A few weeks ago, I woke up in a sweat and with body aches — a rare occurrence for me. The day after Calvin moved online, my body aches were so bad that I couldn’t do any school work. But by the next morning I felt much better and didn’t think it could be anything. A week or so passed and the aches returned, along with some new symptoms. 

After realizing I was experiencing most of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, I filled out the form from Health Services, who then assumed I was positive and quickly called me. In addition to my symptoms, I had traveled domestically, and my wife internationally (after the original European ban), recently enough to cause us anxiety. More importantly, my sickness was biphasic, a common trait of COVID-19. Because of the symptoms and biphasic nature of my sickness, Calvin assumed me positive. 

(Being presumed positive differs from being confirmed positive because there is no actual test administered, and the symptoms tend to be mild enough to where no medical assistance is needed.) 

The member of Health Services talked to me for over an hour and even talked with my wife, who is not a Calvin student, on how to keep her healthy while I was sick. My wife remained healthy, thanks to the help of those at Health Services. 

They instructed me to track my temperature until 72 hours symptom-free. Being a broke college student, I do not own a thermometer, so under other circumstances, I may have been stuck without one. Thankfully, Health Services dropped off a bag on my porch the next day with 28 paper thermometers and a mask — despite my home being 20 minutes from campus and having many more sick students to care for. 

Until Calvin’s phones went down after the thunderstorm on April 7, I received a phone call almost every day to check in on my condition, even though I had fairly mild symptoms. It’s no secret that many worried sick people across the state and the country have had trouble even talking to health professionals because of the scale of the crisis, yet alone receiving check-up phone calls. Now, I have recovered from whatever nasty virus I had, whether it be COVID-19 or not, and, in this right, it’s impossible to not be thankful for our Health Services.