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As soon as he received the test result and confirmed the infection with the coronavirus, orthopedist Maurício Póvoa Barbosa, 46, isolated himself in his apartment suite, in Morumbi, in the southern area of São Paulo, to avoid the family contagion. According to him, his lung tomography had revealed slight alterations, but nothing serious, and even with other symptoms of the virus, such as fever, headache, cough and chills, he did not need to be hospitalized.
Now, twenty days after feeling the first symptoms of the disease, Barbosa is only waiting for the result of a new test to find out if he will receive the manumission. “As I am asthmatic, I was very afraid of contracting the virus and since February I started using a mask and alcohol gel in the hospital,” he says. “The staff was even surprised, because I was the only one who did it at the time. Fortunately, the illness was not as bad for me as I imagined.”
Like Barbosa, thousands of Brazilians contracted the coronavirus, but escaped the worst and were able to stay home to recover. Although they represent the majority of those infected, little is known about what happens to those in this situation.
Given the lethality of the virus, the lack of structure of the health system and the concern of a large part of the population with the contagion, it is even natural that there is a greater interest in the measures adopted to face the most serious cases, the conditions of the hospitals. and the lives lost in the pandemic. Now, how is the recovery of those who are sick, but do not need to be hospitalized? What changes in your routine? How does the virus affect readiness for everyday household chores?
Meals at the door
Although transmission is a general concern and requires special attention, the combination of symptoms varies widely, according to reports by those who presented a milder picture of the disease, without respiratory problems. The intensity too. The same person may experience different symptoms each day. The impact on everyone’s life, therefore, depends on various factors and changes in the course of recovery.
Barbosa says that, shortly after learning that he had contracted the virus, he did not even leave the room to prepare meals, prepared by his wife Ana Flávia, 47, and went to the door to take it. Although he felt chills and pain in his body and had a typical virus-dry cough and low fever, in the 37.5 ° range, he says he spent his time playing guitar and guitar, watching TV series, reading scientific articles on covid -19 and even participating in virtual work meetings.
In the end, however, he ended up staying only three days in the room. Although he claims that he had been very careful not to contaminate the family since he felt the first symptoms, isolating himself in the bedroom, using a mask to go to the kitchen and cleaning everything afterwards, Barbosa could not avoid the tests of Ana Flávia and her children . Luíza and João Pedro, both teenagers, also tested positive.
As a result, individual isolation became familiar, which somewhat alleviated the situation, as his wife also had mild symptoms and her children were virtually asymptomatic. At the same time, because they were unable to get out of the running of the bulls, they had to leave the family dog, which they took to walk three times a day, in a hotel for dogs.
Hostility
Barbosa says he communicated his condition to the superintendent as soon as he found out that his test had been positive and relayed the information to the other residents of the condominium, made up of several towers. But the saying he said was so great among the groups of WhatsApp residents that he decided to leave anonymity, a procedure that was later extended to other family members. “When I revealed my name and said what was happening, all the hostility that had happened before was over,” he says. “Many people sent text messages offering help and making themselves available to shop.”
Like Barbosa and her family, 63-year-old psychologist Sandra Auster from Bahia did not need to be hospitalized, but she had slightly stronger symptoms, albeit without shortness of breath. Today, three weeks after feeling the first signs of the disease, Sandra says she is much better and awaits the result of the test she carried out to find out if she has developed antibodies against the virus and can now return to active duty.
She says that during this period, she felt a lot of tiredness, a strong pain in her body, especially her back, and she lost her sense of smell and taste, another common symptom of the disease. According to Sandra, the symptoms appear in waves and when she thought they were already happening, they suddenly came back. Or new symptoms would appear, such as loss of taste and smell, which appeared after several days. “There are times when we think it is not mail, but you never know tomorrow. This is very bad.”
Separate rooms
Sandra says she spent a good part of the day in bed, watching movies on television, reading and surfing the Internet. “I couldn’t take anything that required a lot of effort,” he says. She says she suggested to her husband, 70, so far asymptomatic, that they stay in separate rooms, but he did not want to. He claims that he proposed the separation of everyday objects, but he did not want to either. According to Sandra, they had no physical contact, but continued to sleep in the same bed. Since the sons Marcelo and Débora live in São Paulo, it was easier to handle the situation.
Sandra says that the maid was fired from before the symptoms began, although they continued to pay their wages normally and isolated themselves in her home, located near Praia do Forte, about 60 km from Salvador (BA). “Hélio did everything for me because I practically couldn’t get out of bed.”
However, not everyone can count on the support of someone at home during recovery. While living alone, veterinarian Luiza Cohen, 27, had to turn to her mother for help. According to Luíza, her mother left her meals at the entrance to the building where she lives, in the Perdizes neighborhood, on the west side of São Paulo. Due to diarrhea and stomach pain that she had for several days, among other symptoms, she says that her mother prepared very light dishes, such as “soup” and pasta with butter,
She says that during the period when she became ill, she felt symptoms similar to Sandra’s: low fever, in the range of 37.5 °, for two or three days, a lot of body pain, headache, cough, in addition to having lost taste and smell “Never in my life have I had such a headache. I couldn’t even write.” Today, he has even returned to work, after learning that he developed antibodies to the virus.
Food at the door
In addition to also informing the supervisor of her condition, she arranged with the concierge to leave the garbage at the door of the apartment and warn her through the intercom when this happens. A construction worker would approach his floor, wearing a mask, safety glasses, and gloves, to remove it.
Like the others, Luíza spent a lot of time in front of the television. I watched the series and followed the news. She says that one of her hobbies was “petting” her three cats and feeding them. “I never felt the need to go to the hospital,” he says. “But it wasn’t just any flu.”
As can be seen in the cases of Luíza, Sandra and Barbosa and their family, the coronavirus does its damage even in the mildest cases, although they are not as terrifying as those that we have followed closely since the start of the pandemic .
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