In April, 12-year-old Nadia Irfan and her entire family got COVID-19 in Burlington, Ontario. This article will show you what her experience was like.
My experience with COVID was rough.
Most days, I would just lie in bed and couldn’t move at all because my body was sore, and it felt like I was tied down.
I would get headaches looking at books, papers, computer screens and even talking.
How it started
I got COVID-19 from my mom back in April and had it for two weeks.
My mom is a nurse practitioner, and she had to go help in a retirement home where people were sick.
My mom caught COVID-19 and passed it on to my dad.
For two weeks, my younger sister and I had to stay in our bedrooms all day.
If we needed food, we'd have to call our parents and tell them we were coming down.
My parents made sure that they sanitized everything and were back in their rooms before we went into the kitchen.
The virus spread
Eventually, the virus passed from my parents to my older sister, and then to me and my younger sister.
My symptoms were fever, stomach ache, no sense of taste or smell, stuffy nose, shortness of breath, muscle pain, and I was very tired.
There was one day when I almost had to go to the hospital because I had trouble breathing.
Scary moments
I was scared because I thought that I couldn’t have a parent with me in the hospital since that was my older sister’s experience.
When I was in my room, I spent most of my time calling my best friend and having online sleepovers with her, watching TikTok and sleeping.
Luckily, my breathing improved with some medicine.
I did have to go to the hospital at one point to get the COVID swab done.
The swab was quick and easy. I had some water in my eyes when they put the swab far in my nose, but it wasn’t painful.
Everyone, especially the nurses and doctors at the hospital, were super-duper nice, and they made me feel comfortable.
What I learned
In the end, I learned a lot about how people can come together when times are tough.
Throughout this experience, my cousins went grocery shopping for us, and our grandparents would bring hot meals and flowers for my mom’s garden.
Neighbours would also bring us meals three times a week when we were really sick, including freshly baked pastries that I always looked forward to.
All the people in the community doing this put a smile on my face.