A few days ago I posted about my husband Patrick and I both having tested positive for Coronavirus after Patrick had to be taken to the emergency room, unable to breathe. This is a follow up post to this. 
My next post as many have requested…I will try to post about how we both caught the coronavirus.
I finally got another call in so I could get a different doctor…one I could actually understand to tell me about Patricks current struggle with Covid 19…the doctor I got this morning when I called at my usual 10am time was just impossible to understand and I hung up the phone crying. The next doctor when I finally was able to get through again, hours later, was wonderful, and took her time to explain Patrick’s current status with this damn virus. Here is the summary below. And then later in the day, I got an out of the blue text…from a Youtube watcher, who knew a very knowledgeable man…Both reports are detailed below for anyone interested in this coronavirus saga.
Before I tell you about it…I want to tell you that your support has been what has kept me going through this ordeal. I couldn’t have done it without each individual little tidbit that each of you have provided me with, big and small…it has all fit together like a perfect puzzle to nourish every bit of me. I can never repay the kindness you have all shown me!!! For those who send money to me by PayPal…and ai haven’t been able to thank…I can’t seem to find your email address…please reach out to me, I want to individually thank every one…money isn’t easy to come by and I so appreciate every single dollar that has been sent. It has taken SOO much of that worry about that element away from me…and it’s nice to have one element of worry squished because as many of you know…I’m a chronic worrier!!!
So here is the report today, and the further down the report for tonight…
Creatine level…they don’t monitor his blood for this becuase the machine is doing all the work and getting rid of the poisons. The dialysis machine causes his heart to work very hard, so they give him Adrenalin to help speed it up a bit but not have to work so hard. They will begin to back off the Adrenalin in a few days when the dialysis has cleaned many times, and relieves that stress, and hopefully dialysis machine will be able to be taken away soon. He is coping well on the ventilator now, his lungs are holding 86-90% which they are satisfied with, though not thrilled with and he has gone from 70% to 65% pressure on the machine settings, in the last hour and is coping with it, so a small improvement there. Some level called Po2, which I remember the initial emergency room doctor talking about is at 11…and I distinctly remember her saying Patricks was at 3…and that was quite bad…and 11 is what they want so here is there now with that number. They are still dealing with the inflammatory issues. Asked about the hydroxicline and Zmax thing again, and she says that it’s big in the news right now, but for everyone it’s helping, it’s killing 10 more, and it’s just not indicated in this situation. I asked about using my plasma, and she said again it’s only in clinical studies, it not proven. She says he has antibodies now…so he doesn’t need antibodies…and his antibodies are indeed fighting. She also says that they all know about him, have seen his videos, know he has an incredible baseline and no medical problems…they can’t wait til he wakes up and tells them more stories. She was so nice…I’m still blubbering. At least the machine went from 70 to 65. At least they are happy with his oxygen levels, and at least the adrenaline use is going down. And he has his own antibodies now. So that’s good news right…not HUGE, but a little to embrace….
Tonight, 5/27, I got to speak to one of the top 6, head of Covid19 care in South Africa hospitals! One of our Youtube viewers said that our videos had gotten her through a dark time when she lost her husband. When she saw our latest video and then went to the website post about Patrick’s illness, she decided to take action since she was here, a sailor, and nearly cried watching the video. God I’m glad she reached out to me…this doctor was amazing.
This fairly young sounding doctor is of the 6 top brains of South Africa in regards to Covid 19. He took my number…made his number anonymous smartly, and called me and chatted with me for a full 15 or 20 minutes…He let me ask questions, gave me the run down of Covid 19 care in South Africa and much much more.
First… I asked about hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, and Remdesivir, and something else that ends with -integra. They are doing clinical studies, right here, right with this very doctor and the 5 others on all of these. None of these experimental drugs are ready for humans in his, and the others on his teams opinions. He feels that the US and many countries are searching for an answer, ready to cling to anything that succeeds even if it only works 10% of the time. You rarely hear about the 90% that die fast, or have terrible other complications. If we were to change Patrick to a private hospital and had a spare $ 200,000 USD or more as required to add to the mix to try an experimental drug…and would sign copious waivers, he would use it. But he said if it was his body…or his wife’s body, he would NEVER ever want Andy thing he has seen so far in these clinical trials, …never would want something that is such a gamble to be used. As a matter of fact, he said if he had covid 19, he would want to be in exactly Patricks position…not in a private hospital, but in Groote Schuur..it’s where the best results from Coronavirus are coming from. The top doctors are at that hospital…the care is around the clock not just by weekday except in case of extreme emergency, as it would be in the private hospital. There is MUCH more Covid19 experience at Groote Schuur than any other hospital becuase it houses the best medical school in the country and its extremely academic…hence no experimental drugs are tolerated, high standards are followed, by the book, and there are so many eyes because of the round the clock care, that any problems that develop are going to be dealt with much much faster. He says in the USA you may be talked in to one of these experimental drugs but he could never ever do that to himself or to his family. He also pointed out that we are VERY VERY lucky to be here in S Africa. He went to school in Columbia, and has a lot of doctor friends there now and they talk a lot between them about what is happening. In New York if you are over 65…it’s a hard and fast NO VENTILATORS SPARED for you. Patrick would be so out of luck if I had managed to fly him there. He says in South Africa, they absolutely base the choices on baseline. Whoever has the best baseline gets the ventilator, gets the machine. If Patrick has both a ventilator and a full time dialysis machine allocated to him…he says he has made a very high grade of baseline health.
