This is gonna be my Mom’s 7th night in the hospital. Day-16 from her first symptoms onset.
I want to write stuffs as a memoar on how we get to this point, and maybe share the story so people could handle it better when it’s their time. Although I sincerely hope this pandemic would be over soon, being realistic and well-prepared is always a good strategy.
1. Those ‘titik lengah’ infographics? Take it seriously.
Unlike last year where you heard cases where only one person in the family gets it, this delta variant makes similar case impossible, unless you get very, very careful.
In my family, it started with my Dad. Being the typical bapak-bapak komplek, he still went to the mosque 5 times a day and kongkow malam-malam before the symptoms appeared. Succeeded to dodge it for the last 1.5 years, finally on a Saturday, he had fever and started to lose his sense of smell. Then I felt same symptoms on Sunday, and Mom felt it on Monday. There was no thick enough partition when someone already brought the virus home.
2. Telemedicines are very helpful, but always ask for 2nd, 3rd, even 4th opinion, and trust your gut instinct as a caregiver.
I used Halodoc everyday since Day-1 to consult about each of our developing symptoms. One week in, I felt like my Mom’s condition doesn’t improve after prescribed meds and the oxygen therapy. I asked 4 doctors that day to assess her situation. Two doctors told me to stay home as she ‘just needed more time with the oxygen therapy’. One doctor told me to wait up another day. One last doctor convinced me to go to the hospital ASAP as she noticed the stagnant/declining trend. I followed last doctor’s recommendation as it’s what I feel like I should be doing as well. When we arrived at the ER, the doctor there let me know it was the right decision.
3. On hospital admission: Don’t wait until it’s too late.
The reason I insisted my Mom to be admitted to the hospital was because her O2 saturation kept declining to under 94 after 3 days of oxygen therapy at home. Continuous low blood oxygen will damage internal organs. Many of those who finally couldn’t be saved waited too long until it gets too hard to breathe or too many organ failures happening inside. You may recover from covid in 2-weeks time, but the damaged organs might take months to heal.
4. More reason not to wait up for hospital admission: Jaminan Kemenkes is not time-unlimited.
It is true that the Health Minister acts as financial guarantor for most treatment cost for inpatients Covid-19 probable & confirmed cases. But, CMIIW, once the patients tested negative for Covid, the guarantee is over and the treatment expenses would have to be paid by the patients themselves.
Please take a look at dr. @florenceoyen’s highlight story about her Dad’s struggle to survive the fight against post-Covid issues that turned up to be very costly for her family.
5. Remember emergency fund? Make sure, not only to save adequate amount, but to also have instant access to it.
My Dad has money, but it’s all in his savings account and he has no SMS/ internet-banking access. My Mom also has money, but it’s mostly in the 100,000 denomination. I thankfully have enough in my Gopay/ Ovo/ Jenius/ LinkAja/ BNI accounts to get everything we need during home quarantine delivered to our door without the need of cash exchanges. And again, remember, covid could be costly.
6. The post-covid effects are real, and they suck.
My Dad and I thankfully only experienced the typical symptoms, like fever and some coughs. We thought we’re already healthy after surpassing the 14-days mark. But on Day-15, <<<<<BAM>>>>>, I suddenly have gastrointestinal problems. Dad also developed mild vertigo whenever he gets too tired. Yeah, this virus sucks.
Everyone have their own timeline on fighting with this virus. Be it medically, financially, mentally, or psychologically. Sebagian orang menghadapinya tahun lalu, ada yang hari-hari lebarannya diselimuti kesedihan, ada juga yang saat ini masih berjuang untuk bertahan. Remember to always be kind, you don’t know what the other person is currently dealing with.
I wholeheartedly want to thank my incredibly helpful neighbors, my super attentive best friends, and my understanding and generous clients for helping my family get through this. I still need to wait a couple days until my Mom could be discharged from the hospital. Fingers-crossed she’ll make full recovery out of this. Insya Allah.
And to all of you who had took the time to read this, I pray for you and your family’s health. May Allah keep protecting us all. Aamiin.
PS. Mom was discharged from hospital on Thursday, August 5th evening. She’s much healthier, happier, and recovering very well. Alhamdulillah.
