Coronavirus Diary Day 7: How to survive ‘scary’ isolation during quarantine

Long Island mom Diana Berrent, 45, has been taking The Post on her journey since testing positive for the coronavirus last week. Today, she discusses how to survive what can be the “frightening and scary” prospect of isolation during the quarantine period.

Now that I’m in the clear, medically, and just dealing with the lingering (and lingering) symptoms, I look back at the start of this saga and the thing I am most grateful for, in retrospect, is that I put myself into full self-isolation in my bedroom at the start of my very first symptom of COVID-19 (I woke up with a 102 fever, there was nothing subtle about it). It’s now been 14 days, and I’ve only left my room once, and that was to get tested.

I got sick early on, before the shelter-in-place orders. Social distancing hadn’t even happened at that point. It seems like a million years ago, but it was only two weeks — and a lifetime — ago.

I was terrified that I had spread the virus without knowing it and even before getting my test results I posted on Facebook my whereabouts, with times and locations, of every place I had been in the previous 10 days. I contacted everyone with whom I had any contact. I think, and I pray, that I managed to not spread the infection.

The only way to stop the spread is to follow the rules, and rule-following, if you know me, has never been my strong suit. That said, I could be the teacher’s pet on how strictly I am following the rules when it comes to isolation. This is serious stuff — this virus is so contagious, and we have all seen the memes and illustrations of how one infection leads to others and leads ultimately to where we are: a global pandemic.

I have and continue to have a single goal in mind: not to be a part of the problem, but of the solution.

I know that isolation can seem frightening and scary. I’m getting calls and messages from so many sick people who are fearful of putting themselves in isolation despite their symptoms. To all of you I say this: it’s really not that bad!

I realize I am lucky in this. I have an amazing husband who I am certain is taking good care of our children. We live in a house, and I think constantly about how we would have handled this situation if we still lived in our 900-square-foot one-bathroom apartment in Manhattan. It would have been much more challenging for sure.

Isolation has been, in many ways, a tremendous gift. It didn’t seem so at first when I was desperate for a snack and no one would respond to my texts for hours. But once I figured out the logistics, I started to revel in the isolation.

I’m an extrovert. I have always said that I would prefer to be on a desert island with my worst enemy than be left by myself. But life throws funny curve balls at you so this has been a forced experiment to sit with myself, be with myself, and find an internal strength I might not have ever otherwise discovered.

Just think — if I hadn’t been in isolation I would be busy making color-coded schedules for my kids just like everyone else in general lockdown. Instead, I created a public health initiative — the Survivor Corps — that I hope to turn into the Peace Corps of our generation.

Not that you need to do that! Watch Netflix if you can (I haven’t been able to focus on watching anything but kudos if you can!). Start a journal. Catch up with old friends. Remember that physical isolation does not mean social isolation. Thank goodness for social media. As I have said, Facebook has been a lifeline for me.

The father of one of my best friends survived Auschwitz and Dachau as a teenager. But it was his year of isolation having tuberculosis, a couple of years after the war, that he credited for saving his life a second time and opening his mind to the world of poetry and literature. He went on to live a long and most extraordinary life. Samuel Pisar wrote in his memoir, “Thanks to tuberculosis, thanks to literature, I would be reborn once more.”

If he could find solace and rebirth in a year of isolation, after surviving the concentration camps, I think we can all agree to be good rule followers and good citizens and self-isolate for two weeks, and continue to shelter in place as long as necessary.

The stakes are too high here, we need everyone to follow the rules. Stay home. Self-isolate (with your own bathroom) at the first sign of symptoms. I never thought this would be coming from me but follow the rules! And join Survivor Corps.