Surviving COVID-19 in California
My Nov. 24 Epoch Times article.
UPDATE: It’s now Nov. 27, Day 11, and I’m feeling a lot better. Thank all of you for your prayers. All along it has been like a mild cold, but with more fatigue. I have been fortunate.
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I came down with COVID-19. It’s been mild so far. I thought readers might like to know what it’s like getting through it in California.
I’m only going to mention briefly that I didn’t get the vaccine. I have my reasons. I understand the science. I never discouraged anyone from getting it. Several of my friends have gotten it and have done fine, avoiding COVID. Maybe I’m just an ornery American who doesn’t like government dictates. Use your own judgment. It’s still a free country.
Day 1. Nov. 17, Wednesday
In the afternoon I started feeling a little weird. I’ve taking my temperature almost daily since the pandemic started in March 2020, using a hand-held device like they have in hospitals.
Temperature: 97.9, normal. It would stay there throughout the ordeal, with one exception on Day 2.
Symptoms: dizziness, chills, coughing, wheezing, exhaustion. Sort of like a mild cold—which I knew it was not. I did not lose my sense of taste, as some of my friends have, but did lose 90 percent of my appetite. A convenient excuse for weight loss.
I used one of those store-bought test kits, $26. I waited 10 anxious minutes as the test strip rested in the little vial of liquid. I pulled it out. Result: a blue stripe and a pink stripe. Positive.
I called my personal physician of 20 years. The last time I saw him for a checkup was a couple months ago. He reiterated his advice from then: Go to Hoag Hospital, get tested. If positive, get monoclonal antibodies—Regeneron. It was late at night, so he said go at 7:00 am the next morning.
I have gone to Hoag for decades, but recently switched insurance. I asked if I should go to another hospital where my new Medicare insurance is good. He said, No. The government pays for the test, Regeneron, etc.
I’ve had good experience with Hoag Emergency. They treated me for diverticulitis in 2010 and a separated left shoulder in 2017. That was the Newport Beach hospital.
Day 2. Nov. 18, Thursday
This time I chose Hoag Irvine, because it’s a little closer and there’s less traffic from where I now live. I got there at 8:00 am. They checked me in and took me back to a single room and closed the door to seal me in. I was masked through all this.
The nurses and other medical people all were fantastic. They were nice and understanding. I wish I had gotten their names, but wasn’t at my peak during my time there. Usually I would read their name tags and remember them. But everyone was wearing those billowing yellow antiseptic gowns over their medic outfits.
They gave me the PCR test, more accurate than the home test. Positive.
The doctor gave me the news through the PA system. Alone in the sealed room, a patient un-etherized upon a table. Her voice seemed disembodied, beaming down from the ceiling.
“John, this is doctor …” didn’t catch her name. “You tested positive for COVID. We are going to give you Regeneron. Any questions?”
“No. Thank you.”
“They’ll be in soon.”
READ THE REST HERE:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/surviving-covid-19-in-california_4123114.html