register through in order to receive my results.

Wednesday morning I was feeling awful. I had made myself coffee (akere the Bible says “Hebrews”) and it felt like it was affecting my breathing. I didn’t tell the handler because she has unfounded theories about my filter coffee. Results arrived, it was positive .

Suddenly I struggled to breathe. The unemployed housemate was always asking me for results every other hour. She walked into the room after I had received the results & my head still running wild and seeing imaginary vibrators, I beg your pardon, ventilators.

Any I composed myself and showed her the sms. I expected that someone from health was going to call me. You know, to speak about isolation or contacts if nothing else. Nothing came that day. Spoke to Mkhuluwa and said maybe the following day someone will call.

Thursday came and there was no call. On Friday 29th May, the handler and the unemployed housemate went to test without having received any call. There is that thing called “CONTACT TRACING”. Three days later they didn’t know if I was really SELF ISOLATING or roaming the streets.

On Saturday, in the after I had missed call from a BCM number I didn’t know. I tried to return the call but it went unanswered. Only after the handler received her result on Tuesday 2nd June I came to learn that the number that called me was BCM health.

They called her a day after she received her results. They then spoke to me and mentioned that they had tried to call me. We were asked if we needed an isolation facility to which we said no. They promised to call us daily and 3 days later there has been no call.

Today is officially day 14 for me and it’s day 10 for the handler and the unemployed housemate because they on tested on the 29 and me 4 days earlier. We are physically free of the symptoms except a niggling little cough on my side. We still haven’t left the house since 22 May.

All I have taken was just flu medication, Dilinct Cough Syrup, ACC 200, Corenza C, Cal C Vita, Panado & some antibiotics. My young sister also brought uMhlonyane (ndawudibanisa nevicks ndafutha ngawo ), phela they know at home that me & drinking traditional meds aren’t buddies

The End.