My COVID

COVID came: My experiences before, during, and after the Rockyview General Hospital.

But I got complacent. I spent over one week in Kelowna taking care of my mom who was in the hospital and my step-dad and I came home exhausted but back to work. I was signed up to join colleagues at an in-person conference in beautiful Canmore. I received financial support from my uni and with my dog Ginger in tow, I went to Canmore. I had some second thoughts but convinced myself it was time.

I wore my mask entering the hotel. No one was masked. I wore my mask to the first conference breakfast. No one else was masked. I wore my mask in shops and stores. Many folx did too. In the conference hall I saw one person masked out of ~100 and I chose to take off my mask. At the luncheon presentation with my colleagues, I hugged them.

Of course I can’t say for certain that I caught COVID in those spaces in Canmore but it seems reasonable to assume.

I came home three days later and felt fine. Friday I woke up feeling crappy, like a bad cold was coming on and I figured I was run down from the month’s physical and emotional events. Of course the possibility of COVID crossed my mind, but I didn’t want to believe it.

I went about my day that Friday and progressively felt worse. Headache. Coughing. Stuffy nose. Sore throat. Body aches. Exhaustion. When I finished my chores I took an at home covid rapid test and was shocked when it came back positive. I even had to text the photo of my test to my friends to confirm I seeing clearly. I was positive for COVID-19.

I immediately changed my plans for the coming days and contacted everyone I had come into contact with over the previous days. I am grateful to my ex and his family for ensuring my kiddo is safe and happy and thankfully she’s tested negative. Friday was draining and I slowly grew more and more immobile and exhausted. It hit me like ton of bricks. I went to bed and slept fitfully.

I woke up very early on Saturday drenched in sweat and cold and hot and I knew things got worse. I clocked my temperature at 38.9 and knew I needed to go to the hospital. I knew it was the right thing. I knew I needed it. But I was scared.

My best friends are currently out of the country so I didn’t have “my people” here to support me and help make arrangements. Let me be clear, I am blessed with many friends who step up and help, love, and support me. I didn’t want to ask anyone to drive me to the hospital because I was symptomatic. So I drove myself and thankfully it’s a very quick drive.

I was third in line at 06:30 on Saturday May 14. There was one triage nurse at the desk and one admitting staff. I had to pay for parking with a 3-hr max limit. I didn’t have the strength to worry about what would happen after the 3-hours expired. I just needed care.

The triage nurse was sweet and attentive but it felt like I overwhelmed her with my knowledge of my condition and listing off my symptoms. Talking was a challenge. She asked me to stop and to repeat myself a few times. When I said I felt like passing out or puking, she replied, “oh please don’t.” Ya, like I can control that.

They brought me into emerge in an isolation room. I puked a bunch, had trouble breathing, was scared and coughing, and the male nurse just stood there. He swapped out my puke bucket for an empty one. He asked if I was okay. Nope. I said please help me. He says we’re working on it. As much as the nurses wanted to help, they cannot do anything without a doctor first seeing me and making decisions. I waited.

Down I went for a chest x-ray then a CT scan. I was wheeled around on a stretcher by a porter who was kind. I was thankful for not having to walk but feeling scared and vulnerable for having to put my body in trust in strangers. I can’t imagine how scared those folx felt in the height of COVID, before the vaccines.

Getting a CT scan is trippy. The dye is warm and pounds quickly into your system. You feel it flow down your body and it feels like you’ve peed yourself. All while the bed goes in and out of this humungous machine as it whirls and does its clicks.

Back upstairs I was wheeled and taken to my bed where I was given oxygen and tucked in for what meds would come next.

The nurses introduced themselves and wrote their details on the white board in my room. They gave me a welcome leaflet. That’s all good and I understand consent and the need to inform patients, but I had no wherewithal to absorb any of it. In retrospect, I wish they could have included a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a brush in such a welcome package.

