#I was diagnosed two months after I had it with long covid (mild thankfully but still)

[raeathnos]

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[maren-as-an-adult]

The 2020 Experience, Part 2

When I flew back to New York a few days later (yes, I braved the airports and a plane) I could not stop crying. What should have been a loving and heartfelt reunion between myself and Graham turned into an awkward situation for him, with me bent double in the front seat of his car sobbing inconsolably.

And suddenly I had to adjust back to life more or less on my own. I couldn’t have friends come over, my family who lived in NYC were too far for me to get to them without public transit, and Graham’s mother was immunocompromised so we couldn’t spend much time together. I was back to sitting at my computer, taking online surveys for the promise of money and sending out application after application. Jena and Julia, my other two roommates, were still not back, so it was just me and Polina.

Things started to get a little better though. I had applied for Medicaid so I had some health coverage again. I scheduled an appointment with my new doctor, I started talking to a therapist again in August, and I stopped budgeting for birth control and got it for free. The after school program was up and running again, this time remotely (only one of my schools was able to host their program though, so my work hours were still cut). I looked forward to every other weekend, where Graham would drive out and pick me up to spend a few nights at his place. Jena came back and announced she was moving out, and our new roommate Michelle moved in. Michelle and I had a lot in common, and I found it easy to talk to and connect with her.

I even got out to see my family. I braved the subway to see my family up in Astoria, and Polina told me about the ferries I could take that brought me to my family on the Upper East Side.

One day in late September, however, I woke up with abdominal pain. It was pretty mild at first, but it kept getting worse. As someone who has periods, I assumed it was just week-early cramps brought on by stress combined with a poor diet that didn’t include much fiber. I tried to assuage the feeling by eating an apple, but after a quick trip to the bathroom it made a reappearance coming back up the way it went down. I decided to do what most people do (and what doctors hate) and look up my symptoms online to try and self-diagnose. The two big contenders for what I was suffering from were IBS or an ulcer. I texted Graham and told him what was up, and he asked what I was going to do. My current plan was to try and wait it out, and if things still felt bad in the morning, I would go to the ER.

If it wasn’t for Graham’s suggestion that I go to an urgent care center (which I had completely forgot existed at this point in time) I may have died.

At 7:12pm I grabbed my bag and walked three blocks to the urgent care center closest to my apartment. Unfortunately, they were no longer taking walk-ins for the day, but told me that another urgent care center was open until 8 and would take walk-ins.

It was 17 blocks away.

I walked 17 blocks with severe abdominal pain to this urgent care center just to be seen and tell a health professional I wasn’t feeling well. I knew there wouldn’t be much they could do, but maybe they could give me a better idea of what was wrong with me. I called Graham and gave him the address of the urgent care center, asking that he come out to be with me. Whatever was happening to me, I did not want to go through it alone.

I made it to the urgent care center fifteen minutes before they closed. I was taken to an observation room where a brusque young Russian woman took down my vitals and information as we waited for the RN to come see me. When he finally did come in and I started telling him what was wrong, I barely finished explaining what happened after I ate and failed to keep down the apple that he interrupted me saying, “You need to go to the ER immediately, because what you described sounds like you have a GI bleed. You’ll need an endoscopy, where they take a camera on a long, thin tube and feed it down in through your stomach and into your intestines to see if you’re bleeding internally.”

It was getting late, I was alone, and I was TERRIFIED.

I was told where the nearest ERs were, was given a printed referral, and then dismissed for the evening. All I could do was wait for Graham and tell him what was going on... and then call my mother and tell her.

