OYSTERHOOD is reclusiveness or solitude, or an overwhelming desire to stay at home.

— @HaggardHawks

A sweaty night, a scratchy throat and the general feeling of suffering from a mild cold. I phoned my GP first thing in the morning, got a phone consultation, a script, a referral letter and a PathCare form for testing in the course of the next few hours. The pharmacy delivered my medicine and I got a test appointment just after receiving all the necessary documents in the afternoon. When you are symptomatic, you do not get out of your car to get tested, it seems. It was as uncomfortable and quick as always, but it was the first time I wasn’t sure what the outcome of the test would show. I spent most of the day in bed – I managed to do some editing work and admin, but the majority of the time was passed worrying and going through all the possible scenarios of ‘what if’. It’s either a cold or COVID-19. If it’s the former, the doctor said I can simply get better and go about my life. If it’s the latter, I have to isolate until the 23rd, independent of how quickly I recover. Thank goodness for contact-free Mr Delivery. I ordered some really nice food for dinner just to cheer myself up. I can taste and smell everything, which is bliss no matter what. Now, I just wait until the test results arrive. I think and hope that it is just a cold, but I need to make 100% sure, primarily because of the people I had been in touch with two days prior to the onset of symptoms. Sigh. Hope.

Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.

“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”

— NICD