At the end of August 2021, we got covid again.

Yes, again. Last time we got it – it wasnt even supposed to be in USA yet. (read that blog at the link)

And yet… we got it.

This time… the experience, was in my opinion, a policy crap show. There is something unique that you learn when you go through something, when you experience it first hand, when you see with your own two eyes, and its not just what you’ve heard. You gain insight that you didn’t have before.

I was down for about 3 days (cough, hot and cold, lost of taste and smell, a little fever, and a pounding headache) by the 3rd day I felt the turn around of feeling better. I had been praying over my body and praying for healing for me and my hubby. Plus there are the benefits of having antibodies that do their job. My husband was not turning around as quick as I was. He has worked, back in tree service days and even still, outside for most of his adult employment career. Saw dust, corn dust, tree pollen, chainsaw exhaust, plus being a smoker (he is going on 6 years smoke free – thank the Lord!) wreaked havoc on his lungs. He is prone to seasonal respiratory infections in the fall.

So, he hadn’t been feeling well, and he felt the familiar lung sting that says to us that we need to go into the doctor. So we did. Here is where things go south. We get to the doctor and of course he has covid symptoms. (because it seems that every symptom is a covid symptom…but I digress) They never offered him a test or required it (At this point he had a fever, a bit of a cough, not like mine and was just starting to feel the tightness of chest that leads to it being hard to breathe) So, they listen to is lungs and tell him that he has a little crackle in there. That he has low O2 (he took the mask off and it went up – he tests everything to see if it is true) They say they don’t want his breathing gets worse. They say he should go to the hospital. I tell them that he is prone to respiratory infection during the fall season and typically would be prescribed prednisone and antibiotic. Again they say, if your O2 continues to be low, you need to go to the hospital. So we pay $111 for them to do nothing but send us away.

We go home. Over the next few days he begins to struggle and we go to the ER.

They get him on oxygen right away. He knows he is in trouble. I know it. They test him for covid. They tell us if he is covid positive that I can not stay with him. I will have to leave. They come back and say, “something is wrong with the test machine. We have to do it again.” So they do it again. In the meantime, they send in an imaging machine for his lungs. After a while the ER doctor comes in and says, “we think you have covid.” (I think back now and chuckle to myself, they are talking to a man who listens to what you are saying, very closely, and to how you say it.) He says, “…think…well do I, or don’t I? The doctor says, “Your lungs look like signs of covid, and you have double pneumonia.” Hubby says, “So not covid – I have double pneumonia!” Doctor says, “well, its probable covid.” Hubby says, “that you can’t prove!” Doctor says nothing. Goes on about how they are going to admit him. (Now let me just say, he most likely had covid but the virus, like all viruses, had run its course. –do you remember when they use to say that? — you have a virus, you will just have to let it run its course. )But now, we weren’t dealing with covid. We were dealing with pneumonia. What happened next was the part that sent me over the edge in anger and frustration with the whole situation, the policies in place. I don’t know who’s making the decisions but there has to be a better way.

Do you know what they did next?

They got him an IV and they started pumping prednisone and antibiotics into his system.

They gave him exactly what we had asked the clinic doctor to prescribe. Because we knew! They didnt listen to us. They followed the protocol to send “covid’ and “probable covid” due to low O2 or shortness of breathe patients to the hospital.

Now ask yourself why? Why would they do that? Why are they funneling people to the hospital? Aren’t the hospitals overwhelmed? Couldn’t they help by doing some pre-care for those who have a history?

Back to the ER. So, they were sticking by their “probable covid” diagnosis which meant that he would go to the covid floor and he would not be allowed visitors. We got there at 11:30am and I left him at 4:30pm still in the ER.

The next day, in the morning, I get a call from a nurse to update me on his status. She tells me that when he came into the ER they had him on 4 liters of O2. She said that was a “decent amount.” Then when he was finally put into a room at 6:30pm he was up to 11 liters. She said, “so quite a bit.” She was very calm. She said, “they had changed his tubing from the small oxygen tube in the ER to one that could push more oxygen.” She said, “they would be able to use some different machines like a cpap to push oxygen and if that didn’t work they could move him over to ICU cause they use some different machines over there.” That was it.

I didn’t get another call for care update after that. (I am thankful that I thought ahead before we went to the ER and I brought his cell phone and a long charging cord. There was no way I was not going to have communications.)

He was doing nebulizer steroid breathing treatments – they were doing what they could to get those lungs open. I am grateful! That night I was restless, uneasy, I struggled to sleep. I was up every hour or so praying and calling out to the Lord to heal my husband. The next day I messaged him, “How was your night? …

Now let me tell you, this man is a no fuss kind of man. He is super independent and doesn’t like me to worry about him. When I worry, I fuss over him, and that stresses him out. So he kept messaging me and was very low key about all things. He would send me photos of his meals and his monitor. It wasn’t until he got out of the hospital that he told me that they had put an intubation machine by his bed that night and told him if his oxygen didn’t improve they would have to put him in a coma and on that machine.

That night during the hourly praying – his breathing turned around. The healing power of God came.

He knew it! He was on the mend. He could feel it. A marked change and turn around. Praise God!! Then he began to push and prod to come home. He came home a few days later.

We are all going to walk through hard things…. please remember God is right there with you.

I pray for all those who get this virus. It seems the vaccinated and the unvaccinated alike are still getting sick. It also seems that those who mask and those who don’t mask are also getting it. A friend of mine recently got an antibody test. He still has them and its been well over a year since he was sick. It was easier this time around for me but for those who are prone to respiratory illness the ability to get the needed medication to overcome has been greatly impeded. I pray that greed, and getting money, isn’t the reason the policy to push covid and probable covid to the hospitals has been put in place. I hope I am wrong. I’ve heard and will soon find out if insurance pays about double for a label of covid care. It is sad that the healthcare system doesn’t function like it use too. It’s like they broke it. I pray that God sorts out the mess and that people are able to get the help that they need.

Starla