I love my mom. I’ll likely never not love my mom for the rest of my life. But sometimes she takes a bad situation and makes me feel even worse. When I told her I had called Graham to come get me, she pointedly asked why I didn’t call any of my family who lived closer than Graham. Well, of my family who live in the greater metropolitan area of New York City, we have:

- My Aunt Barbara and Uncle Danny, currently NOT in NYC and instead staying out in Milford, PA

- My Uncle Brian, Aunt Corinne, and cousin Nikki up in Astoria. My aunt cannot drive and gets panicked easily, my cousin only has her learner’s permit, and my uncle (though I love him) would not be the most comforting presence to me at the moment, being VERY pro-Trump Republican and a FIRM anti-masker

- My Uncle Mike, Aunt Gloria, and cousins Maura (and her husband Andrew), Brendan, and Kevin. Maura, at this point in time, was nine months pregnant and due to give birth any minute, and I was not going to be responsible for pulling my aunt or uncle away from the birth of their first grandchild

With this information presented to my mother, she did concede that calling Graham had not been a terrible idea. Continuing to fret, however, she said I should at least have called them to let them know what was happening. She took it upon herself to do that, and additionally call my father and tell him (dad was on the road at that point and so missed my initial call of “Hey, jsyk, I’m going to the ER, wish me luck!”). Graham pulled up, I ended my mom’s call telling her I’d keep her posted, and headed off to the unknown.

As we were driving to the closest ER, my dad called. Thankfully, he gave advice that calmed me down. He listened to my symptoms, told me it was likely an ulcer, and told me what would happen when I went in: I’d be admitted to the ER, they’d take my vitals, I’d explain my symptoms over and over and over to multiple people, they’d probably admit me overnight, knock me out and do an endoscopy, and in the morning I’d be sent home with a prescription to help with the ulcer. I felt better.

Graham and I made it to the ER at about 8:45pm. I was admitted immediately, my vitals were taken, I was given a cup to pee in, an IV was placed in my arm, my blood was taken, and I told my story to two different doctors and a few different nurses. I went in for an ultrasound to rule out pregnancy, endometriosis, and ovarian cysts. I waited, with Graham by my side.

The doctor came back at about 11:30pm and told me my urinalysis and ultrasound came back unremarkable, but my bloodwork showed a high white blood cell count, which meant my body was fighting off an infection somewhere. This is absolutely something I did and did not want to hear in the middle of a global pandemic. On the one hand, go immune system! Keep me safe, you beautiful, hard-working bitch! On the other hand, what was it my body was fighting off?

The doctor said if I wanted to leave at that point, I could, because nothing obvious was found. “But,” she said, “I would strongly recommend we do a CT scan just to be safe.”

It was late, both Graham and I were tired, and my abdominal pain wasn’t awful to the point where I was bent double anymore. I could stand and walk around with only a slight discomfort. The thought of getting out of the ER, a frankly dangerous place to be in these COVID times, was deliciously appealing.

“What the hell, lets do the CT scan.”

I was given almost two liters of fluid to drink to prep for the scan. It didn’t taste bad, actually, kind of like a flat lemon La Croix that had been left in its aluminum can too long. At 12:30am I went in for the scan. Two hours later, Graham and I were still waiting for the results. At around 2:30am Graham turned to me and said, “Honestly, I’m ready to go. I won’t leave you here alone, but I’m exhausted and ready to get out of here.” I responded, “Honestly, I am too.”

At that moment, a doctor walked around the corner into our area and said, in a too cheery voice, “Hi there! You have appendicitis.”

I swear in that moment I could feel the cosmic force of the universe tremble with suppressed laughter at this finely crafted moment of ironic timing. My only response to the doctor and Graham was, “Well... I guess I’m staying here for the night?” Remember when I thought it was IBS? Couldn’t we go back to that?

I’ve mentioned before the idea of surgery scares me. I’d hoped I’d only have to experience anesthesia from getting my wisdom teeth removed. I fully expected to break down in hysterics then, but I guess I was just too tired and overwhelmed to react in such a big way. I called my mom and told her what was happening, and the first suggestion she made was for me to come home and heal in Chicago.

...mom, I love you, but getting on a plane immediately after major surgery in the MIDDLE OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC FROM AN AIRBORNE VIRUS is frankly the DUMBEST IDEA EVER.

After realizing that would be a bad move, she suggested she come out to be with me while I heal. While an appealing process, it ultimately wouldn’t be of much use, because she’d have to quarantine for two weeks before seeing anyone at that point. Eventually, she offered to book a hotel room for me and Graham for a long, extended weekend to help me recover. It was extremely generous of her, and I’ll forever be grateful she did it.

