Hi everyone,
On Monday, May 22nd, 2023, my mom and I tested positive for Covid. After 3 years of avoiding it, it finally caught up with us and yes, we’re vaccinated. My mom wasn’t too symptomatic, she just had a cough, but I was definitely feeling the symptoms. It was a little scary because the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy weakened my respiratory system. I usually can’t get a cold or the flu because it can become pneumonia. Although since I got the Trach in 2018, I’ve had one cold after my 40th birthday and it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it passed pretty quickly. However, this turned out to be a very mild case of Covid and was not really life threatening to me. I was lucky that I got it now and not in 2020, when it was much more serious or when Delta was going around. I definitely would not have been as lucky if I got it then... It likely would have killed me.
I remember when I went to bed the night before; I had a little more congestion, which happens sometimes, so we didn’t really think anything was off. I knew something was going on when I wasn’t able to fall asleep because I rarely have any problems doing that lol. I don’t know if you know this, but insomnia is a symptom of Covid. I still felt fine, so again I figured it wasn’t anything. Then I got the chills like I had the flu and I was like “Oh Shit! This can’t be a good thing”. I tried to sleep, and I finally did for about an hour. When I woke up, I felt like shit. I was more congested in my upper respiratory area and in my sinuses. I also had a weight on my chest like my cat Pepper was sitting on my chest (he’s got a fat ass!). My mom was feeling kinda gross too in the morning, but not as much as I was. I told her we should probably do a Covid test, and she agreed. We did me first and it almost immediately turned positive and when my mom did hers, it did the same thing. We officially had the Covid virus for the first time.
As soon as we discovered we were positive, we headed to the Emergency room. They admitted me to Cape Cod Hospital for four days and they administered an antiviral medication called Remdesivir by IV. I felt a lot better by the end of the week and got discharged that Thursday. After that, it took another week to fully recover. It was a little uncomfortable breathing for a few days, but I could manage. Again, I have to say I think my Trach actually made it easier. We have direct access to my upper airways with the suction machine and can clear them quickly. Plus, I can connect a nebulizer machine directly to my ventilator which allows me to breathe in a saline vapor to break up congestion or albuterol to open my airways. It was very helpful to alleviate most of the respiratory symptoms. The good thing is that the respiratory infection stayed in the upper trachea and it never went into my lungs which would have been bad. The respiratory issues weren’t bad to me, It was the Gastrointestinal issues that really sucked. I will spare you those details lol. Basically in 60% of people who are entral fed through a stomach tube like myself(btw I still do eat by mouth all the time👍) experience issues in the GI tract because of the Covid attacking the stomach lining. It was very unpleasantly uncomfortable. That lasted a little longer than everything else and I would love if I never experienced that again. It felt like the alien monster from the movie Alien wanted out of my stomach. I was very uncomfortable on my ride out to Ohio but it pretty much went away when we got there. Yes we made sure we were negative before leaving before anybody asks. I was able to enjoy the rest of my trip so that was good.
I’m doing great now! I’m back to 100% and I don’t seem to be having any residual symptoms or complications from it either thankfully. I’m back to eating by mouth and I don’t have anything in my chest. It’s like nothing happened. I’m really glad to have gotten it over with and hopefully I never go through that ever again.
The end! Thank you so much for reading!
