It has now been 90+ days since I was hospitalized because of COVID 19. Thinking back I can still vividly remember being wheeled into my ICU room and meeting the admitting physician who delivered some dire news about the battle COVID was waging for my life.
At 90 plus days, there still remains some uncertainty regarding my full and complete recovery. Because of the blog, other recovering hospitalized and non-hospitalized COVID patients have shared their similar concerns with me. One patient who contacted COVID in late November recently received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. The provider who administered the vaccine told him he would likely get sick. With 24 hours of getting the vaccine he experienced strong flu like symptoms for 48 hours. He expressed his frustration to me stating that he was ready for this to be over. I am sure that feeling is shared and expressed by all who have been impacted by COVID even those who have not contracted the virus. This feeling is particularly evident now as more states in the US rush to remove COVID emergency declarations, and vaccinate their residents.
I recently read the book entitled Pale Rider by Laura Spinney. The book was about the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. It was published in 2017. The lessons learned and mistakes made in by governments to manage to outbreak paralleled our global experience with COVID 19. As once said “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” This clearly applies to the current pandemic. The Spanish flu was mis-named. It may actually have originated in Kansas USA when it jumped from an intermediate animal host to a farm worker and then to a military base. The original host for the flu are birds. Overtime as a virus mutates in an original host who may naturally carry it without any symptoms, it may jump to an intermediate host who has no genetic resistance. If the immediate host shares a similar genetic makeup as humans, the virus, through the close association of humans with an intermediate host, can jump to humans.
A good example of this is AIDS. From that military base, thanks to WW 1, the flu spread worldwide in a series of three outbreak waves ultimately killing over 50 million people. This was 6% of the entire human race. Some countries where harder hit similar to what India and Brazil are being now because of COVID. There seem to be three things in common with COVID and the Spanish flu that are key to containment and mitigation. First we need good reporting and records of who is being affected and where. Second we need to know the direction the virus is moving.
And lastly we, governments, need to have the police power to implement containment measures to slow the spread. In both the Spanish flu and COVID these measures were lacking in that governments where slow to respond to the early stages. The lack of government response was also affected by a general unwillingness of the public to accept government imposed containment measures. This reluctance on the part of the public both for the Spanish flu and COVID exacerbated the impacts and duration of the pandemic.
Regarding my recovery, I still have lung inflammation which manifests itself as shortness of breath. This requires me to still use supplemental oxygen. For many COVID patients, this means lugging around large steel oxygen tanks towed by hand carts. These tanks are cumbersome, but for most they are the only options covered by insurance. To address this problems associated with the reduced mobility associated with lugging 02 tanks around, several companies have developed light weight portable oxygen condensers. The technology is expensive and so are the units. Most insurances do not cover their purchase, but will consider paying for a rental. I recently purchased a portable light weight unit In the hopes it would increase my mobility and ultimately recovery. I have included a photo of the unit I purchased in this blog. I was at first hesitant to do this because I erroneously thought that by now I would be back to normal. So much for wishful thinking! To find the right unit, I searched the web.
I identified what I thought would be best for me and then I price matched. Because several companies rent units, you can find used portable oxygen condensers offered at 60% or more off of the original price. However, used units seldom come with extended warranties. At best most portable oxygen condensers have a life span of 4 to 5 years. Given what we still don’t know about COVID recovery this may not be long enough for many patients. But, for now the unit has given more mobility as I continue my physical, biological, and mental path to recovery. One of the side effects of COVID I have not discussed is the impacts to the patients actual physical movements. After spending weeks or months hospitalized, muscles tend to atrophy and with it the patient loses both muscle mass and coordination. Until they can better manage their short of breath, there may be few activities they can engage in to restore muscle strength and coordination. This next week, because of my new partner- my portable condenser- I will begin physical therapy to see what I can do to restore my coordination.
It has taken me 90 days to get here. To paraphrase what’ve Neil Armstrong said when he walked on the moon - One same step for man, one giant step for the recovering COVID patient.