I was hooked up to antibiotics to prep for surgery, and the attending surgeon explained the procedure to me. Everyone was so calm and sure of themselves that I felt okay, and the inevitable wave of panic was held off. At 4:30am, I was wheeled up to the operating room. Graham stayed by my side as long as he could and walked all the way to the doors of the OR hallway with me and the attending. I made sure he and my mom had each others’ phone numbers so he could give updates. I was wheeled through the doors, and met with my operating team.

The anesthesiologist and practicing surgeon assured me that they felt fine, well-rested, and at the top of their game, and I was able to relax some as I moved off of my gurney onto the operating table. Once I was on the table, clad only in a thin hospital gown and gripper socks, my body started to shake. Whether it was from the cold or the panic had finally set in I wasn’t sure, but I calmly told the doctors that I thought my fight or flight response was kicking in, and they might need to consider restraining my shaking limbs.

They did, and they also put a heated (and somewhat weighted) blanket over me which relaxed me so my limbs weren’t shaking so violently. An oxygen mask was placed on my face, sealing my nose and mouth into a thick plastic chamber. I tried to breathe deeply and evenly, forcing myself to think of pleasant thoughts and not spiral into a headspace of worst case scenarios. I think what helped most was actually an attending nurse reading out loud my patient chart for posterity and recording’s sake, and he said, “Patient is a twenty-seven year old female named Maureen Ford.”

The annoyance I felt at being misnamed (again as Maureen) cut through the second wave of panic buildup, and my only goal was to correct him. The oxygen mask muffled my voice, but I like to think if you were to listen to the audio recording of my surgery, you would hear, very faintly in the background, me indignantly stating, “It’s pronounced MAREN!”

My last thought before I went under was that I need to make sure that nurse was corrected.

When I woke up, I felt more comfortable than I had in a very long time. The only thing that kept me from being in a total state of comfortable bliss was the slowly incoming knowledge that my mouth was drier than the Sahara desert at noon in July. Despite this, and the residual effects of the anesthesia still in effect, I was pleased to find that not only could I clearly hear and understand the conversations happening around me, I could also coherently speak and communicate with people. I asked for water as soon as I could, and the nurse told me that they’d have to work me up to water. We’d start with a lemon swab in my mouth, followed by ice chips, and then I could get water. The attending surgeon came in to tell me the surgery went smoothly without complications, and I asked her if she could make sure whoever called me Maureen was corrected on my name pronunciation.

I really hope it wasn’t written off as a sleepy patient’s delirious request, because I was absolutely serious about it.

After eating some very powdery eggs and drinking an apple juice, I was discharged and told to get my medications, rest up, avoid lifting anything over 15 pounds, stay away from submerging my sutures in water, and to schedule a one week post-op follow up with my primary care provider and a two week post-op follow up with the attending surgeon.

Graham drove us back to Bay Ridge, and I gave him my keys to go grab some essentials from my apartment. I gave Michelle and Polina a heads up that he was coming up (and I had let them know what was happening before I went into surgery) and that I’d be gone recovering through the weekend and partway into the week. They both wished me a speedy recovery, Graham grabbed a few essentials for me, and we drove up the street to pick up my meds from Rite Aid.

For some reason, they had only filled two of the four prescriptions. One they didn’t fill because it was a controlled substance and the hospital hadn’t submitted the proper authorization for it, and the other prescription (one of two laxatives) I have no idea why it wasn’t filled. Eventually, I got both my pain medications and one of the laxatives, with the other laxative to be filled and picked up at a different Rite Aid, closer to Graham’s work.

Exhausted, sore, hungry, and (in my case) in desperate need of a shower, we made it back to Graham’s to spend one more day there before going off to the hotel my mom had booked us. Graham had been scheduled to work that day, but after calling into the office was told he should only come in if he thought it was absolutely necessary. He ended up catching a few hours of sleep before going in for the late shift at work. I managed to take a shower and fell asleep on his couch as his bed was too soft and sent my abdomen into absolute agony. I blinked in and out of consciousness for the next few hours, waiting for Graham to come home with my last bit of medication. In that time, my dad called to check on me and ask how I felt, what I was prescribed, and what was expected of me. As we were talking Graham called, and I excused myself so I could answer the call. Nothing could have prepared me for what Graham was going to say to me.

“I was just hit by a truck.”

*click*

[dailykhaleej]

Abu Dhabi doctor’s first-hand account on how UAE medics are battling COVID-19

Dr Ken Dittrich with different workers members at Sheikh Khalifa Medical Metropolis Picture Credit score: Provided

Abu Dhabi: As a result of COVID-19 is led to by a novel coronavirus, the evolving nature of its therapy is difficult for even probably the most seasoned medical professionals.

Dr Ken Dittrich has accomplished almost 40 years of labor in emergency medication, but he’s unequivocal when he says that he has seen nothing just like the COVID-19 outbreak.

Dr Ken Dittrich

“I like to be on frontlines, making first contact with the patient, problem-solving and investigating their symptoms in a manner that is critical and can often be lifesaving. This novel coronavirus is exceptionally challenging. It isn’t just a respiratory illness [anymore]; we’re even seeing developing symptoms like blood clotting, clots to lungs, dual diagnoses and cytokine storms,” the marketing consultant emergency doctor at Sheikh Khalifa Medical Metropolis (SKMC), informed DailyKhaleej.

Continuous studying

Nonetheless, like a whole lot of healthcare professionals, Dr Dittrich dons his Private Protecting Gear (PPE) each day and heads out to battle the microscopic enemy that has altered the form and type of total well being methods world wide. The Canadian-born physician has been heading up the emergency medication division at SKMC for the previous 17 years, and says healthcare staff are having to be taught on the job each day as they combat the coronavirus.

“As a medical professional, I find this disease trying because of the continual education its treatment entails, the volume of cases cropping up and even the amount of ventilation [healthcare facilities] need to provide,” Dr Dittrich mentioned.

Dr Ken Dittrich treating a COVID-19 affected person at Sheikh Khalifa Medical Metropolis in Abu Dhabi Picture Credit score: Provided

Rising affected person numbers

His testimony reinforces simply how quick and vastly the outbreak, and its associated therapy protocols, have modified because the coronavirus got here to mild simply 5 months in the past. From taking in each affected person who examined constructive, hospitals are now solely in a position to admit those that want medical consideration as a result of severity of their signs.

“We recognised that the coronavirus would come to the UAE because of its position as a travel hub, and the first two patients we saw had travel history to China and Italy. At that time, we were admitting all patients who tested positive. But then, the volumes kept increasing very rapidly,” Dr Dittrich mentioned.

To intubate or to not intubate?

One other illustration of that is the protocol on invasive air flow.

“The early trend [and protocol] was to put patients on ventilation early. But as more and more cases emerged in [Europe and the United States], the recommendation changed to put off intubation for as long as possible. [Doctors were finding that] the device can put high pressure in the lungs, thereby causing further injury,” Dr Dittrich mentioned.

Now, physicians strive all different interventions earlier than continuing to invasive air flow, together with respiratory workouts, nasal canulas to supply oxygen, and non-invasive air flow via face masks with hooked up oxygen reservoirs.

The physician defined that standard oxygen saturation is 94 per cent or greater. In sufferers with minor circumstances of COVID-19 within the UAE, the saturation stage ranges from 88 per cent to 94 per cent. When this stage drops to 60 or 70 per cent, sufferers could also be alert, however they battle to breathe and discuss.

Dr Ken Dittrich tending to a affected person Picture Credit score: Provided

Troublesome circumstances

“Fortunately, 80 per cent of cases are mild or asymptomatic. Only 20 per cent require hospitalisation for oxygen therapy, and only five per cent are potential life-threatening cases, such as those experiencing a cytokine storm,” Dr Dittrich mentioned.

