Aliyah

 I hope for better every day.

LOUISIANA, BATON ROUGE: When Covid first appeared in Baton Rouge, I was anxious. I didn’t want to catch Covid and spread it to my family. No one knew much about Covid then, and my work was slow to adopt precautions.

I’m a nurse in an urgent care facility. Incoming patients just walk in and we have to treat them. I think I caught Covid from an infected patient. I was only wearing a surgical mask, more intense PPE protocols were not in place at that time. A few days later, I had body aches. My boss called to share that a previous patient had tested positive for Covid. I had a Covid test and the result was also positive. I went into quarantine.

I still had headaches and had lost my senses of taste and smell. I was worried that my condition would worsen. But I slowly began to recover. I spent seventeen days alone, reaching out to friends and family to stay in touch. I had little appetite without my senses of taste and smell. 

Back at work, I stayed apart, worried that I might still spread Covid to co-workers. It’s scary, patients of all ages test positive for Covid and they have all sorts of symptoms. I’m still anxious about infecting my family. I worry that Covid will never go away, like the flu.

I pay more attention to my body now, take vitamins and supplements, and eat to stay healthy. I’d never had a migraine headache before Covid. But now, I’m much more empathetic with patients suffering from this pain. I got a puppy. Every day when I come home, he’s there to greet me, loving me like I’m the most important person in the world, a never-ending source of comfort.

To my surprise, I’ve become a mental health advocate. It seems like no one wants to talk about the emotional challenges of Covid but I think this is very important and we need to create ways to support this.

I think Covid has disproportionately affected Black Americans, perhaps because they have a higher rate of comorbid conditions. I support the development of Covid vaccines.

My wish is that we all can be more mindful and kind, you never know what others are going through. We need to take care of each other.

I hope for better every day.