Blog #2 – We Don’t know What This Day May Bring

Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.  Proverbs 27:1 (KJV)  

Seeking Medical Help

The First Doctor Visit

For me, August 2020 began with sickness.  Early in the month, I was experiencing sinus pressure, a runny nose, and some fatigue. Being accustomed to allergies, I took every known step I could to ease the symptoms, finally going to see the doctor on August 3^rd.  I did not know of being exposed to anyone with COVID-19 and was not running a fever.  The doctor chose not to test me for the coronavirus, instead giving me some instructions on relieving the symptoms of seasonal allergies.  After good days and not-so-good days, Linda persuaded me to return to the doctor on August 7^th.

The Second Doctor Visit

Because of COVID-19 concerns, the Nurse Practitioner I was to see was examining patients with respiratory problems in a temporary building outside the main office.  I waited in my vehicle until the Nurse Practitioner called me to come into the temporary examination building.  Although I was not running a fever, she checked my temperature and oxygen levels and determined them normal.  She also tested me for COVID-19 using a nasal swab.  I asked her opinion on the accuracy of the nasal swab. She said she believed they were causing many false negatives.  She asked me to self-quarantine at home until the test results came back.  Tuesday, August 11^th, the doctor’s office notified me the COVID-19 nasal swab tested negative for the coronavirus.

The Third Doctor Visit

Friday, August 14^th, I had trouble breathing with my oxygen levels still in the low nineties.  At my family’s insistence, I went to Parkwest Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee.  The emergency room doctor did an x-ray of my lungs and diagnosed me with pneumonia in both lungs.  Because of my recent negative COVID-19 test, the doctor did not test me for coronavirus.  After being given a prescription for antibiotics and instructions to follow up with my primary physician on Monday, we went home.

The Fourth Doctor Visit

Monday, August 17^th, I returned to my family physician, bringing him up to date on my hospital visit last Friday.  After some discussion, an examination, and listening to my lungs, he injected me with an antibiotic and asked me to follow up with him on Wednesday for possibly another injection. He told me I needed rest and should stay home until I improved.

The Fifth Doctor Visit and Hospitalization

The next day, August 18^th, I was fatigued, and as the afternoon progressed into evening,  I was laboring to breathe.  I watched my oxygen levels drop throughout the day.  By evening, using a pulse oxygen meter at home, my oxygen level had fallen to sixty-two percent.  Regular pulse oximeter readings usually range from ninety-five to one hundred percent. Values under ninety percent are considered low.

Like any red-blooded American man, I resist going to the doctor, and a possible hospital stay was not on my “to-do list”!  But with the low blood oxygen readings and the overall feeling of being run over by a renegade city bus, my family found it relatively easy to convince me to go to the hospital just to be checked out, of course.  I knew the emergency room doctor would probably admit me for a few days to overcome pneumonia, so I packed an overnight bag, just in case. I never thought this might be my last day alive.

We arrived at Parkwest Hospital at around 9:00 pm.  A table was staffed outside the Emergency Room to screen patients before entering the hospital.  The staff person asked if someone had tested me for COVID-19.  I told them, yes, but the test was negative.  When they heard my oxygen level was at sixty-two percent, they quickly took me into the triage for evaluation while Linda remained outside the hospital.  The ER doctor immediately started giving me oxygen and ordered a COVID-19 test; Linda was allowed to join me in triage.  Shortly, the coronavirus test confirmed I had contracted COVID-19 and needed hospitalization.

Overwhelming Anxiety

After supplying the hospital staff with my insurance and current medical information, Linda had to leave the hospital.  One of the trials of COVID-19 patients and families is their separation and the resulting aloneness.  My low oxygen and labored breathing caused anxiety I had never experienced before.  The physical distress the COVID-19 produced caused an indescribable emotional breakdown combining hopelessness, fear, and despair into something fearfully painful. The low oxygen levels were undoubtedly affecting my clarity and mental state. One of the last things I remember before Intubation was not catching full breaths, weeping, with many of my emotions out of control, pleading with the hospital staff to do something to help me.

I wished I could honestly write of my great faith in Christ during this period of my trial.  The truth be told, I was drowning in a tar-like substance that was filling my lungs slowly.  While drowning,  I confess my thoughts were on my lack of breath and realizing I was in serious trouble.

One of the Emergency Room Staff, I can not remember if it was a lady or man, fetched my cell phone and suggested I call Linda to remind me of the good times we had together.  They helped me dial the number, and I heard the sweet voice of my beloved wife.  She began to tell me about the marvelous adventures we had experienced, our favorite places to visit, and the wonders we had seen.  When she would run out of things to remind me of, I would implore her to give me just one more.  I missed her so much, but the sound of her voice calmed me.  At the time, I thought I called her only to distract me by remembering good experiences and comforting me.

Intubation

Linda told me the hospital staff wanted to intubate me and asked if I was ok with that.  Honestly. I had no idea what Intubation entailed, but if it meant I could get air into my lungs, I was drowning standing in the hospital emergency room and was ready to go for it.  In retrospect, Intubation was a risky yet necessary procedure that helped save my life.

Tracheal Intubation is often in response to respiratory failure and shock and is a reasonably ordinary life-saving procedure performed in intensive care units. Intubation potential side effects can include; damage to the vocal cords, bleeding, infection, tearing or puncturing tissue in the chest cavity that can lead to lung collapse, throat or trachea damage, injury to teeth, fluid buildup, and aspiration.  The procedure has a high correlation between the amount of a patient’s intubation time and death.  Statistically, the survival rate for intubated patients is 53% after two days.  The survival rate for intubated patients is 8% after three days.  My Intubation lasted twenty-one days. Later. Hospital staff told me many COVID-19 patients do not survive Intubation, and I was only the second patient from Parkwest Hospital that had survived.

Looking back, we now believe this was the hospital staff’s mindful kindness, allowing us to have a “goodbye” call before I left to be with Jesus.  Linda later said the phone call had broken her heart. Linda is more intuitive about some things than me and had a different understanding of the phone call’s purpose.  God speaks to us in the way that best ministers comfort to His children.  In His perfect love, Jesus knows how to comfort us in times of stress and trouble. God’s word tells us, “Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 (KJV).  For Linda, the call would minister grace to her in the coming days, and for me, it calmed my troubled mind.  This call is the last thing I remember before my medically induced coma.  Linda and I would not hear each other’s voices for twenty-three days.