My COVID Diary, Day 2: Choose Your Quarantine Entertainment Carefully

Discomfort level: ★★★☆☆ (fever around 39°C + excruciating throat pain + nonstop runny nose + sneezing + severe phlegm)

Brain-fog level: ★★☆☆☆

Vaccine brands: AAM

Once I got busy, I completely forgot about today’s COVID diary. By the time I remembered, it was already 11:30 p.m. = =. No matter how fast I type, there was no way to finish in time, so apparently it had to become tomorrow’s post XD.

Looks like the brain fog may already be creeping in a little? Orz.

I obediently went to bed around midnight yesterday. My temperature was a little high at first, somewhere around 38°C. I took an extra-strength cold tablet before bed, so the fever slowly came down while I slept—and then I felt unbearably hot.

I kicked off the blanket, only for the fever to rise again and make me freezing cold, so I had to pull it back on = =.

I slept terribly. I woke up to check my phone about once an hour, usually because mucus had completely blocked my nose or because swallowing with that burning throat hurt enough to wake me. The recurring high fever certainly did not help.

I had already missed the telemedicine hours by the time I tested positive last night, so I booked an appointment for this morning with the Yangming Branch of Taipei City Hospital. That meant I still had to get up early today.

Luckily, people who had already tested positive knew the process, so I could simply ask them what to do XD.

You may ask: how did I know which hospital to choose for an online appointment?

Yesterday I booked a 9 a.m. appointment for this morning. The overall process was quite simple: prepare your rapid test and National Health Insurance card, then take a photo of them together in advance—like the one below.

Here is a quick overview of the booking process I completed last night.

2022 diary note: the appointment, confirmed-case reporting, and home-isolation steps below describe what happened at the time. They are not current instructions. Check Taiwan CDC and your healthcare provider for current testing, care, and reporting guidance; seek medical advice if symptoms are severe or persistent.

Go to the website of the hospital where you want the online appointment. I used Taipei City Hospital, so this was the page I saw.

Choose a doctor you like, open the booking page, fill in some basic information, and the appointment is complete.

Before the morning consultation, I had to add the hospital’s LINE group, check in, and send the photos I had prepared. A nurse also called first to confirm whether I needed to ‘report a confirmed case’ or ‘receive a prescription and collect medicine.’

I already had medicine at home and planned to tough it out with painkillers, so I chose not to receive any medication.

The hospital then started a LINE video call, which had to be recorded. At the beginning, they asked me to hold up my NHI card and rapid test at the same time so they could capture a screenshot.

They took a quick look at the rapid test, confirmed it was positive, and said they would file the report.

BTW, the nurse was the only person visible throughout the video call. I never saw the doctor, although the doctor seemed to be sitting just outside the frame; every now and then a chair rolled past and I caught a corner of a white coat.

The consultation was incredibly fast—less than three minutes. About one of those minutes was spent figuring out how to fit my face, the test, and the NHI card into the same image.

At the end, they required me to destroy the rapid test. When I saw that I should prepare scissors, I assumed I would have to cut it apart on camera.

I thought that if they asked me to cut it, I would simply snap the rapid test in half right there on video and demonstrate my destructive power.

‘Just color it over with a permanent marker,’ the nurse said with a brilliant smile.

‘Oh... so that’s all!’ And just like that, my plan to bend it—no, snap it—was ruined.

After the consultation, the hospital sent a payment link through LINE. I could pay directly with several digital-payment methods. Since I did not collect medicine, the registration fee alone was NT$50.

After I paid, the fever somehow started climbing again. My throat fell into pain even more violent than yesterday—every swallow felt like a knife. Fine, I might as well sleep hard, so I went back to bed.

I had not rested this thoroughly in a very long time. At least my original hope that getting COVID might finally force me to rest had come true.

Although I say I went back to sleep, it was really a cycle of sleeping and waking. Most of the time I watched junk videos on my phone and replied to the many people checking in on me.

After I posted that I had COVID, classmates, friends from everywhere, students, and students’ parents reached out through every possible channel. Some offered all kinds of resources. I genuinely felt incredibly loved and spoiled Q口Q.

Even former students reminded me to take my medicine XDD. It made me wonder just how strongly I had convinced them that I hate taking medicine. (To be fair, I really do XD.)

That kind of gentleness is exactly what makes a wonderful boyfriend. As an aside, many of my students—regardless of gender—are people I would happily introduce to someone as boyfriend or girlfriend material XDDDD. Such high-quality candidates in the dating market... could it be because their teacher did such a good job XD(?

At noon, brunch arrived, along with NRICM101 (Qingguan Yihau) that my godmother had specially brought over. I ate the brunch and mixed up one packet to drink.

I had thought that I was young and healthy and should not waste medical resources, so I would simply endure the side effects of COVID with painkillers. When friends offered to bring NRICM101, I kept declining because I did not want to trouble them.

I really, truly hate inconveniencing other people Orz.

It looks like Milo or Ovaltine, but trust me, it tastes nothing like either. Personally, I think its appearance is better described as the watery result of a very bad bout of diarrhea. Much more accurate.

