With the coronavirus still being active in different states, there’s some good news that came out of it. In the U.S. more than a quarter of the population has been fully vaccinated. However, every week there are 600,000 cases nationwide as some states continue to rise with most of the people being infected.

Even though we’re still in a pandemic and the coronavirus cases are getting slightly better, many people are still traveling around the U.S. such as Miami, Puerto Rico, Los Angeles and more just to get out of the house and escape the virus madness. Also, many colleges have canceled Spring Break for students due to the coronavirus, but that’s still not gonna stop them from traveling and having fun with their friends. However, once they came back from their trip, they were tested positive for the coronavirus. 

Kya James, a nurse technician at White Plains Hospital, recently traveled to Florida to celebrate her birthday. She spoke about her experience being exposed to the coronavirus but wasn’t too sure how she caught it.

“I’m not too sure how I caught it, all I remember is that I went out for my birthday. I was drinking and then the next day I was hungover and then it went downhill from that,” James said.

Her birthday was on March 28 and she wanted to have a wild time.  “I went out the 27th and went to the bar with my friends, we were drinking and then I came home, I was fine.”

However, the next day Kya wasn’t feeling too well because she was throwing up a lot, which is a typical hangover. Later on, at night she started with a cough which she thought was a little cold or a stuffy nose. Then she started feeling like she had a sinus infection which is normal for her because she always gets that when she’s in Florida so it wasn’t a big deal to her. 

“I definitely felt like I was getting a sinus infection and it was worse than what I usually have and   I also had a cough which is something new because I’m not the type to cough all the time,” James said.

The other symptoms she was experiencing were tense pain in her head, under her cheeks. She also noticed a couple of days later that she lost her sense of smell and didn’t have a taste for certain things which stems from her not having any appetite to eat. It also made her more nauseous from not eating and felt a little tired, but not too tired. She also felt weak and sluggish for a couple of days but after she felt much better.

Due to her mild symptoms, she had to stay quarantined at home for a couple of days. Additionally, she’s been taking extra precautions by disinfecting the doors and everything she touches because she lives with her younger niece who’s three years old, in London. Instead of her staying at the house, she actually went to this program where they allow people to stay at a hotel and quarantine there. She quarantined at the hotel which she enjoyed a lot because they brought her meals, she brought her PlayStation with her so she can keep herself occupied and have something to do instead of sitting in the bed all day doing nothing. Some people don’t like staying quarantined for a couple of days but as for Kya, she enjoyed every second of it.

“I was actually fine with the quarantine because I know I wasn’t around my family so I wasn’t exposing them,” James said. 

Her appetite has gotten better where she was able to eat normally again.

Other than that, she has no regrets about traveling to Miami during the pandemic because she wanted to enjoy her birthday, but she regrets not wearing her mask more appropriately. For example, at the bar, she wouldn’t keep her mask on the whole time. At that time, she wishes to be more reliable and keep her mask on.

After everything she went through being exposed to the virus and experiencing most of the symptoms that were unexpected, she doesn’t plan on taking the COVID-Vaccine anytime soon.

“Even though I work in healthcare, I don’t plan on taking the COVID-19 vaccine, I don’t trust the vaccine because it was made on such short notice,” James said. “I’m hearing stories about it, not being as effective and also you still have to wear a mask, you still can get coronavirus, you still can pass it on to other people, so that was a red flag.”

She also read articles about Johnson & Johnson and just doesn’t know what brand to trust because most of them are bought from some of the vaccinations so she doesn’t trust it. Since she already had the virus she has immunity where her body fought it very fast where other people have lost their taste and smell for weeks. When it comes to her taste and smell, it lasts for four days.

Since the coronavirus has cleared her system, she’s feeling way better now than before and is able to go back to work again.

“So far everything feels good, I still have a little cough every here and there, but that’s about it,” said James. “Other than that, my body feels good and I’ve been taking Immunity Booster, detoxing my body but I feel a lot better than I did.”