I settled. Slept. Then reached out to my people. Thank you Apple for inventing iPhones and text messaging. My people went into action. Someone picked up my car. Someone took over caring for my friends’ cats (my job while they are out of country). My neighbours watered my plants and checked my mail. My kiddo took our doggie to her dad’s where he’s being cared for and loved. I canceled more events in my calendar. Notified who I could. Rested and repeated all of this into Saturday night.

At one time over the last couple of days, this man has indeed fallen out of his bed and all hands were on deck to help, repair, clean, and put things back to regular. Beeps and alarms go off all the time. A patient or two calls out pleading for help repeatedly over and over. Nurses don’t jump in response. They manage their work with a pace that isn’t frenzied. If it was me, I would be anxiously jumping to and fro constantly in response to the needs everywhere.

It’s scary and exhausting. And I can see how they could burnout quickly. I wonder how buzzing the halls were in the height of covid?

Yet the nurses continue with care and humour — some more than others. And one time at shift change, one nurses makes an announcement on the speaker congratulating the team with getting through that shift. Despite any short comings in our healthcare system, I am thankful for it. Because I didn’t leave with a huge bill for:

They moved me to another room on Sunday with two elderly women. It was a bigger room with privacy for each of us and a big window and a better tv. The two women chit chat with each other but need a lot of help with everything including moving, the bathroom, peeling off the lids from their foods, and they call and call for help but it takes time for a nurse to respond and get fully gowned then come to help. We share a bathroom that isn’t cleaned as often as I wished.

A couple of times a nurse huffed in frustration because I asked for something after she already came and went. Because she said that means she has to re-gown all over again. I appreciate that but I’m hanging on by a thread. They knew that because they would ask me if I knew where I was and what day is it repeatedly?

AHS called about my positive test and asked me tracing questions. I am happy they are collecting those stats.

Sunday evening my symptoms waned but I was still exhausted, congested, coughing, and achy. But my fever broke and I gradually weaned off oxygen! I was on 2L then 1L then ½L then none. That was a huge step. Dr. Akinsipe said that sometimes patients who get off oxygen dip and need to get back on it within 48hrs. So I was on a holding pattern. If my pulse-o2 levels stayed good (above 95) and I have no trouble breathing, then I can go home!!

I felt like a spring chicken on this unit among the elderly but I know that this is what awaits me. All of us. The gradual erosion of our body’s ability to sustain life. Morbid and scary.

I came home. Before being discharged Dr. Akinsipe apologized that I didn’t get to see the mental health nurse I had requested. Apparently that program was dissolved at Rockyview due to COVID. For whatever reason, I think it’s a shame that mental health support isn’t readily available for anyone who asks for it. There are so many residual effects of COVID whatever it may trigger and whatever trauma it may cause in us and those around us. Our health system needs to do better and provide care in all the forms it needs.

Thursday May 19

Now at home….oh how my shower and electric toothbrush felt great…I’m recovering. I still am positive from an at-home COVID test kit but I feel better. I’m hungry and resting but still very congested and coughing. I feel like I lost days of my life and now can grasp them back.

I have more healing to do and follow-up with my doc to do scans of my lungs to see that the pneumonia goes away. And whatever other long-term consequences might linger. I hope I can get another booster shot. I hope you will too. I hope you won’t get COVID because it sucks.

Exactly one week later and I tested negative!

Turns out my negative test became a positive test. And so did another and another. They’re lined up like Rockettes! Now my kid is freaking out and we’re both hating on the world right now.

Related posts:

I cannot even begin to fathom The series of tribulation that tried to bring you down But I know you You wear your strength on your sleeves And fight through these demons amid the darkest days These…

This is what a normal college student’s email looks like daily. So then the question is: How do you make YOUR newsletter standout? How can you ensure more clicks on your email? and even if you do get…

I had a wish to spend at least one night and one day at a hotel. And what I would do there is just sleep, sleep n sleep for hours and hours. Will get up for the washroom rounds and for the food only…