When COVID Hits Close

Photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash

Last Friday my uncle who lives in the same house was tested positive for COVID. He had been complaining of back and joint pains for days which he initially dismissed as rheumatism—until he started to have cough and fever last Thursday. By the next morning, he was already having difficulty breathing which is why he was rushed to the hospital. 

Almost immediately, as we are in the same household, we were asked to have ourselves swab-tested, including the two kids and my senior mom. I had to file an emergency leave at work for the rest of the day because the testing was to be done through the city’s health office. A regular swab test can cost around 7-8K, so it’s good that this is to be paid for by the LGU (considering 10 of us had to be swabbed). 

I don’t know how it’s done through a private clinic, but ours was done in a public-school gymnasium. We filled out a lot of forms and had to be interviewed one-by-one. It’s good that we made it through the cut-off that day and we’ve all been swabbed after an hour. However, since the testing is performed by RITM, it will take about 2-3 days before the results come out. Unlike when such testing is done through a private clinic or hospital where results are given in a few hours. 

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Meanwhile, my uncle’s situation was by far the most stressful for everyone. When he was rushed to the nearest hospital, there were no more rooms available so he waited in an isolated area of the ER. It’s good that he’s conscious and that his blood pressure’s okay but his oxygen saturation level is going down fast. He also struggles with his severe coughing. 

My cousin (my uncle’s only surviving child after his son died last year) cannot find any other hospital that can accept my uncle because most are already full as infections continue to soar. It took them almost 24 hours before he was finally admitted to the COVID ward after calling in a few favors.

Since he’s in a public hospital notoriously lacking in supplies and equipment, we were told that we need to procure the anti-viral drug Remdesivir elsewhere. Thankfully a relative, who’s a doctor, was able to find it at a hospital in Kawit, Cavite. That very day my cousin went all the way there to get it (it costs about 8K/vial on senior discount) and two vials were immediately given to my uncle. By the end of the day, we received word that my uncle is responding well to the treatment. 

The next day we were awakened by bad news that my uncle had to be intubated. This update surprised all of us as we thought that my uncle was already okay the night before. Turns out the nurse somehow misinformed us of our uncle’s true condition and what actually happened was that his oxygen saturation dropped to 40 when normal levels should be 95-100 percent. They were able to increase it through a nasal cannula but the doctors said this wasn’t enough and intubation is necessary. 

My uncle doesn’t want to be intubated because he witnessed how his son suffered greatly from it last year. However, our doctor-relative called my cousin and asked that she should convince him to go through it because it will save him. He thinks that my uncle has a strong heart but it was his lungs that are already giving up. Normally in severe cases, the patient’s BP is already very low and they’re already having a hard time waking the patient up. My uncle’s case wasn’t anything like that so he knew that intubation will help. 

After a lot of convincing, my uncle agreed, especially when he found out that a competent anaesthesiologist is the one who’s going to supervise the intubation and not just a nurse. On our last update, we were told that uncle managed to give a thumbs up although his condition is not yet stable.

***

Yesterday, our results came out and all of us were tested negative except for my cousin (my uncle’s daughter) and sadly, my 9-year old nephew. 

This was really a big blow because we were hoping he won’t get it. My nephew is very close to my uncle as he’s his favorite. He’d be called every day when it’s lunchtime so they can eat together and he had close contact with my uncle even around the time he was already complaining of body pains. Last week, the same day my uncle was rushed to the hospital, my nephew had a fever and he said his legs hurt. However, this only lasted a day so we were praying it was nothing. All the while, he’s in his usual, playful self. 

When the results were released it sent all of us in a panic because, of course, my nephew had close contacts with all of us including my 80-year-old mom and his little brother. However, we were told that we don’t need to be swab tested again at the moment and that we just need to observe ourselves for a week. Hopefully, we’d be in the clear by then.

***

I never thought that COVID stigma is real until we experienced it ourselves. While we are well aware that we can’t still go out even if we were tested negative (as we have to self-quarantine), we were told that some had been reporting us to the barangay because they can still see my brother by the silong behind our closed gate. I guess they want us to really isolate ourselves inside the house. While this can be quite aggravating, we understand that people might just be scared because of the unprecedented surge in cases. Our neighborhood these days is particularly quiet—who knows who else has COVID in our area, right? It was only now that we found out that the residents of the house in front of us, except for one or two people, were all tested positive before our uncle even did. 

Currently, my cousin and nephew (who are both asymptomatic) are isolated and staying at the empty house owned by another cousin just right across the street. I think they will stay there for more than a week and will be tested again. Meanwhile, we are praying that all of us who were tested negative won’t show any symptoms in the coming days otherwise this will be a neverending cycle considering we continue to have contact with one another. 

We now wear our face masks even inside the house just for added protection, especially when talking to our mom. I also make it a point to disinfect the common areas and make sure everything is clean and safe. We are also loading up on our vitamins, eating fruits, and drinking more water and salabat (ginger tea). 

I still continue to WFH amidst this mountain of worry and stress because I don’t have any choice but to keep going.

***

When COVID hits this close to you, it angers you when you think of how the government responded to this crisis. A year has passed since but it seems the situation is more serious than it has ever been. Yesterday, the number of new cases has reached 8,019—the highest since the pandemic started. They always blame the people for their lack of discipline and disregarding protocols, but never admitted their own faults, poor implementation, and mishandling. It’s clear that a lot of us did our part and already made huge sacrifices. Why lay all the blame on us?

Assuming that my uncle is the carrier (although we also thought it could be my cousin as she works as a clinic assistant), even if he goes to work every day he was never, ever complacent. My uncle is what could be considered a neat freak; we would always laugh at how he’d doused alcohol in his entire body, and would never go out without a well-fitted mask and face shield. So, to blame him for having caught the virus is just outright unfair as he’s more careful than most people. 

I hope some people realize how truly easy it is to blame the person for catching COVID and point out many ways on how one must’ve gotten it, but fail to see the fact that the virus doesn’t discriminate too. 

No one is safe until everyone is.  

***

Let me end this by humbly asking for you to include us in your prayers so that we’d get through this very challenging test we have in our family. 

Let’s pray for all those who are sick of COVID, especially the severely-ill, that in God’s hands they will be healed. Let us pray for the people who are more at risk like the elderly and children. 

Let us pray we all see the end of this pandemic together.