Like everyone else, my covid story also started a year back and it wasn't very serious until I got affected and my family suffered. Last year when they announced a sudden lockdown and when they announced work from home for everyone, I had a moment of joy. I was under the impression that it is going to be a nice few weeks working from home. That's how it started but life started becoming horrible after that. We have crossed almost a year in this pandemic and things are still not good and it will never be the way it was before.
Disclaimer: This article is not going to be a pleasant read. Please skip if you don't want to read an unpleasant story. At least skip the next section alone if you would like to give a general read.
We got Covid and below is the story
Like everyone else we also took all the precautions of using masks and hand sanitizers. We even had a practice where we wash our hands and legs before we enter our house. But still, we got Covid. It initially started as a normal symptom of headache and cold. It lasted for like two days and I thought it was also okay after that. But the fever was there were nearly 4 to 5 days across all family members.
We visited a nearby clinic and the doctor there suspected it could be COVID and asked us to give a test. Those days we didn't even know what we should be doing if we have COVID. Things could have been better. It took nearly 7 days for the test results to come. We were all told that we were COVID positive in the PCR sample test. We were advised to purchase an Oximeter and observe the saturation frequently to check if everyone is maintaining good saturation levels. But before even the test results came, the saturation of my father was going below 90. We were waiting till evening to see if it was improving but we noticed that it was only getting worse and I had to rush to the hospital when the saturation was 83 for my dad.
I wasn't even sure which hospital we should be going to get this checked. Back then the government was also not very clear and especially during the initial days they did not handle it very well. So we were all scared. I got admission for my father in a private hospital. They asked me to admit him and go home. I didn't even know whom I should be contacting to get the status of my father and honestly I wasn't even sure where they were taking him and when I would see him back.
My father was in a very bad condition where his saturation levels dropped even further and he was in mini ventilator support in ICU. Everyone else in the family was doing better compared to dad. My wife was going low in pulse rate. She was also getting very weak. But when we had a need to look after our father, she started building her strength, and thankfully we were able to manage a little bit.
My father was in the hospital for over 11 days and he wasn't fully healed. I was talking to the doctor and he told me that I can discharge him and take care of him by having an Oxygen setup at home. There was some other pressure for the hospitals to discharge all the COVID patients home. They were having some court case going on for a different issue and their COVID license was about to get canceled. (Not all the hospitals in India have the license to admit COVID patients. That's also one of the reasons why we have problems in getting a bed for admissions.) My father was discharged directly from ICU. At the time of discharge, his saturation was 58 without oxygen.
The doctor told okay to discharge because all his other vitals were normal except the oxygen issue alone. The doctor asked me to arrange an ambulance with oxygen and take him back home. But we didn't know about the seriousness at that time. We booked an auto-rickshaw and my father was holding his strength to finally get back home after almost 15 days so he didn't mind traveling in an Auto Rickshaw in spite of having 58 saturation. I had oxygen set up at home and I took advice from the doctor and was giving him oxygen support for the next month.
My father was bedridden for almost 2 months and it took nearly 2 months for him to come out of that oxygen support. Even when he decided to finally come out of oxygen support, his full saturation level was constant only at 90 and not more than that. But he felt he is okay without oxygen and gradually after another month without oxygen his lungs healed and he got his saturation levels back to 98.
You might think this is the end of the story but it is only a part of the story. The actual pain point is everyone in the family getting affected at the same time and my father's brother and father live in a place nearly 1 km from our house. They both got COVID at the same time we all got. On the same date, my dad was admitted, they were also admitted to the hospital.
My grandfather was 94 years old and my uncle was two years elder than my father and was 64 years old. We lost both of them. Inspite of ventilator support and oxygen support their saturation level did not improve and they also had kidney failure. Losing my uncle and grandfather in the consecutive 2 days was a horrible experience. Both of them walked with their foot to get admitted to the hospital.
We had to hide this from my father because he wouldn't recover either if he hears about his brother and father's demise. We couldn't even see their face because here the hospital will only take the responsibility of doing their last rites.
