We hear about COVID-19 almost daily — the new normativity among us. My cousin fell victim to this virus: a nasty, lingering virus that gave him the worst symptoms he experienced to this day that he wouldn’t wish upon anyone. His story is to warn you that this is not the common cold or regular flu. This virus is serious.
His name is David, and he is an otherwise healthy 26-year-old male with no past medical history. He is a health freak and a fourth-year law student at the University of Miami, who works out five to six times a week, on a good week.
At any point in our life we think that we are INVINCIBLE — In our mind, we have the mindset that we was immune to this coronavirus because we are healthy and young. But this is wrong.
In early March, there have been numerous reports of novel transmission of the coronavirus that was just starting to appear in the United States. we had heard about the nursing home in Seattle, the synagogue in New Rochelle, New York. It was a precarious situation, but community transmission of the virus was not quite so widespread.
‘Sure, we wash our hands to prevent the spread or at the very least attempts to reduce,’ ‘I’ll social distance after that party,’ that’s what we thought at least. Looking back, there were too many opportunities for him to have caught this virus.
David did not take his health seriously. He figured that he could avoid the virus, but in the off-chance he was to get it, it would be like a mild flu or a bad cold. He flew home from a two-months self-discovery journey in Africa, ventured on long flights home, and was around lots of people at Nairobi and JFK airport.
He went to a beach party during his week stay in Florida and saw lots of friends before heading back to Indiana. Unfortunately, he was not careful enough. He did not take the necessary precautions. He did not think it could happen to him.
The fact of the matter is — you NEVER know.
A day after arriving in Indiana, symptoms started to kick in. On Thursday, March 12, David woke up with fever, chills, fatigue, muscle aches, and joint pain. Probably just a bad case of the flu, right? No cough, no shortness of breath, no difficulty breathing, no respiratory problems whatsoever. No nausea, no diarrhea. JUST Fever and chills. None of the highlighted symptoms (other than fever) addressed by the CDC had appeared.
Thinking that it be over very soon, David took the over the counter pills, some Ibuprofen and Tylenol and stayed in bed most of the day. The next day, he had decided to arrange a doctor’s appointment. With the massive outbreak, he was almost turned away because of the symptoms, but he decides to be fought to be seen. David’s oral temperature was 101 degrees Fahrenheit and he was put immediately in an isolation room for his appointment.
His medical provider, thankfully wearing complete PPE, performed a quick flu test (Influenza A, B, and RSV), which resulted in negative that same day. It would later reflex to COVID-19 because of the negative result and he then began the seven-day wait for results.
Unfortunately, my cousin David’s symptoms only continued to worsen. The fever was unrelenting. He had no appetite and had lost about 10 pounds. He loaded up on his daily multivitamins and Emergen-C, and continued to use Ibuprofen and Tylenol every six hours because his body was asking for ANYTHING to take away the misery.
It was not until Day 6 that he decided to drop the Ibuprofen after reading some medical opinions that NSAIDs may alter the immune response against the virus. Admittedly, David did feel WAY better the next day after dropping Ibuprofen. His fever and chills — although still present — felt improved, he continued to use only Tylenol spaced out now in the morning and before bedtime. By Day 7, still feeling chills in the morning, he decided to opt-out of using any Tylenol and tried to help his body fight this virus on its own. He attempted a little home bodyweight workout and instantly got lightheaded and felt very nauseous. His body was still desperately fighting this thing.
Day 8: He woke up in the usual sweats from the night before, but felt no fever or chills during the day — he felt much improved. He told himself:
“I would take it easy that day, I was begging and pleading to God for an end to all of this”.
After waiting seven days in self-quarantine, David finally received his results: positive for COVID-19, continue self-quarantine for another seven days. Ironically, this arrived an hour before receiving his internship assignment for law at the University of Miami. March 20th was certainly a big day of “results” for him.
By Day 13, he had not used any fever-reducing medicine in six days. For the last few days, his symptoms were mostly confined to nighttime-fatigue, sweats, chills, but by Day 13, all of the symptoms had completely gone away. David tries to reintroduced exercise little by little and god-willingly now get through a whole hour workout without getting winded.
Why am I telling this story on his behalf?
Because he is trying to encourage all of us to learn from his mistakes. Because my cousin David didn’t listen and didn’t take enough precautions when the numbers started climbing. And now they continue to climb. 3.29 million-plus patients diagnosed in our country, more than 130,000 people deceased.
Because this virus is REAL. And it SUCKS. To say it was almost two weeks before he was feeling like his normal self. Because David was a “healthy young adult,” but “mild” COVID-19 made his life a living hell.
Because people around the world are DYING from this virus — and doctors must make resource allocation decisions (e.g. in Italy and Spain) as to who should get that last ICU bed or that last ventilator because hospitals are at FULL CAPACITY. After returning from a two-month realization trip in Africa, he witnessed patients dying daily due to resource-allocation purposes. And now we are starting to see the same issues in New York City and other densely populated communities in the United States.
We NEED everyone to STAY HOME, because our health professionals are RUNNING out of masks for themselves and ventilators for patients. The CDC is so desperate that they recently issued new guidelines for health professionals to use bandanas and scarves as substitutes for N95 masks. We NEED you to STAY HOME because these health professionals are sacrificing their lives at the frontline to make sure those affected can stay alive.
David had the two biggest celebrations of his life canceled (internship allocation) for the good of those around him and the rest of the country. Now is NOT the time to go to that party. Now is NOT the time to meet up friends at the bar, to go out to eat, to celebrate your spring break, to go to the beach or the park, the celebration can wait.
So please, as a young adult, I implore for all of you to STAY HOME. my cousin firsthand can now see how this VIRUS takes LIVES. 1 out of 5 people hospitalized from COVID-19 are young adults aged 20–44; he was LUCKY to not be one of them.
As many as 10–20 percent of people show no symptoms, so you may be spreading this virus and injuring those you love without realizing it. We DON’T know who has it and who does not, and we do not have the resources to test everyone, so please STAY HOME. Social-distancing and self-quarantine is just as important for the ELDERLY as for the YOUTH.
We NEED you to do your part to FLATTEN the curve and prevent the growing spread to more and more people every day. If we all do our part, then this self-quarantine can eventually come to an end and we can soon resume what our lives used to be.
The question that matter the most
If we succeed in flattening the curve, and I believe to some extent we will, we will be faced with an even more daunting question in 30 to 90 days that we have to begin addressing right away: How will we continue to flatten the curve, not for the next two or three months, but nine months to a year or even longer?
We must shift our focus to how we flatten it for a sustained period. By reducing contact with others, we halt the chances of it spreading, or at the very least limit it to fewer people.
With limited capacity in crucial wards such as the ICU, slowing down the spread gives our medical help time to get much-needed resources to treat and release patients before the next batch of positive patients come in.
As there is no vaccine available for the coronavirus at present and testing remains relatively limited in many countries, the health agency has asked people around the world to wash their hands regularly, avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth, maintain social distancing, practice respiratory hygiene and seek medical care if they have a fever, cough or any difficulty breathing.
In other words, we assume the same number of people who will ultimately get infected but over a longer period. With a slower infection rate, hospitals will receive fewer patients on a given day thus, fewer sick people will be turned away. Thereby, flattening the curve.
Therefore, If everyone makes this change or these critical changes and sacrifices now, we will rally together as one nation and we will defeat the virus.
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Previously published on “Change Becomes You”, a Medium publication.
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Photo credit: Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash