Well, breakfast is over and I can taste bacon...another win!
This may get long...who knows.
I was definitely feeling awful for several days. My wife took me to the emergency room Nov. 21 and was diagnosed positive, given fluids and sent home. I wasn稚 sick enough to be admitted. I simply never getting better, only worse. Morning of 11-30, I told her to take me to the emergency room, I was having trouble with even walking I was so weak. And I had been unable to eat pretty much before I was diagnosed. Tiny amounts, but nothing of substance.
Odd thing is, I never had a headache, not even much of a fever, but I did have a cough off and on.
I was admitted as a case of Covid pneumonia that had gotten severe. By the night of 12-1, they realized I had far worse issues than the pneumonia. It was determined my GI tract was shut down and my stomach was full of undigested food and bile. I was put on a suction tube to clear my stomach. That was miserable and remained there for 2 1/2 weeks. On 12-3, a woman doctor who specializes in internal medicine was brought in and asked to review my case. Not only did she review it, she decided to put me into her program
Covid is not a simple respiratory virus, it is capable of attacking multiple organs. I had also been lucky enough to get Covid intestine. Your stomach shuts down, the small intestine shuts down due to swelling and forms blockages, and your large intestine/bowel becomes temporarily paralyzed. This attack can also cause issues with the kidneys, liver, and spleen. It is also far more lethal than than the pneumonia, as of November, there is only a 44% survival rate.
12-4 was my worst day, it was the peak of the pneumonia, liver, and kidney issues, I was moved to one step below ICU.
It was a rough weekend and I remember almost none of it.
On 12-6, my case was taken over by a house doctor who did wonders for getting things to happen and coordinate my care. She was somewhat abrasive at times with various staff, but things happened. She was very nice to my wife via phone and myself. It was obvious she was in charge and was being my advocate. things immediately started to improve. The doctor assigned to treating my actual Covid infection was also very good. All the while, the internal medicine doctor held to a very rigid course as far as my treatment. Nothing by mouth, no external feeding, just wait. When nurses and doctors are the only ones you see, they become 吐riends for lack of a better way to say it. I had one charge nurse frequently during the 2nd week into the 3rd. I finally asked her why even though I was feeling better, other than abdominal X-rays, why nothing else was being done. She told me my internal medicine doctor was very unorthodox in her treatment of Covid intestine, but far more successful in her outcome than any other doctor.
I finally complained to weekend doctor who works for my internal medicine doctor about my weight loss (45#) and lack of nutrition on 12-12. He said the plan is to address that next week. Which to me was Monday. Nothing happened Tuesday, I was incredibly weak. A special IV was put in my arm and I was connected to a feed bag. Oddly, within about 2 hours, I could tell a difference. This is the week my internal medicine doctor visited daily and I got daily X-rays. I also had my iPad (wife was able to deliver it to the hospital), so I could view my charts online. Spent a lot of time learning things!
I had a blockage due to swelling in my small intestine that was largest on Wednesday. On Thursday, the X-Ray showed it shrank significantly., I got a visit from my doctor, late in the day, about 6:30, she was in her surgical scrubs still. She apologized for how late it was, but she had news she wanted to deliver in person. I said you are going to attempt a start up of my GI tract. She said how do you know, told her about following my charts. She thought it was funny and said yes, that was the good news.
She then proceeded to outline the steps and plan, said there may be rough patches but she had a detailed plan for each one. Thursday was the end of her shift for the week, but she had a specific doctor assigned for the weekend. They were both briefed on the plan and knew what she expected to be done for each 途ough patch? I was also put on a clear fluids diet.
The med to restart my small intestine was given within the hour. And every 4 hours after until something happened, it took about 8 hours and things started to move, slowly at first then quicker as time went on. There was a lot of material being discharged....I will leave it at that. I was immediately removed from that drug. This continued into Saturday until Saturday evening when I was put on another drug to control the speed my bowel was running, it was too fast and needed to be slower. By Sunday afternoon that was under control.
I was also moved to a full fluids diet. And got a visit from my doctor assigned for Sunday/Monday. Very nice guy. We talked for quite a while, and he told me the restart had been completely successful and based on everything he was seeing, I was only going to improve by going home. He wanted me to spend the night and review everything on Monday morning. About 10 Monday morning, my charge nurse (who had most of the prior week) came in and told me it was very likely I was being released, but was not yet official. At 2 she said the order was written and needed a visit by the doctor to be official. He showed up shortly after and said it was signed and I was free. He said being home was the only way I was going to get better. I thanked him. He wished me a Merry Christmas, told him he had just given me my Merry Christmas, he left the room. Called my wife for a ride while they got me ready to leave. Oddly, my 2 favorite nurses aides took my to the door being used for discharge where my wife was waiting. There were a lot of thank you from me to the aides, and asking them to be sure to thank those I couldn稚 thank in person and wish all of them a Merry Christmas. Got a huge hug from the wife, got in the truck, and headed home with only 2 prescriptions.
Yea, Monday was the best Christmas gift ever. Lots of things to reflect on and think about. Been a struggle getting muscles to work right, but getting better and stronger each day. Food portions are increasing a little bit at a time. Still have limited taste, found some odd flavors I can taste....bacon this morning, snuck some chocolate chip cookies yesterday and could taste chocolate, strawberry, orange, cranberry, and a few others barely. Onions are incredibly powerful.
Sorry this is so long.....but just got out of hand recapping it.
This Covid is no joke, and until you see the strain the health care workers are under, you have no idea the stress they are under. They truly are hero痴 and deserve everyones thanks. I know I am thankful for these
hard working people, I owe my life to them.
This is going to be the best Christmas ever for me.
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