Well, I guess the word is out. Yes…Patrick and I both have Covid 19. We both felt that we had had it, mildly a month or more ago. Always a bit of a cough, and I always was a little short on breath though Patrick always guessed it was because I was not exercising enough. South Africa has one of the toughest lockdowns in the world Or so it’s said. Neither of us ever had a fever or any aches or pains. We had no idea how we got it…we were always careful, but I guess not careful enough. We felt we had gotten off easy. But neither of us have any co-morbities…and we aren’t that old…so no problem right?
Video that Patrick will Kill me for allowing
WRONG. On Tuesday last week, Patrick spiked a Very high temperature rather suddenly…Nearly 103F. Google says a fast sudden fever…it’s the influenza…among other symptoms that appear to be flu, not Covid. Like most places in the world, you don’t go to the hospital til you have trouble breathing. You stay home, you self quarantine for 14 days, you hope you get better, not worse. Unlike in the USA, it’s not a moral obligation to get tested here, you are discouraged to get tested unless you have been in contact with a confirmed case, you have travelled to certain counties in the last 14 days, AND you are having trouble breathing. Still we didn’t rule out coronavirus. Every day and every evening and more, I took his temperature, gave him more Tylenol, kept him hydrated, and keep asking about his chest and breathing. Yes, he was coughing…we we’re nervous…Thursday he said that he had had much worse flus in his life, we just needed to wait and it would get better…he was greatful it wasn’t entering his sinuses. Friday morning, the usual questions. He tried hard to tell me he could breathe. But it was apparent to me then that he was just trying to prevent me from worrying. He promised to go in tomorrow if it was the same. I put my foot down, and said no…we are going in. So we took a taxi in to the nearest hospital, an expensive private hospital that took $800 off of us within hours. They tested both of us, his blood pressure that is SOO low regularly was 210…even mine was 140…so much higher than normal. They put Patrick on oxygen immediately…he was down to 83%…90% is as low as doctors want to see anyone. The doctor said that if we had even waited a few more hours, he likely would have stopped breathing all together. With curfew here and everything I’m not even sure how we would have gotten there…an ambulance I suppose. They loaded Patrick in to an ambulance to a hospital that has an ICU bed, and nether of us knew just how bad the next few days were to be.
I was Immediately put in to quarantine on the boat. My symptoms …who knows…did they get worse due to stress, to the virus itself, the care I didn’t take of myself…I’m not sure. I got a call that night that we had both tested positive for coronavirus. The marina/Yacht Club immediately went in to action deciding if they could accommodate me to quarantine on the boat. The health department was scheduled for a visit on Monday. I suffered huge anxiety all weekend between arranging food to be dropped off at the hospital door for Patrick, to worrying about his care there, to should I evacuate him out to the US, to who is gonna take care of the cat and the boat if they take me off the boat and take me to a state quarantine facility, and the list just went on and on. The doctor called Sunday morning and begged me to bring food for him. I explained I was quarantined but that someone would be there with food. My South African friends Bob and Caroline Braught Patrick a cell phone and a charger, and some food. Things went from bad to worse as Patrick went from an oxygen mask to a pressure C-pap type machine to 60% air to 100%…and my Monday they intubated him. His oxygen level were just not maintaining..it was a bad rush to get him oxygen. The Health department never came to evaluate my situation and I was allowed to stay. Special thanks ecspecially to Paul at the marina for going to bat to explain to concerned members And authorities of how this was the best place for me to stay for quarantine. When he went on the ventilator I realized I better get myself something to eat. But I didn’t.
Then even on the ventilator, he wasn’t getting oxygen absorbed in to his blood stream. They eventually found That his aveolis sacs had bursted in a number of places so they put drains in, and then finally he had good oxygen level. The inflammation in his lungs went down slowly, and the ventilator was able to be turned down from 80% to 60% and to 50% yesterday. They felt his lungs and the coronavirus was subsiding on the assault on his lungs.
But his kidneys which need a normal level of 3-5 creatine, and where people end up hospitalized at about a level of 16…his creatine was 200, then 300, and now 8-9 days later is 646. An increase of about 100 per day is considered to be total failure. His kidneys are doing nothing. Kidneys are said to be very resilient so there is a chance they can regenerate and heal.