And once more, not the entire individuals with extreme circumstances of coronavirus must be intubated instantly.

However they do require intensive care, with medical professionals working across the clock to stabilise sufferers.

“One of the most difficult cases I have seen recently is that of a 50-year-old patient who came in last week. He had come to the hospital during the previous physician’s shift, and had presented with COVID-19 pneumonia. He then experienced several cardiac arrest episodes, as well as massive blood clots to the lungs, and was never stable enough to even be moved to the Intensive Care Unit,” Dr Dittrich mentioned.

He and his workforce labored all evening lengthy to are inclined to the affected person.

“Thankfully, he is still with us, and I hope he will recover,” the physician mentioned.

A making an attempt and often-lengthy sickness

Because of the nature of his job, Dr Dittrich shouldn’t be usually in a position to observe up on the sufferers he sees. However he is aware of that lots of them, together with those who had been hospitalised in early March, are nonetheless beneath therapy, with some even receiving convalescent plasma remedy.

The prolonged therapy course implies that total hospitals world wide have been reworked into amenities devoted to the therapy of COVID-19. Based on Dr Dittrich, all of SKMC’s 600 beds are being made out there for sufferers with coronavirus, together with for individuals who require hospitalisation for different medical situations however are additionally testing constructive for COVID-19.

And he was unambiguous {that a} COVID-19 case might be making an attempt.

Dr Ken Dittrich

“We see dire cases in the ER, including motor vehicle trauma, cardiac arrest, sepsis and cancer complications. Then there are patients with major burns, which I find the grimmest to deal with because I can empathise with the lifelong struggle the patient will have to face. But with COVID-19, every part of the care is important,” Dr Dittrich mentioned.

Each spoke within the wheel

To that finish, the physician gave a shout-out to “every spoke of the [healthcare] wheel”, together with the nurses who toil in healthcare amenities and the huge array of help personnel who’ve risen to the event.

“As emergency physicians, we do a lot. But you cannot discount the hospital administration that supports our work and provides the PPE, the cleaning staff who disinfect contaminated rooms, or the security personnel, the respiratory technicians and the kitchen staff. It really is a team effort,” Dr Dittrich mentioned.

“Then there are the protective mechanisms put in place by the government. The economic and mental health impacts of this outbreak cannot be discounted, and [it is reassuring] that the government is looking after us so well,” he added.

Doing his half

For his half, the 62-year-old physician is constant to coach at dwelling along with his spouse, and maintaining a healthy diet.

“[I’m in] an at-risk group, I know, but my wife and I do our best to stay fit. And then they test us at the hospital every week,” he mentioned.

He’s additionally clearly staying constructive: when requested if he would have reconsidered his career if he had recognized he would face a pandemic, Dr Dittrich didn’t miss a beat.

“I am glad to be able to contribute to this crisis. I see only the critical cases, but I know the entire community is making huge sacrifices. So as they say, we are going to get through this together,” he mentioned.

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[vsplusonline]

‘We’re the pioneers’: Survivors of COVID-19 share their stories

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/were-the-pioneers-survivors-of-covid-19-share-their-stories/

‘We’re the pioneers’: Survivors of COVID-19 share their stories

We all know we should be afraid of it, but relatively few Canadians have experienced COVID-19 themselves.

The effort to contain the pandemic has wrought seismic disruptions to daily life on an individual and global scale. But even as the number of cases in Canada climbs, it’s hard to comprehend the contagion based on a list of symptoms and warnings that it’s fatal.

The Canadian Press asked COVID-19 survivors around the country to share their experiences of the volatile disease that can manifest as a mild bug or life-altering illness.

READ MORE: Coronavirus deaths in Canada approach 1,500; 33,000 people diagnosed

All in the family

On Tuesday, March 3, Abe Glowinsky was making his way back to Toronto from Washington, D.C., when the American Israel Public Affairs Committee sent an email informing him that someone at the conference he’d attended may have come in contact with a person who had COVID-19.

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He said the organizers’ tone seemed to suggest the risk was low — after all, there were 18,000 people there.

