Covid-19 is real. It seems that statement should be ludicrous
but sadly it isn’t. There are still
people who deny that the pandemic is real.
Those people have brought pain to their survivors. I have one relative who lost her father
because he denied the existence of the pandemic, refused the shots when offered,
and paid the ultimate price with his death.
His demise is unfortunate, the pain he has caused his daughter is unacceptable.
Face it, vaccinations save lives and
pain. Avoiding vaccination may condemn
your loved ones to unbearable grief.
The following narrative is from a
friend of mine who spent the last several weeks dealing with a parent’s worse
nightmare, the fear of losing a child.
This is unedited and heart-rending. An unvaccinated caregiver is suspected
to be the cause of this nightmare.
I feel like we can BOTH finally breathe again and I am
Mitch is great now and as far as I can tell is 100%. All his
nurses turned out to be negative and the last nurse received her first Moderna
dose 2 days ago.
No more quarantine!!!!... I can say the Moderna and Pfizer
vaccines held strong for me, my dad, and for his fully vaxxed nurses. We were
aerosolizing virus with respiratory treatments and I was sleeping next to and
caring for this child without a mask... and wow... no virus!!!
The first symptoms started about 40 minutes after arriving at
the orchard on his birthday (Saturday 4/3) and a low-grade fever began
approximately 6 hours later. The high fevers a began the following day on
Easter Sunday.
I always read that kids with COVID are "easy" but this
was not the case for us. Mitchell had pneumonia. Twice, his nurse and I
observed his hands turning blue but his pulseox was in a normal range (I didn't
have the COVID diagnosis at that point) so we shrugged it off and assumed it
was the way he was laying.
The following day (Friday), I got his diagnosis and his oxygen
numbers were at 91/92%. I had oxygen at home and the ability to continuously
monitor his stats along with a Dr and a team of loving nurses who checked in
via the phone (my preference was to keep him home). I also had a machine called
a cough-assist that allows me to help clear his airways. It's used with saline
and his asthma meds (via nebulizer). Our amazing Dr also prescribed Ivermectin
(off-label) to shorten the duration of the virus. Ivermectin and it seemed to
work for him. I will be curious to see how this does in the clinical studies.
I was alone (no nurses for the weekend) and was doing
respiratory treatments every 3 - 4 hours around the clock for 2 days and 3
nights. Mitch's stats stayed in that 91/92% range for much of the weekend while
he slept and I would wake up every 3 hrs or so to the sound of his pulseOx
and/or coughing and vomiting.
It was frightening to watch him try to get air and then wretch
and vomit (this cycle continued for much of the weekend). He was becoming
extremely dehydrated from the vomiting, coughing, and diarrhea (all water) so
Dr suggested increasing pedialyte and it worked.
By Monday I was at my breaking point and was terrified so I was
happy to have our day nurses back. I was finally able to get some rest.
As Mitchell started to improve (middle of last week), he was
able to expel what was trapped in his lungs.... It's disturbing to share that
there was dried blood and cell debris. Luckily, his numbers had bumped back up
to 96/97% ......so my fear was quickly replaced with relief (was also super
grossed out)....
COVID was not easy for us..... I am forever grateful to his Dr,
his nurses, and my neighbor (Patrick) who made pharmacy runs for Mitch.
we are good now so this is not being shared
to generate sympathy. I more want to let folks know how bad this can get with a
child so no one takes this disease for granted. I also encourage folks on the
fence to please run (not walk) get your vaccines.
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