The flavor is basically Chinese herbal medicine with a hint of mint and a few powdery grains. I do not like the taste of Chinese medicine, although perhaps someone who does might find it interesting and rather good?

I definitely had not lost my sense of taste, because everything I ate tasted delicious. Does COVID somehow make taste more sensitive?

After going back to sleep in the morning, I actually felt fairly energetic that afternoon. I still had a fever, but it was only 38°C, which felt tolerable. My throat hurt terribly, but that was fine too—I could just endure it for a while.

Although at one point I wanted one of those saliva suction tubes dentists use QQ.

Then I remembered that classes would be online for two weeks, so it was probably time to prepare review worksheets for the school exams and the pre-exam care package.

Apparently I truly cannot sit still.

I remembered something a friend had said: ‘Even with COVID, you’ll still work!’ Completely true.

You may ask: why not record the online lessons directly?

With my voice right now... I could apply hundreds of filters and my students still probably would not understand a word I was saying.

But I discovered one serious effect COVID had on me: today I could no longer edit teaching materials, watch the TESL screen, and listen to the Taiwan Tong podcast all at once. I could only edit the materials while listening to the podcast.

For someone whose brand has always been multitasking, this clearly cut into my entertainment. All I could manage was pure work plus a little podcast audio Orz.

And now we finally return to the title: ‘Choose Your Quarantine Entertainment Carefully.’

I chose episode 209 of Taiwan Tong. They talked about how weight-loss attempts fail because ‘you cannot control your curiosity,’ then wandered into some spectacularly straight-guy topics, including: ‘If you’ve already decided to jerk off, why do it randomly? Why not do it properly? It’s like deciding to eat—why settle for a boxed lunch instead of choosing a feast?’

I was preparing class materials while listening, but I could not stop laughing. Every laugh made my throat feel as though it had been sliced with a knife.

And yet I kept laughing. I could not control myself, and my throat hurt unbearably—but I still could not stop pressing play on the next episode.

Fortunately, a text arrived asking me to fill in the basic reporting information, briefly freeing me from the vicious cycle of laughing too hard and hurting too much.

I followed the link, filled in a series of details, completed the reporting process, and received the electronic home-isolation notice.

After dinner, I drank another packet of NRICM101. My throat did feel a little better, with less obvious stabbing pain. No wonder almost every friend who had COVID praised it so enthusiastically! That was only how it felt to me that day; I cannot tell what caused the change.

The mild fever, however, never improved much. Unless I specifically took a painkiller to suppress it, my temperature stayed around 38–39°C. But my nose and throat were so uncomfortable that the fever itself inspired only a feeling of: ‘Whatever. Do what you want.’

That evening I decided I could not listen to Taiwan Tong anymore because all that laughing was not helping my throat. I opened Twitch to find a stream I could simply listen to and saw that Xiao Xiong was going to discuss behind-the-scenes stories from Ni Xing Ni Shang with several mentors at 9:30 p.m.

I thought: surely this will finally let my throat rest a little?

No. That was a terrible mistake.

Boss Oneone: ‘I believe everyone and everything has a price. So, Tommy, how much money would it take for you to eat a piece of shit containing enoki mushrooms, corn, and dragon fruit?’

Tommy: ‘Holy crap. Eating shit is one thing, but eating that kind... I really need to think about it...’ Even Tommy, who supposedly does anything for enough money, hesitated at this one.

Naturally, Ni Xing Ni Shang turned into mentors ZQD and Tommy continuing to complain XD. Later, Xiao Xiong even paid NT$5,000 out of pocket and demanded that Tommy and ZQD reenact a dialogue from a particular BL fanfic on the spot.

So this is what it feels like to buy happiness? As someone who absolutely loves streamer-and-commentator BL fanfic, I enjoyed it far too much XDDDD.

Tommy’s sexy voice plus ZQD’s breathy moans—I worked, listened, and laughed wildly all evening until my throat hurt beyond belief. Still, hearing them perform that fanfic was completely worth it!

To summarize, Day 2 still felt unmistakably unpleasant. The fever stayed constantly present, while the throat pain worsened from burning to knife-like. Forget teaching an online class—I could barely speak at all Orz.

I felt that my body was recovering after taking NRICM101, though I cannot tell whether the change came from that, the painkillers, rest, or the course of the illness. I also took painkillers, leaving at least one hour between the two.

Although I had a fever, my mental state remained fairly good. I could manage perhaps 40% of my normal daily workload. For some reason, however, my concentration and efficiency dropped considerably, so I avoided anything too complicated. (At the very least, I did absolutely no national-exam studying.)

I also received so many messages of sympathy and concern during this infection, which made me incredibly happy QQ. I hope everyone stays healthy!

BTW, if your throat feels awful and you cannot manage solid food, pudding and aiyu jelly felt wonderfully cool and soothing to me!

One more observation: can COVID affect your menstrual cycle? In my personal experience, ‘yes.’ My cycle is usually very regular, but after getting COVID it was about two days late. That was still within normal variation, though, so I planned to keep watching.