Dr. Manisha Singhal is one of the Renowned Psychologist & Psychotherapist in Noida practicing with Apollo Hospital & Metro Hospital
I was having my usual busy, power-packed days of dance and Kravmaga training sessions in the evenings, and mornings were being spent in giving psychological sessions.
An afternoon after having my lunch, I started feeling slightly dull, I checked my fever, it was 101. I stopped, I couldn’t believe it as I generally do not fall ill so I tried to avoid fever and continued my work but then suddenly I had a feeling,
“can it be covid?” (my first anxiety)
This thought made me a little anxious that I decided to do some extra cooking for me and my family in case if It’s covid and what if I’ll have to be isolated so better extra ready food should be in stock.
After finishing with some extra cooking, I gave evening classes and went to my room, lied down and when I woke up, I found myself in high-grade fever with slight irritation in the throat as well.
My husband and my brother being doctors could make out that it is nothing else but Covid and the plan of action with the right treatment started immediately which included a lot of medication as per my standards.
I got quite scared of being isolated..
I got isolated in my own room and started thinking about what all I’d be doing alone for the next 14 days in this room, I decided to practice few dance moves and will train myself Kravmaga more dedicatedly and will be writing some articles on psychological topics and also will change some furniture and some other settings in this room which is same for many years and similar few such tasks I thought of trying but life was meant to be different.
First, three days of illness was full of hope that I will be alright soon, and denial too that it’s as bad a disease as being told. But, with temperature running around 102-103, energy levels going down, body pain at extremes, loss of smell, and loss of taste, I started realizing the intensity and seriousness of this disease.
With treatment upgraded to steroids and other heavy medications, I again become hopeful of quick recovery but Covid has something different for me. My pulse rate dropped to 54 beats/min one afternoon, next afternoon my SpO2 dipped to 84., feeling of inability to breathe, chest heaviness and inability to complete a single sentence gripped me. Those were the testing days for me and my son alone at home, my husband unable to take calls because of being in PPE kits taking care of Covid patients, my brother was of great help to guide me and my son and provide reassurance. One of our friends who is also a doctor really acted as a savior, providing necessary food, O2 concentrator, nebulizer etc.
I was sleeping alone in my room, unsure of, whether I will get up the next morning or not..
But today is my 16th day and I’m still sleeping in this same room to recover from this deadly disease, chasing to get the health of my lungs back, to breathe normally, to get my oxygen level back, to get my normal heart rate back..
I had never imagined that a day will arrive in my life when I would be also panting like a very old and sick person and that too without any hard work rather in sitting just for 10/15 minutes, I’d be needing oxygen support or to speak just two sentences I’d need oxygen. The way I cough as if I never had any fitness before!
I got afebrile within 10 days but bad cough, breathlessness, low oxygen saturation, especially the weakness which cannot be expressible, only a person has gone through severe covid symptoms can relate and understand.
As I was getting slightly better, my son also developed the same symptoms high fever, nonstop painful coughing which was even more worrying. He is now in the recovery phase.
During this 18-day period, I kept myself away from social media up to 75/80% which helped me in not adding other anxieties like others also falling sickly sick, not able to recover, getting hospitalized, some getting shifted to ICU or some to ventilators, some in urgent need of few unavailable medicines, etc.
I too had some genuine anxieties which anyone would have after developing covid symptoms but what different I tried to do was replacing worrying with a plan of action and focusing on following the treatment, taking good rest, and sleep patiently.
If there’s a problem, remember that solution also around!
Do not panic!
