A couple gets an unexpected result from a positive COVID test.
*For info and resources on COVID19 please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus
Art by Pete Whitehead
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Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:03.420] - Cori Intro
You're listening to seven minute stories with Aaron Calafato, please keep on subscribing and leaving those five star ratings and reviews. It helps others find our podcast and that helps us out. Also, we want to hear from you. We set up a number you can call or text. It's 216- 352 4010. Use it and share some feedback about one of Aaron's stories or a story of your own. We might feature your message on an upcoming episode this episode: I'm positive. I love you.
[00:00:43.970] - Aaron Story
On January 3rd, I started feeling sick. Felt a little tired in the morning, and so I decided to do some yoga and it was almost like the yoga, it felt good in the moment, but almost like opened up all of my chakras, opened up all of my entire body. And the sickness flooded in even more. By opening my pores, my blood vessels just carried it everywhere. And I got worse as the day went on, and then I just felt like, wow, bam, like a truck hit me and I tried not to let my mind spin out of control. I tried not to spiral. I said, can this be anything other than covid? There's other bacterial infections or viruses. I mean, I got my flu shot, but it could be anything, right? Could be a cold. I mean, I have been hiding like most people... My family and I have been hiding from this thing for a year. This assailant. And we've been so stringent, so careful, so conservative. We've been in isolation, been in solitary confinement essentially for an entire year. It can't be COVID, right?
[00:01:44.390]
Well, just like most people who get sick, I say "you know, I'm going to wait a couple of days and see if it passes". It doesn't get better. It gets worse, and I'm not developing a cough yet, but I'm feeling really bad. And now Cori, my fiancée, she starts getting symptoms. Oh, God... And now we're both in bed and we can barely get up. And we got three kids. Luckily, my daughter is at her mom's house, but I can't see her and I don't know what to tell them yet.I want to keep her safe but we got our two boys here and they're isolated in the basement. But how do you isolate as a family? They have school and we're like trying to make them lunch and put trays under the door. It's just a nightmare. And I said to myself, I got to go get tested. And so I barely have the energy, but I got in the car, I drove, I did the nose swab thing. It was pretty easy. The nurse was fantastic. But I thought it was a rapid test. I thought.. I was so looking forward in that moment to getting a negative test that day. The shit was two and a half days long to get the result. It was the it was the longest 48 hours of my life. And you have to understand where this is coming from too because, many of you who listen to this podcast know I deal with anxiety. It's a very real thing. But I already struggle. I deal with anxiety. I go to a therapist. I'm working through stuff. But my fear of illness, you have to understand, I have always been afraid of strange illnesses. Right? The idea of some strange virus jumping from one species to another or one animal to a person and then like flooding the entire global system. That's always been a fear of mine. I wouldn't watch the movie "Contagion" when it came out. When people said "wanna see this movie?" Not a chance. And I remember people saying to me "you know, it's just a movie." And I thought, I don't even want to think about that possibility. And I remember those same people saying "look, it's just a movie. That stuff can't really happen." Really?
[00:03:48.050]
So three days go by, we're still sick. Cori and are laying in bed, we get 100 degree fevers, we're sweating, I'm taking our temperature, I'm taking our blood pressure. My doctor said get an oximeter to check to make sure that the oxygen level in your lungs don't go too low. So luckily, Cori's brother went and dropped that off for us. I'm doing that every five minutes. It's a makeshift hospital in my bedroom. This once tranquil place is now a hospital unit to make sure that we don't end up going to the hospital because we didn't know how we were going to react. And we're assuming that we have it. But in the back of my mind, there's no way that I have this. It's just not, it can't really happen. We've been so careful. But I wouldn't know that because I haven't been able to get a goddamn response to whether it's positive, a positive test or not. And I'm just scrolling on my phone and refreshing and refreshing. And all we can do is just lay back and watch TV in our bed.
[00:04:43.760]
Then all of a sudden it was like an angel. DING! This notification on my phone, I thought, thank God this will put this to rest. And I click the button, open up the email....It's a positive test. Are you kidding me? Oh, God, I dropped to my knees, I swear to God, drop to my knees. Poor Cori, she's amazing, so strong through this. She's like, "don't worry, everything's OK. You're going to be OK." How do I respond? I start having a panic attack. I literally start having a panic. I'm hyperventilating. It's over. I'm saying my goodbyes. I didn't know what to do. I start texting people. Anybody in our tight little circle that we've even remotely been around, even socially distance, and I'm like, hey, you up? Guess what? I got a positive covid test. My friend Anthony who's a consultant to this podcast. "Hey Anthony got a minute. Hey, just letting you know. Remember that walk we took last week? Well, guess what? I got covid." And now I'm concerned for my friends and my family and us. And I was in one of the darkest places I've ever been in my life. I needed something to bring me out of it. And I look up at the TV screen and I'm looking for something and I see what appears to be Vikings attacking and invading the Capitol building. It was like characters from Braveheart had been transported and they're attacking the Capitol building. There are people scaling the walls. They're people climbing the walls breaking in. There were people being shot. And you have to understand this. This is through the perspective of someone who has a fever. This would be weird if you didn't have a fever. I had a fever. I'm looking at this going, is this really happening? There was an attack happening in our nation's capital simultaneously with an attack on my immune system from COVID. And I just found out that very moment that I had it. It was one of the worst days and moments of my life.
[00:06:42.110]
The next day, I watched one of my favorite movies, Family Man, with Nicholas Cage, and there's this awesome scene where he's just watching himself on an old VHS tape sing to his wife at their wedding. And he's singing this old Delfonics song, "La La Means I love you" and it's so beautiful. And love just permeates the screen. And for me in that moment and through this whole recovery process, that's what's clear. It's not the covid, it's not the sickness, it's not all the fear and all that shit. It's love and gratitude. Just utter gratitude for being alive when so many people aren't because of this goddamn thing. And gratitude to our neighbors for bringing us stuff over. And gratitude to my friend Anthony and his parents for making us chicken noodle soup and bringing us toilet paper and groceries. And gratitude to Cori's brother for bringing that oximeter. And gratitude to all our family and friends for the text and the calls in the concern. And gratitude to our two boys for being so resilient. And gratitude to my daughter for facetiming me every single night and giving me the strength to tell her that daddy is going to be OK. And most of all, gratitude for my future wife, Cori. I could not have gone through this with anybody else or would want to. And I remember one night we were just laying in bed and we were trembling and sweating through the comforter and coughing, but we were holding hands. And in that moment it was pretty romantic. And I remember singing very badly, but I sang: Now I don't wear a diamond ring. I don't even have a song to sing. All I know is la la la la la la la la la la means I love you!
