COVID-19

Maybe you’ve noticed a bit of a slow down with PnP PowerShell updates the last 2 weeks. The reason: I am currently suffering from COVID-19.

How it started

Approximately 2 weeks ago my wife felt ‘off’. She started to build up a slight fever, coughed a bit, had some muscle aches. That started on a Monday. I drove her to the local test center for a COVID-19 test. The test was performed and we went home. The results would come within a few days. She took it slow, I worked normally that week.

On Friday, we had a Netflix evening, I felt a bit off too. I decided to measure my temperature; it was 38.5 degrees C. That’s not good… Of course alarm bells start to ring. If she has it (we still didn’t know), I might have it too. Most likely even.

The fever kept around to be present, but paracetamol managed to keep it under control. The fever went up a bit and in the mean time I already booked my test too for the beginning of the next week.

During the Saturday after I started to build up the fever my wife’s results came in and she was confirmed with COVID-19. Right. Things are getting serious now.

(My wife in the meantime got rid of her fever, and has ever since actually been recovering nicely. It was mild in her case.)

On Monday I did my tests too and I got confirmed with COVID-19 myself on Tuesday.

Fever… fever… fever…

The fever didn’t go away. Sure, the paracetamol kept it under control, but only for shorter and shorter periods. And the temperatures went up and up. In the end I consistently ended up with a fever hovering between 39 and 40 degrees. Wet towels helped, but getting rid of the fever seemed not possible anymore.

I needed help

In Sweden you do not call a hospital or doctor directly in case of medical issues: everything is dispatched through a central number: 1177. I’ve been on the phone with them several times, got some help, but nothing really resolved the situation. I had a fever and it seemed here to stay.

Breathing problems

During Sunday to Monday night I started to feel even more off. I noticed that I had to ‘work’ to get some level of oxygen in me. Called 1177 again, and they dispatched us to 112, the national emergency number. An ambulance came by and a longer story short: on Monday morning somewhere around 4.30 I arrived at the emergency unit of the hospital.

Checks where done, blood samples where taken and the oxygen saturation levels in my blood where measured. Fever still there, oxygen saturation at 88%. Not good. I was immediately provided with supplemental oxygen, which brought it into the 93+% ranges again. A CAT scan was ordered for my lungs immediately and those showed that there were changes in my lungs due to COVID-19.

The week

I was put in a locked department, in my own room, doors closed the whole day. Staff comes in dressed up in lots of protected gear, and I haven’t seen a single face yet. Just masks. I am hooked up to a Airvo pump, which is effectively a machine that takes air/oxygen and heats up destilled water and mixes those components and pumps it under higher pressure into my nose. Comfy? Nope… The opposite actually. Imagine having humid air, 37 degrees, being blown in your nose 24/7, for 6 days now… also because of the design of the thing in your nose: a one centimeter in diameter hose is running besides one of you ears to your nose. And it’s noisy. Day and night you hear it. Terrible.

Does it help? Yes it does. My oxygen saturation levels went up, the fever disappeared. Are we there yet? No.

Continuing…

Yesterday (Friday 2020-11-06) we tried disconnecting me from the oxygen. Didn’t work. My body wasn’t ready yet as the saturation levels dropped almost immediately. I’m extremely tired, lost of a lot of muscle power and probably weight too.

I’m on quite some medication. Throughout the week I’ve been intravenously treated with remdesivir and I am on steroids for my lungs. I also am being injected with anticoagulants to make sure no rouge blood clots appear in my lungs.

Do I believe this will pass? Yes, I think it will. The question remains: how long will I have to stay here. The basic premiss is that the moment I can succesfully sort-of function without the oxygen pump then I should be good. So that’s what we’re working towards too. I spend as much time outside of bed as I can (lying down limits your ability of your lungs to take in oxygen) sitting up right. That helps a lot, but it’s also tiring.

Bear with me

So, while it will be a bit slower for the shorter period, I do have some good moments here and there where I gladly distract myself with working on PnP PowerShell. I’ll get there.

Update

I’m home. On Saturday morning they disconnect me again from the oxygen, and this time it worked! They released me on Monday, which means I spend a full week in the hospital. I lost 10 kilos of weight and my muscle power is virtually gone. I’m exhausted, but breathing (and still coughing). They did another CT scan later in the week and it confirmed again that there was lung damage happening due to the result of the covid. I have to continue inject myself with anticoagulants for another month, which is unfortunate, but better safe than sorry.

I’m currently slowly, very slowly, getting back on my feet again. Things are tough. I’ve had some rough moments during the week in the hospital, and those had their impact. Physically and mentally.

Update 2

In the second half of the week at home again things started to go down south. Breathing became more difficult and my lungs are not in a good place currently. I still did not regain my voice either. Last night I ended up at the ER again because it was really tough for me to be breath. They checked everything, blood, oxygensaturation (which turned out, fortunately, to be okay), and my heart. Especially the heart they were worried about as it seems not to be uncommon for covid-19 patients to acquire an infection of the heart muscle. Well, that was good too. Through the hours of waiting there things started to clear up, it was easier for me to breath, and in the middle of the night they decided to not keep me for monitoring. So I’m back home again, and I feel relatively okay. It’s far from optimal, I can’t do much but sit, but I don’t feel I have a hard time breathing. Next week will be just another week of recovery. There’s nothing else I can do.