COVID19 Diary #2

Bismillah...

To date, there are already too many wonderfully written inner thoughts and reflections of the Coronavirus pandemic that I've decided to wait for a little so that mine would be genuine for this blog. They are very good that I might actually echo another's thoughts rather than pen my own so I gave myself some time


First and foremost, microorganisms are not uncommon to me and in fact it is my day to day job to be part of a multidisciplinary team to care for patients who contracted infectious disease of any kind. I'd thought earlier this year, the most intriguing case of the year would be when a rare worm was extracted from a patient's eyeball. Little did I know, the worse was yet to come.


When WHO announced that the newly discovered SARS-CoV-2 was potentially pandemic, I made sure that I read all the necessary materials before my trip to Indonesia and I took a step ahead to make sure that the medication said to possibly cure the viral infection was in sufficient quantity if it was to hit my hometown. I happily went for my holiday and still strongly believed that it will not get to us. And when I returned, that was when things started to get more and more serious. The WHO update on Covid-19 was only about three pages when I last visited and when I got back to work after the holiday, it looked nothing like what I've read before. That was actually the moment when I realized that this one is going to be real...


One of the writing mentioned about how one of the most arrogant world leader is put to his knees when his country was severely hit. Well, I don't think I can ever achieve his level of accolades however I am someone who have been watching how unseen creatures can actually destroy a human being from within for many years. I watched people fought the battle, many have won it, some slipped midway then eventually succumbed and some were even less fortunate. I have strong memories of patients who have passed on partly because I spend more than 30 minutes with them in every session. I also see patients with problems more frequently than those who are stable. Over these years, I managed to train myself not to be emotionally attached and accepted death as a normal cycle of every living creature. I've accepted that we are coexisting with these unseen creatures and that they are too trying to survive.


But that evening at the on-call room, about a week after we started receiving Covid-19 patients, I wept as I recited the doa after my prayer. How I wish it was purely out of fear of Allah hahaha But in all honesty, I felt very tired and helpless. The number of positive cases were rising, so was the number of deaths, and that afternoon I was informed  one of our patient condition suddenly worsened. And Covid-19 is still very much a mystery until today that it instill fear even for someone whose daily job is dealing with viral infection. I feared for my family especially my parents who are within the age of high risk patients, I feared for the people I love who are smokers which also fall within the high risk group, and feared for the whole ummah because this virus picks its victim ever so randomly.


From what I see, Covid-19 is perhaps sent by God to remind nations that are not affected by war and famine that they too can fall.  To remind that we are all mere mortals, interconnected and is teaching us to work together to solve a problem caused by the 'unseen'.... The 'unseen' has brought the world to its knees~