As I teased in my intro, I feel that I have been reborn, as it were, and I have lots to say. I will use this blog to do that.
But this first post is about SARS CoV-2 (Covid 19). I will have several posts about this topic where I take the reader on the journey of "My Covid". It is true, it seems. Covid is different for each person. Mine was particularly devastating to me. I will recap what happened here, but later posts will have much more detail.
In early December of 2020 I was feeling a bit under the weather. There is only one place where I had been in the previous two weeks where I might have been subjected to Covid (more on that in a later post), but nonetheless I drove to the local hospital where they were doing drive-up covid PCR testing. Afterwards, still not feeling like I had Covid and at least 72 hours from having results, I went to a local restaurant and had had lunch. After getting back home, I did a lot of resting. Two days later I found myself weak, and upon returning from a trip to the restroom, fell in my bedroom floor. I found myself too weak to get up, but that didn't stop me from trying. I tried for hours (not sure how long, I lost track of time, but it was estimated by the doctors that it had to be between one and three hours). How did the doctors know that? All of my for-naught muscle activity to get my legs moving again caused rhabdomyolysis -- in turn the rhabdo sent my kidneys into overdrive and finally caused them to fail. So now I have kidney failure on top of Covid. During my stay at the hospital, I had lower intestine and colon failure (necrosis), a Kennedy ulcer (skin breakdown, think pressure ulcer of the sacrum), Covid associated pneumonia, and of course delirium. I was in a coma for almost twenty (20) days some fifteen (15) of which were spent on the ventilator.
Suffice it to say that a great team of doctors, my daughters acting as my medical advocates, and countless nurses and CNAs managed to bring me back to good health. I am still not fully recovered, but I am about 95% there. Covid took a year of my life!
So what is my message? I entered the hospital on December 5 of 2020. It was not until December 11 of 2020 that the Pfizer Covid vaccine EUA was approved by the FDA. Missed it by just that much!!! All jokes aside. For some, like me, Covid is no joke. I almost left my family without a breadwinner (I run my own business). I almost left my friends and colleagues with no good-byes. After all, my daughter was called twice by the hospital and told to prepare the family -- my death was imminent. I am glad I didn't get that message.
I work in the biotech field every day. I understand the intricacies of biotechnology. I know what it does and what it doesn't do. As soon as I could, I got the vaccine (Pfizer). Then the second dose. And then the booster. My message is simple. If you live in a country where the vaccine us available to you, take it! Without hesitation. It is one of the best tools we have to fight this pandemic. And it might save your life and save your family much anguish and grief. And, as we get back to normal, I will be able to get back to Korea so I can produce more Korea related stories!
OK. I am off of my soapbox.