Also…as he talks with family,he has a pretty good summary of what he tells them. Days 1-7 of when hard cold symptoms begin..this is when you are gonna land in the hospital if you are gonna land in the hospital…and you may just need a couple of days on a ventilator, or you may die very fast and suddenly before anyone has a chance to stabilize you. Or you may take some bad turns and things may get more serious. Days 7-14 of symptoms…this is the time that it is “as rocky as hell”. Your boat could overturn with an hours notice and your a goner. He tells his families that it doesn’t matter what the blood tests show, what any of the numbers show, or what he thinks about any of the numbers…you are in severe danger territory during days 7-14 if you are in the hospital still. If you are gonna die on this ventilator…it’s gonna be between days 7 and 14. Days 14-21 is when the virus has self eliminated..it can’t just keep growing and enveloping the body…it’s gonna be dead in this period and things are going to very very slowly get better. If you have made it to this stage, your doctor and nurse and family can breathe a very long sigh of relief. You are probably gonna survive this disease! The one exception to this is at day 14 if you find yourself in a very bad spiral down…then it’s probably not gonna turn around.You are gonna die fast if you are in a downwards spiral at this time. I’m not sure if that’s the whole day 14-21…or the beginning of it or what..it’s the one point that now as I write this, sort of gets past me. But Patrick’s not in a fast downward spiral right now. He’s already down pretty far though…so hopefully it’s the spiral that’s significant and not the “down”. But my general feeling is that with today’s minor little improvememts, as opposed to a very bad spiral down…that we are almost OK to have hope now.
Patrick had his first hardcore, for sure symptoms on May 12. I think it’s reality he may have felt it coming before then…maybe even as early as May 8 but that is speculation on my part. He went in on May 15…so it seems her went in on the day 7-14 mark..or slightly before it…so he was in the big danger period for the whole 1st week to 10 days at the hospital. Like the whole time he has been there. Imagine his boat was about to sink without much notice. God. But NOW, we are without a doubt at Day 15, possibly as late as Day 18. If we are at Day 18, I’m slightly worried because the last few days have certainly been a downward spiral. But today, if day 15…was a step up finally. Anyways, it seems we should go up from here.
So…the next thing we spoke about is the virus itself. After approximately 14 days in the body..the virus can no longer survive. It can’t do any more ravaging…it’s about dead. Antibodies or no antibodies, which he is said to have the antibodies now…the virus can not go on…it has done What it’s going to do. Hopefully the surrounding organs have been supported well enough to start working on their own again. That is ALL that South Africa at this point feels should be done…monitor and support the surrounding organs so they can come out the other side OK, which is exactly what has been done for all of Patrick’s organs in the last 12 days….so fingers crossed they managed to do it well enough. He said that’s the big huge challenge is being able to protect those organs from the virus.
Oh and the other thing he stressed…South Africa has lost NOBODY who had a good baseline…not even 1 exception to that rule. The people who have good health going in, even if they get extremely critical during the virus, they don’t lose them…they may struggle maintaining their bodies and there may be lasting problems after the illness ends…but no one has died. Truly, only those with co-morbidities have died. Every critical case they have had with no co-morbidites have survived. And many with co-morbidities have survived too.
It was really really good to talk to this Doctor… You hear the stats of what’s happening in the rest of the world. But what’s happening here in South Africa…has been a mystery I have been struggling with. I’m times like this I have found google is NOT my friend…just leading me in to despair really…So being able to talk this doctor just filled in so many blanks for me! Thank you Wendy for arranging such a gratifying conversation with someone who really knows about this coronavirus disease and it’s treatment in South Africa!
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