Thursday, July 23, 2020 was not a typical day. Waking up, it felt like I didn't even have the energy to get out of bed. There was this feeling of general discomfort, uneasiness, and muscle pains that I wanted to stretch my body as far as I could. Often these are first signs of flu, an infection or some other disease.

Then it hit me: Maybe I have the coronavirus? I kept my suspicion to myself, knowing I had no fever, cough, shortness of breath or the other covid symptoms. Just rest and hope things will get better tomorrow and thereafter. For the next few days, while my condition didn't get worse, it didn't get any better either.

On Sunday, July 26, I told my wife Buena Fe about it, and not surprisingly, she felt the same way too. I was thinking that if I have it, she would most likely have it as well.

She called our son, Alfon, a doctor, working in the frontlines at the Quezon City General Hospital, if he can schedule a covid test for both of us. A few minutes later, we were told that the test will be on Monday, July 27 at the QCGen at 4:00 am. Quite early to avoid the long lines.

After the test, came the agonizing wait for the results, which would take about 4-5 days. Thursday, July 30, Alfon came home, bearing the scary news about the test result: We were both positive. While stunning, it was not really unexpected.

Outwardly, I took the news calmly, but deep inside were concern and anxiety. Aside from a slightly elevated blood pressure, I may have no other health issues, but at 74, I belong to the most vulnerable age group. So is Buena Fe, although she's six years younger.

Upon hearing the news, the children leaped into action. Inday Alessandra set up house rules to be observed:

On the afternoon of the same day, my eldest daughter, Millete, a doctor, came over to deliver a boxful of medicines. It was a mix of capsules and tablets.  There were zinc and vitamins for increased immunity, antibiotics, and coronavirus treatment drugs, hydroxychloroquine and melatonin.

Nico, Alessandra's boyfriend sent in several cartons of Lianhua Qingwen Jiaonang herbal medicine capsules. I couldn't read anything on the label as they were all Chinese characters.

So I did a research and learned that it was approved in the US after studies show the drug resulted in "significantly higher rate of, and a shorter time to, symptom recovery." It was subsequently approved by the local FDA.

This was to be our regimen. This, in addition to the maintenance dose to control my blood pressure. Just looking at the the meds, made me to almost throw up.

In the evening, Alfon and her girlfriend, Laurice, also a doctor, came after shopping for gadgets to be used during our home confinement.

These gadgets will monitor our blood pressure, temperature, pulse and oxygen concentration in the blood. If it comes to the point where there was difficulty in breathing, the nebulizer and oxygen were on the ready.

If things really go from bad to worse and hospitalization is required, Millete has already made reservations at the Manila Medical Center, where she practices as a consultant. So we were clearly well-covered in the medical front.

But most importantly, and more potent than any medicine, are prayers. Buena Fe has a strong faith in God and is a firm believer in the power of prayers. She and the children would pray the rosary every night, using Viber to maintain distancing and hear mass almost daily through YouTube. Spiritually, our prayer brigade was quite formidable too.

The medicines were to last for seven days. We started on Friday, July 31. The next day was when I really felt sick. Body pains, nausea, fever and maybe as a side effect of the meds, diarrhea. And this went on for a whole week. I have to take additional pills for the the diarrhea and fever. But thankfully, there was no breathing difficulty and the pulse oximeter readings were good.

One night when I was awake while everyone was asleep, I contemplated on the possible outcomes of our condition. First, both of us will survive, second, both of us will not survive and third, one survives, the other does not. The first will certainly be a joyful occasion. The second might be hard for the children, but they are all grown-ups now. I'm sure they can handle that. The third, who will it be? I go, Buena Fe stays or I stay, Buena Fe goes.

If I have my way, I'd rather go first. I lived long enough and this would be as good a time to leave as any. While Buena Fe is younger and she still has a lot to live for. Besides, she definitely would want to enjoy grandmothering her forthcoming grandchildren. Then I dozed off and woke up in the morning to the realization of not feeling any better.

On the eighth day, we were done with the meds, except the vitamins for immunity. But nothing much changed. Body pains, nausea, diarrhea but no fever, blood pressure and pulse oximeter readings were normal. Very hopeful and very encouraging.

On the tenth day, I know we were on a turning point. I regained my sense of smell and taste. My appetite came back. The discomforts before were no longer there. Feeling more confident, I increasingly believed we have come out on top of this.

After fourteen days, Alfon declared we were no longer infectious and that we were already cured. He would go to our room and talk to us without a mask. Now we go downstairs to take our meals. But we still wear masks and don't go out of the house. Slowly, everything is going back to "normal".

The uncertainty of what lies beyond the horizon, reminded me of a poem from high school:

Well, it turns out the event has taught us that we were not rolled out to sea to the deep waves of death, but heaved us up to land to continue to live the life we've been living. All's well that ends well. Still, it would be premature to celebrate.

It's not yet clear whether surviving the covid will give us immunity and for how long. Our children-doctors keep telling us that re-infection is possible. If that happens, it would even be more difficult to manage. We can't be too careful.

In the meantime, we savor the new lease on life. We thank God. We thank the children.

---