Like many of the world leaders who were at the gathering, the 57-year-old retiree went about his business as usual.

For him, that meant volunteering as president of the synagogue and going to community events.

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Coronavirus outbreak: Toronto Stamp to produce millions of face shields for front line workers

Two days after he returned, Glowinsky woke up with a headache, but other than that, felt fine.

By Friday, his voice was hoarse and he felt congested. When he sat down for a traditional Sabbath dinner, Glowinsky told his family he was coming down with a bug.

His children joked that maybe it was COVID-19.

On Saturday, Glowinsky said he had a fever and body aches, but his symptoms felt 10 times milder than a previous flu.

READ MORE: Live updates: Coronavirus in Canada

Then AIPAC sent an update saying two people at that week’s conference had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Glowinsky was planning to fly with his wife to New York in a few days to celebrate her birthday, so as a precaution, he decided to go to the hospital and get tested.

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When Glowinsky found out he was part of the first cluster of cases in Ontario, he said the ripple effects were “devastating.”

The synagogue shut down. Around 75 households were forced into two weeks of self-isolation.

Glowinsky believes he directly infected eight people, including a dear friend who was hospitalized for several days.

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Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau says Canada-U.S. land border closure extended by 30 days amid COVID-19 pandemic

Closest to home, his son Jesse Glowinsky, daughter-in-law Heather Glowinsky and then-three-month-old grandson Xander fell ill.

At the peak of his symptoms, Jesse Glowinsky said he strained to look after his young son while curled up in a fetal position beneath a mountain of blankets with the chills.

His wife, however, powered through with the force of a mother “lifting a minivan with child caught underneath.”

The baby had a low-grade fever, but it was hard to tell if he was crying and spitting up because he was sick, or if he was just being difficult.

The parents decided that if the baby’s temperature reached 104 F, they would call 911 to have him taken to the hospital. And because they were symptomatic, there was a chance they couldn’t go with him.

[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]

Thankfully, it never came to that. Across generations, the Glowinsky clan came out the other side healthy.

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“Having (Xander) here alive and smiling is the best gift we could ever have,” Jesse Glowinsky said.

He said his father still carries a sense of guilt for all the people he unwittingly may have put at risk, but he tries to remind him how many others could have been sickened had he not gotten tested when he did.

READ MORE: Coronavirus — Countries face growing pressure to curb economic damage of COVID-19

“No one intentionally gives the virus to someone else,” he said. “We just didn’t know enough about it then and we still don’t know enough about it now.”

An athlete down for the count

Emily Dwyer would seem to be a poster child for good health: She’s 26 years old, an athelte and says she hasn’t been sick since her youth.

That was until she found herself languishing on a couch in her Halifax apartment, fighting a novel virus no one seemed to fully understand.

A few days after returning from a work trip to Switzerland in mid-March, Dwyer said she felt she was getting a runny nose and her eyes were straining in the light

By her second full day of non-stop sneezing, Dwyer knew something was amiss.

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At that point, there were only a handful of COVID-19 cases in Nova Scotia. Less than a day after getting tested, Dwyer learned she was member of that unfortunate club.

“I didn’t have anyone I could talk to about it,” she said. “I basically just had to really listen to my body and ride it out, and that was really scary and really isolating.”

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Coronavirus outbreak: Trudeau pledges nearly $2 billion to clean up ‘orphaned wells’

Dwyer said it felt like the disease was playing “mind games” with her. Every day seemed to bring a new symptom.

She felt like her throat was clogged with sawdust, giving her a dry cough and unquenchable thirst. She couldn’t make it through a two-minute conversation without feeling short of breath.

She had terrible chills, and her body ached as if she had tumbled down a hill, leaving her skin sore to the touch.

Five days in, Dwyer thought she may be on the mend. But soon she felt stabbing pains in her chest.

One night, she noticed that her lips looked blue. The next night, she saw her skin was sapped of colour, and her veins stuck out like “spider webs” on her ashen arms.

When she mentioned the discolouration during her daily phone check-in with a public health worker, Dwyer was instructed to head to the hospital, because it could be a sign she wasn’t getting enough oxygen.

