Coronavirus Onboard Update 5/28 – Day 15 of Hell

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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!

If you want to help, drop me a note of encouragement…to keep thinking positive…to remember to eat…or to support us using the GoFundMe site…here is the info: Go Fund Me

Paypal:Rebecca.childress at yahoo.com

Replacing Anchor Chain, Anchor Windlass, and Chain Locker Modifications

 

 

 

Cruising with a Cat onboard…the other side of the story…

 

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Covid-19 Onboard

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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!!!

 

 

Preparations..6 weeks Prior to Getting Married…and Moving On to Brick House

FLASHBACK! The Day We Untied the docklines and left

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Predictwind & The Stormy Weather of Cape of Good Hope/Cape Aghullas!

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This was Rebecca’s most feared Sail to date…the stormy weather going around Cape of Good Hope and Cape Aghullas! And she was right…we experienced every kind of weather on this passage including a huge electrical storm where we still wonder why we were not struck by lightning! Luckily Predictwind gave us great forecasts through the Idirium GO, right on the Raymarine Chartplotter so we knew what weather was coming before it came! Patrick is t one to use an IPad, but having the wind and currents right on the Raymarine Axiom Pro chartplotter…well he couldn’t avoid looking at the weather forecasts when I downloaded them!
One thing we forgot to mention on the video, is that a Predictwind Offshore DID warn us of a stormy night ahead with its CAPE forecast. There was about a 4 hour period on the Cape forecast on Predictwind that there was a pretty big chance for squalls. Oops…forgot to tell the captain…I was psychologically prepped for bad weather, but he wasn’t. But the smart captain that he is…obviously he saw the dark clouds ahead, turned on the radar, and could see it coming, and got down sails ahead of Time! A perfect example of the bad communication at sea that we have sometimes. It’s not just on land girls…and it’s not always the captain!  The wind and waves were not so bad, but those lightning strikes were pretty darn impressive!
I am glad to have the Cape of Storms behind us, and all beautiful fair weather sailing up ahead…Ha-Ha who am I fooling!
We also forgot to mention we have an “ion dissipator” at the highest point on our mast. Can that be why we did not get struck by lightning? No idea…Probably not.

 






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