Day 1 of the Positive Life

It's so frustrating that two trips to the west don't give me covid, but a week in the east does. Stay safe all.

— Phy (@phy25) May 14, 2022

Yes, I got COVID. After 2 years and 3 shots. It's so frustrating.

I might just have too much to write about, so much that no one might ever want to see on Twitter. Maybe a blog series would work then? Writing something down might make me feel a little positive with these positive days, I guess.

I don't really want to bother anyone to chat with me all day randomly. Ugh, social is hard.

Day -14

It turns out to be pretty helpful to be a Chinese citizen to always get reminded of how some people would deal with this in a very different way these days. Yes, some of the contact tracings I saw in China in 2022 still does 14 days backtrace.

April 28? Ugh, I travelled to Seattle. Masking all the time without eating anything on the plane (because they cancelled the federal mandate). Did 4 rapid tests before and after the trip. All good. Happy memory.

I was thinking of writing up this part of the trip this week, but I was lazy, and dizziness, and then positive.

The trace, in the Chinese format

Let me write up my activities with a 3-day backtrace. This would be the same format (1, 2) that the press release in China would use if I got positive there. (I should do 4-day, but it's too much for me :/)

H. Pan, male, aged 2X. Resident of XXXX XXXX apartment in XXXXX City. Workplace is in Boston Seaport area. According to the initial contact tracing result, the main traces of this case is:

5/9: 7:X0am-8:X0am drove from home to XXX XXXXXX XX for work. 10:X0pm-10:X0pm drove to XXXX XXXX apartments and stayed overnight.

5/10: 1:30pm-1:40pm drove from home to XXXXX XXXXXX to buy groceries. 2:20pm-2:30pm drove to XXXXX to pick up meals. 2:40pm drove to XXXX XXXX apartment and stayed overnight.

5/11: 3:00pm-3:10pm walked from home to XXXX XXXX to pick up meals. 3:20pm walked to XXXX XXXX apartment and stayed overnight.

5/12: 3:00pm-3:10pm walked from home to XXXX XXXX to pick up meals. 3:20pm walked to XXXX XXXX apartment and stayed overnight.

5/13: 1:00pm-1:10pm drove from home to XXX XXX and XXX XXX to pick up food. 1:30-1:40pm drove to XXXX XXXX apartments. Tested positive at night.

The X is redacted by me (not wanting to actually give out that much info - but I really need to think about this privacy thing sometime). Yes, they do give out this much detail.

Oh my bad lifestyle.

Day -4

I didn't write this up because it was a very rich outdoor day. Outdoors might be why I never had a chance to do my coding and writing work off my job in the past 2 years.

People recently chatted to me in person might have been tired of my narrative of all my state park visits. I have always been thinking if these good people ask me where to go in Boston as a tourist, what I should suggest.

I don't know if these two are actually fit for first-time visitors, but they are both nice places. Arnold Arboretum gets all the beauties for free. That day was "Lilac Sunday" for the sake of the Mother's Day, so it was quite busy. Last blossom in Massachusetts that impressed me might be in the World's End (and I had a wallpaper and postcard for it). Sudbury reservoir has this one trail that you can enjoy the reservoir view, but summer seems to have arrived (bugs :/). You can also use your curiosity to learn about the Harvard Depository nearby.

Day -3

Monday. I think this is the only time I didn't wear a mask all the time indoors, because I am sort of at "home", and people just hardly wear them in office.

That was the first day of our new office move-in. A few teammates came in. We were all amazed by this new place, and had lunch together. Later in the afternoon I finally met my first manager in person for the first time. I really learned a lot from all these in-person chats. I don't know - maybe I am not used to asking random things (a.k.a. chat) through the internet at all. Sad.

Day 0

Thursday morning. I waked up with a sore throat. I had these weird situations before, and it would usually go away if I actually ate something until noon.

But then I started to feel dizzy. I thought, well is it COVID? I still had a few rapid test kits, so I used one, which said I am not positive. Yeah, I probably should have looked at it this way. It's not "negative", it's just not positive, yet.

At 11, I was just too dizzy to sit straight in front of the computer. You know, only the work-from-home computer guy has this privilege. I decided to lie in the bed a bit, which I won't do usually. I was (and am) still oncall this week, but I think the paging "pulse" and excitement should be able to bring me up. So I signed off and went to sleep.

It was still a little dizzy in the afternoon, but I can at least focus a bit then. I then went to the fast food store to get some food and snacks. But I was back in the bed again before sunset. I actually had a fever, for which I took one ibuprofen.

It was a pretty inefficient day. I planned to write my Seattle notes on Thursday night, but I figured I can't, and went to sleep eventually. "Not COVID", so just give it a sleep and I will be fine.

Before I go to Day 1 though, a few things to callout...

Why is this day called Day 0? CDC defines the first day of symptom as Day 0 for isolation time calculation.

And also, I was supposed to start isolation by this day when the symptom appeared. I did always wear a mask outside of my room since Tuesday, but I didn't know about the advisory. Yeah, it's just an advisory, not a mandate that actually locks your door, but :shrug:

Day 1

Day 1 is the first full day of symptom, according to CDC definition. I still feel the sore throat in the morning, but I feel a bit better, so I reported to work.

It was a day when I was supposed to look at 2 tricky latency tickets, review some frontend changes, and write one more frontend change (I feel like I have been always the reason for this goal's redness). I ended up only doing the reviews, had lunch, and went to bed again in the afternoon. No one asked me questions, no pages, and I am really sleepy.

I did know this was weird. In the morning I have planned to test this again at night. On Day 2, I found a CDC guidance saying 2 (rapid) tests at least 24 hours apart would provide more accurate results.

In the evening, I realized I need to finish my daily walking goal. I wore my mask and headed out.

It was also usually the time for a family Zoom. So I put my phone on the desk and started doing the test. My voice was definitely not good at that time — bad throat, sneezes, coughs, that sort of things. US government said video supervised rapid test is eligible for an official test, so this seems pretty official procedure.

After maybe a minute after I dipped the sample, a clear T (treatment) line showed up. This test kit has a design where the liquid goes to T first, then to C (control). That's such a weird feeling. All the before time, I can literally see the liquid go past the T position without anything there. I don't think the T line would go away, but I still waited.

15 minutes later, in front of my parents in Zoom, my positive life officially began.

This blog was written on Day 2, but I had to stop because it's too long. What to expect in the Day 2 blog: the isolation weekend, and a lot of policy reading about what my life will be like.

Edited on 5/15 to update the contact tracing detail and the fever/voice symptom.

Cover image licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, modified upon OpenMoji works.