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A nurse escorted her from the parking lot to an isolation room. Dwyer said doctors ordered a chest X-ray to see if she had pneumonia, and the results came back negative.

Even after the worst had passed, Dwyer said her ability to taste and smell was touch-and-go.

READ MORE: Canadian Forces arrive at Montreal seniors’ residences, health authorities rushing to train volunteers

She slathered her hands in lavender oil and inhaled as deeply as she could — nothing.

After the nausea set in, she had no appetite. But when she forced herself to eat, she found food was devoid of flavour.

Dwyer grew to appreciate the texture of raisin bran, and made her way through some of the untouched groceries cluttering her shelves.

Eventually, Dwyer’s symptoms waned into a sinus infection.

Dwyer said she was initially told she would need two negative swabs to get the all-clear. But she said that requirement was later dropped, and she’d be free to go after 10 days without new or worse symptoms.

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Coronaviorus outbreak: Canada now at 31,407 confirmed cases, 1,250 total deaths

It’s been two-and-a-half weeks since Dwyer “recovered,” but she doesn’t feel like her normal self.

Rather than her regular runs, a flight of stairs can leave her feeling winded.

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She said the swirling uncertainty about the lasting physiological impacts of the virus, and whether she’s now immune to it, has also taken a psychological toll.

“I still feel alone. Because when I go out in public, other people are having a different experience than me,” she said. “They’re all scared of catching it, whereas I don’t even know really where I stand.”

The “pioneers” of pandemic

There’s no “manual” to getting COVID-19, Libby Kennedy says.

Holed up in her bedroom on Vancouver Island, the 59-year-old writer decided to document her weekslong ordeal in delerious detail online.

“There is some microscopic battle going on,” Kennedy wrote in one entry of her roughly 7,300-word Reddit post.

“Like a mini epic ‘Star Wars’ full-out light sabre thing. Good versus evil.”

In a more lucid state, Kennedy explained that by posting her experiences on Reddit, she was hoping to demystify the disease that has upended everyone’s lives.

“We’re the pioneers for our own communities,” said Kennedy by phone from Yellow Point, a coastal hamlet near Nanaimo, B.C.

READ MORE: Should we cancel the wedding? Couples unsure as coronavirus pandemic drags on

Kennedy, who has autoimmune issues and asthma, said she went shopping to stock up on pandemic supplies on March 11. While she couldn’t find toilet paper, Kennedy believes she came home with the novel coronavirus.

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Five days later, Kennedy said she was overcome by exhaustion. At first, she thought her allergies were acting up.

But it wasn’t long before illness invaded every part of her body, with new symptoms hitting her in “waves.”

Her temperature spiked. Her head throbbed. Her muscles ached. She lost 10 pounds from vomiting and diahrrea. No amount of coughing could clear the lump lodged in her throat.

But worst of all was the shortness of breath, Kennedy recalled. Gasping for air, Kennedy said she felt the terror of losing oxygen on a chemical level.

March 28 was Kennedy’s “hell day.” She called up 811, and in one-word sentences, told a nurse she couldn’t breathe.

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Coronavirus outbreak: Canada’s top doctor says case numbers doubling over 10 days, signals epidemic slowing down

Before she left for the emergency room, Kennedy wrote letters to her 19-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter. She told them to worship their bodies and look out for their friends and each other.

By the time she reached the hospital, her condition had improved. She said doctors examined her and diagnosed her with COVID-19, and told her to get tested for confirmation.

Given the limited supply of testing kits, Kennedy said she didn’t need a swab to tell her what she already knew.

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About a month since this all started, she said she still feels the sickness rippling through her body.

She mused that maybe the virus has changed her “biologically.” Perhaps it increased her IQ, or retuned her singing voice, she joked.

“You pay that much, you’d think you get a gift back.”

But there was one reward.

Venturing outside for the first time in weeks, Kennedy felt a new appreciation for the simple serenity of a creek running through the forest underneath a clear blue sky.

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