My COVID Journey – Part 3

The Hospital Experience

I haven’t been to a hospital, much less an ER in over 20 years! Part of my waiting so long to even go to the hospital was because I didn’t know how! I remember Jeff went to the ER for a kidney stone year before last and so we decided to take me there. Clearly, urgent care was NOT the place I needed to go. So off to Mercy Hospital of Folsom we went.

Hospital Admission

Jeff pulled my car around to the front of the house and somehow got me to where I needed to be. I hadn’t been in my car for weeks, it was weird. He had to drop me at the curbside at the ER, no one was allowed to go in with me. I had my purse with a bottle of water, my phone charger, and my warm coat. I guess I was really ready for anything! Someone rolled me into the waiting room and another lady asked me what I was there for… All I could say with a short rapid breath in-between each word was, “I have COVID, and I can’t breathe.”

They began to roll me into triage, then promptly rolled me back out and into a code room. I didn’t know this was a ‘code room’ until way later during my stay. I didn’t know there was a ventilator in there either, it just looked like a busy hospital room.

The staff was very nice, but my condition was very difficult for each of them. I remember I kept thanking them for their service. They had to completely decontaminate themselves leaving my room and hazmat uniform themselves up to enter. Coming in and out was not happening, they tried to bring in all the things at once to minimize exposure to me. Which sucked when I really needed to use the bathroom (code room didn’t have one) and yup! You guessed it! They FINALLY brought me a potty chair! And of course, by the time they get it to me, I REALLY had to go.

I no sooner get situated on it, the doctor comes in. I was so sick I really didn’t even care, but he was slightly mortified I could tell. 

The IV antibiotics, antivirals, and 10-12 liters of oxygen seem to be doing me some good and I was responding enough to just wait and see how I do. They ordered a chest X-Ray and that was HARD. I didn’t have the energy to get on and off the table, but I did it. I was EXHAUSTED! On our way down to imaging, I remember looking around at all the things.

The hallways of the ER looked like a battle zone! I remember it being neat and tidy when Jeff was in there for his kidney stone. This was all so surreal!

Moving Hospitals

There were no beds available for me, so I stayed in the ER for 2 nights. One of the ER rooms was like a wind tunnel room and had a hazmat decontamination room attached to it. So noisy, didn’t care. Hours would roll by, I didn’t care. I didn’t have the energy to care.

Then they finally found me a room in Grass Valley at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. Two young paramedics came and took me off in an ambulance to the other facility and a very nice room all to my super contaminated covid self! Here was the last stop. 

My Hospital Stay

They finally stabilized me, but I wasn’t really improving. The doctor said I should expect a minimum 14-day stay based on the state of my lungs and the pulmonary embolism. He showed me the film of my lungs and they were coated with what the doctor said was the equivalent to cut glass. Wow. So I guess this was really serious…

No supplements allowed! Hmmm, how was I supposed to get better then? Well, it just so turned out that a new friend of mine had a new product that hadn’t been released yet specifically for COVID. Jeff had brought me a bag with my brush and a change of clothes and smuggled it into the waistband of my sweats.

It’s a botanical nasal oil that really worked! I noticed a 35% improvement just after 2 doses. I was happy to become part of their case study too, BTW! 😉

The doctor said (after the 2 doses) that it appeared that I had turned a corner and that I would be going home on Saturday. This means only a 6-day stay, not 14! I still needed to go home and quarantine for another 7, but I was AT HOME!

The staff and doctors were really awesome, and yes, they had a gluten-free menu for me as well.

I felt safe and cared for there. Did I share with them my mystery COVID zapping remedy? Nope. It really did take the best of both worlds to get me out of this one.

Stay tuned for more on that no-name mystery product and how it really did wipe out COVID from my body! Next week I will share with you the long and complicated recovery process from this nightmare!