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A covid-19 thread. A year ago, we were living in Sweden on sabbatical. In Sept. 2019, my husband ran a 15 km race in Sweden. 15k people, he came in the top 20%. Fit as can be. No underlying conditions. He's on the phone now w/ his parents, describing how he can't walk a block
Mild case of covid in early March (ski trip to the French Alps during the last week of Feb. 2020. Ouch). He went to France, not Italy. Sweden wasn't testing, docs weren't familiar with covid.
Later in March, he felt better. Then in April, he started to go downhill again... not feeling good, but not sure what was happening.
We took him to the emergency room in late April, worried about low oxygen levels. They sent us home. The next night, he collapsed, hit his head.
Do you want to know what it means to wait for the ambulance to come? For the agonizing minutes while the EMT suit up for covid- protection? In covid times, everything is slower... if there is help at all.
I sent my 13 year old to wait in the dark and cold for the ambulance. I put my 10 year old to cuddle with her dad to keep him warm. I scrambled to pack a bag- cell phone charger, a pair of clean underwear. A sweatshirt. I forgot shoes.
What felt like eternity later, the EMTs came in- looking like they were prepped for the moon, or mars. They checked him out, moving him out of the puddle of blood on the floor. Eventually to a stretcher, then gone.
And in that moment, when your loved one is strapped to a stretcher, they are going beyond your reach, beyond your care, beyond your help.
Why am I writing this tweet now, in November? The shock of knowing that your loved one is not at all okay and completely on their own is stunning hellish. It makes me cry today. As you are thinking about what you do in the next days, the next few weeks, the next few months...
If you think covid is something between recovered and death, you don't want the 3rd option either.. which for us is 8 very long months of not recovered much. Of daily wonderings if this is the next time for a trip to the hospital.
Of each morning, waking up and asking one's spouse if they are okay. This sucks beyond sucks.
And people seem so insistent that this is just a virus.
So my advice if you continue to think covid is just fine? Pack a bag for the hospital. Put your cell phone charger in it.
And people seem so insistent that this is just a virus.
So my advice if you continue to think covid is just fine? Pack a bag for the hospital. Put your cell phone charger in it.
And if you have to go to the hospital, you are on your own, with a cell phone your only link to your family.
Our hospitals are getting overwhelmed. Our nurses & doctors are not okay.
I don't understand why restaurants and bars and gyms are open and schools are closed.
Our hospitals are getting overwhelmed. Our nurses & doctors are not okay.
I don't understand why restaurants and bars and gyms are open and schools are closed.
And if you think that Sweden had this figured out in the spring, it is also not okay there either... infection rates are up. So are hospitalizations. And deaths... "herd immunity" didn't work for them. And the terrible effects of long-haul covid are continuing to play out.
For now? We'll continue to hide and to pretend like we are seriously infectious with covid and that you are seriously infectious with covid. And we'll have thanksgiving in the backyard 10 meters from anyone else, or we'll have a lovely dinner via zoom...
Stay safe.
Stay safe.