We are still affected mentally after getting covid. We are trying to recover but the panic attack we had back then is still affecting us. This year we thought things were getting better but 2 months back my wife had a miscarriage. We lost a few more relatives and some of the relatives are still in hospital recovering after this second wave.
Two weeks back I had a stress attack and it happened a couple of times already. I don't know what is stressing me out but whenever I get this attack, my BP shoots up and my hands and legs start shivering. I did all kinds of tests to check if it was my heart or anything but the doctor concluded by saying that it was a stress attack. All these above events are also a contributing factor along with the work from home stress and lack of physical activity as well.
I would like to stop describing right here because it is already affecting me emotionally and my health hasn't recovered fully yet.
Stay safe and take the vaccine when it is your turn
More than COVID itself, the events happening around us is what are disturbing so much. People end up with lots of stress and psychosomatic diseases post-COVID. I would like to give the below set of advice from my experience.
- First and foremost thing is to keep the mind stress-free and don't be afraid. The Virus itself is not very dangerous and the number of people who dies is not that huge unless they have a chronic illness. So first don't be afraid and stay strong. This is one of the biggest mistakes we did and still doing. It is already more than a year and there are methods and vaccinations already available to treat this and the number of casualties is drastically reducing.
- Stop watching the news or media channels that speculate a lot of information. I personally believe that the Oxygen crisis worsened in India because of the poor interpretation and manipulation done by the media. That's just my opinion.
- Take all the precautions and never be careless. This is not something to test and prove your immunity. Boost your immunity but don't be careless saying that boosting your immunity alone will prevent you from this.
- Wearing a mask helps. People think that the size of the COVID virus is too small and it can penetrate through masks so, it isn't helping. I would say any layer of protection even if it is helping only 50%, just go for it and don't take a risk. If you are not satisfied go for a double layer mask and even a shield.
- It may not be a problem yet in your country yet but once the number of cases starts increasing, I would strongly advise taking all precautions.
- Take the vaccine when it is your turn. Some people are against Vaccines. Even I don't prefer vaccines for every single virus we encounter. But this one is a virus that is creating a global pandemic, not a normal virus for which we can build our own antibodies. There are still theories (no concrete proof) saying that this could even be a virus created in a lab (synthetic). As this is a global pandemic thing, I personally prefer taking vaccines and advise taking vaccines to keep ourselves prevented. There is also a debate that vaccines are not helping 100%. It is true that people get COVID even after vaccination but trusts me the damage it does to the body is very minimal compared to someone who hasn't taken the vaccine shot yet. I have seen this evidence in my close relatives.
The next final important thing is that the virus is more like the flu. If it comes the symptoms differ from person to person. But even if the saturation level is going down, don't be afraid. From my experience seeing a few family members and relatives, getting afraid and panic if saturation goes down is not helping to heal faster. But if people have a strong mind, they can easily overcome this. I was 100% perfect health-wise or body-wise after 1 month of recovery and after 2 months I got all my strength back. Even the worst affected people get better after 3 months maximum. So stay strong mentally.
Final words for the non-believers of COVID
I know there is a big group of individuals who don't believe COVID exists. They have their own group and their own theories. I wouldn't blame them so much. But my personal experiences and things I have gone through in the last year prove the existence and I don't need anyone to tell me otherwise.
In my opinion, people who don't believe COVID will only believe it when they experience it personally. After having those tough conversations with a few of the individuals, I'm sorry but that's the only hard way to make you guys realize that it exists.
Forget about media. I know there are so much false news and false projections. If the symptoms were just Flu, I would have probably believed that it was just an ordinary contagious flu/virus. But when it affected the oxygen saturation of individuals for no reason, that is when I started taking this very seriously. Even the non-believers can never give an explanation as to why the saturation levels are going down if it was just the ordinary flu. Not for people with chronic illness but for a healthy 36-year-old individual who has no history or medical illness in the past.
If people still don't believe COVID exists, no point in explaining it to them. Just staying away from them help to save energy and time.
Thanks for initiating this contest for Indians, 
Thank you 
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