Sunday, June 26, 2022
By:
I had a weird week this week. On Monday I went to the beach with a few of the other interns, only to find out while there that my roommate tested positive for COVID-19. I became a bit paranoid as I had been a bit tired the past 2 days – a bit more than usual. I had a very small sore throat, but I wasn’t sure if I just choked on salt water. I got back to the dorm, and immediately took a COVID test. Every intern, including myself, tested negative. I thought nothing of it, went to work the next day having told my advisor the situation, and did some work. Throughout the day I started developing symptoms of something. I got really tired and really cold. In case I was sick, I uploaded all possible materials and slept the entire way home. I woke up the next day definitely sick with something. I proceeded to test negative 5 times in a row. However, I had a wide array of varying symptoms during the week. I thought I had a fever but the thermometer said otherwise, I lost appetite, I was incredibly tired, I had confusing sinuses, I developed a cough, I lost my throat, but all at different times. My dad had been scheduled to come see me and do things around DC during the following weekend, and the Thursday before he came, I felt substantially better and tested negative again, so my parents and I decided to clear him to come.
I was doing much better while he was here, but that’s when I developed a cough. On Saturday we went to the Air and Space Museum and the monument walk, since all other symptoms were gone, but the next day my cough got worse. I also lost my voice. I think that’s because I strained my healing throat at Astronomy on the Mall explaining my demo to people. We then did the zoo so we could be outside. It turns out walking that much is not ideal when sick, so the Monday after he was gone I felt very very tired and slept basically the entire day outside of the work I did complete. I got a surprising amount of work done during the week I was sick. I read a lot and wrote some code, as well as familiarized myself with code written by my advisor. Hopefully this week goes better. As of now it is the ten-day mark and I tested negative on two rapid tests, completing my 7th negative COVID-19 test, so I suppose I just had a cold.
Valeria Viteri-Pflucker