Advise our parents gave us, or should have:
- Don’t run with scissors.
- Don’t drink and drive.
- Don’t play with fire.
- Don’t miss a vaccine.
In mid-March 2020 I began to telecommute in order to avoid COVID-19. Since then, I live a monastic life. I leave the house for medical appointments or to take an occasional ride in the car with my wife and that’s pretty much it. This means that I’ve essentially been homebound for 687 days.
Even with these precautions, somehow, the virus got through before any vaccine was available. I started feeling bad about 11 December 2020 and was diagnosed with COVID-19 on 17 December. I secluded myself and my wife tried to take care of me. On 30 December 2020, we gave in, she called 911 and I was admitted to the hospital, which at this time had 3 entire wings assigned as COVID wards. I was given every medication that they had any hope for.
At one point, even though I was on oxygen at the highest flow rate, I could not breathe. I was taken to the COVID ICU. I honestly don’t know how long I was in ICU. Eventually, I was back on the COVID ward and on 10 January 2021, I was released.
It has now been over a year. I’m vaccinated and boosted and have not been reinfected. I do not currently have COVID-19. However, in an abundance (overabundance?) of caution, I normally stay at home as an added precaution. Having suffered through COVID-19, I do not want to encounter any of the variations. I hope to avoid COVID’s second cousin twice removed, or any COVID variation.
I repeat, I do not have COVID. However, I do have post-COVID syndrome, which is the damage leftover from when I had it. Damage to my lungs. Damage to my pancreas. Damage to my nervous system and who knows what else.
It is estimated that one out of three who had COVID have post-COVID symptoms. There are indications that even people who had no symptoms from COVID itself can suffer from post-COVID symptoms.
It sucks.
Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. If not to protect yourself, then to protect the neighbor who has had an organ transplant, or a child too young to be vaccinated, or a friend or relative who is immunocompromised.
sfnowak 