There is a different doctor every day in the ICU. Some doctors have no bedside manners and send me rushing for kleenex and support via Skype to Patricks sister Kathy, to my mother, Or father…sometimes it was friends on Messenger or WhatsApp. Whoever would listen, it helped me to type or talk, day or night.
In the first 4 days I think I ate nothing at all, just juice. After a while I finally Beggea local South African cruiser who has been a listening ear, to please bring me something to eat. I had so much food in the fridge but just no energy at all to even cook an egg. Three boats…two South African couples…and One Brazilian boat, have now taken turns bringing me so many hearty healthy meals, smoothies, snacks, fruits and veggies…it’s to these 3 boats that I owe my strengthening to. People went shopping for me, and they helped tie my lines in preparation for a storm that is beginning tonight. They took my trash away (carefully), and they helped me fill my water tank. Without the support from new friends here, I’m not sure how I would even still be here to fight this fight. From Unidentified soup With leaves and twigs in it, to hamburgers And sandwiches, to Brazilian curry…ive recognized little of what they have brought me, but have Literally survived on these things. The first meal…was chicken and stewed vegetables…I remember feeling like a starving Ethiopian eating it, with grease and food spilling all over the front of me as I ate it without utensils. I knew I was hungry. I had no idea just how!
So here on Day 9, Patrick remains on the ventilator….in very very poor condition. Sometimes I get kind doctors who try to not make it sound hopeless, and other days I get doctors I want to punch out for even insinuating that 69 is old.
The US Embassy is involved…and actually got me an Oximeter so I could be sure I wasn’t dropping in oxygen like Patrick was. Usually I’d have him to watch over me…so as badly as I needed to stay on the boat, I was nervous about what I would do if my breathing took a turn. The embassy has helped in countless small Whats including giving me 24/7 access to a doctor who runs the CDC here in Africa….to run my questions by, and for her to evaluate Patricks and my progress both. They also arranged for a nurse to use her own cell phone and put it to a Patricks ear so I could tell him to keep fighting, etc. I hope he heard me…she was going on leave so it won’t be possible to ask her to do it again.
After a lot of frustration getting our insurance company to call back, they announced they would not be providing any coverage for this emergency. “We aren’t covering Covid19 or any pandemics. It’s not in our contract…but in the fine print…they can change the terms at any time with 90 days notice. We did it receive any notice that I recall, at all. Maybe a lawyer could straighten it out. I don’t know. A fight for a future day when one or both of us is feeling a heck of a lot stronger.
Every day I wait for a tidbit of information…something to wrap my hope around. Ever day I wait for a peak, instead of valley after lower valley. It never seems to happen. I research on google all day to try to understand. I chat with friends online about it all with different advice and wisdom. Finally the day ends and I can go to bed and hope a few hours and a new day will make a difference. I struggle to eat, and keep the boat up, prepare for winds and rains, and keep the cat from falling overboard (one emergency so far) My cat cuddles with me…knows something is terribly wrong…and wonders where his dad is. Good news never seems to come. I struggle to imagine Patrick returning to me. I know how bad the chances are…I know the stats better than anyone. I struggle to not cry all day and night. I sit here doing breathing exercises both to exercise my lungs and keep myself alive, and to calm my nerves. I try to dance to some loud joyful music, but no matter how happy it is, I dance and I cry. I use my oximeter to make sure I’m not killing myself. The hours and the days pass and I just try to be patient and optimistic in a situation that I am so keenly aware is so precarious.
Patrick and I have been a team for so long, I am really struggling to function without him. To not be able to go to the extremely locked down hospital and hold his hand, or meet his doctors, or speak in to his ear has to be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m trying not even to think about the finances or what are future may or may not look like…and if our sailing life is over.
My friend Leanne set up a gofundme page for The support of Patrick…for the medical bills I’m sure I can’t begin to imagine now while in the hospital without the damn insurance company, and for what comes after. I’m pretty sure he won’t be able to jump on the boat and sail away any time soon. I made a very quick video on my iPad and sent it to her in a Messenger, and somehow she has managed to capture it, and wrote a beautiful summary of the situation here..much better edited and summarized than the mess you just read above:
Video that Patrick will KILL me for
If ever you have wanted to support more videos, this would be the time. We need to bring Patrick home…he has so many more videos he wants to do. He has so much freaking life to live with me!!!