I had Corona: “I hear people shouting loudly for help”

People tell us their stories. People send us their “My Corona Story” (sic!)

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I had a severe Covid episode in April this year and summarized my diary entries.

12.04.2021
A scratchy feeling in the throat, as if a speck of dust had gotten lost in it. Sudden attacks of dizziness. It's definitely not corona, just the beginning of a cold. I reduced my contacts almost to zero and even stayed at home over Easter, but just to be on the safe side, do a PCR test, you never know… – POSITIVE.

The first few days are not nice, but they are bearable. Fever, severe tiredness, smell and taste gone, eye pain, toothache.

17.04.2021
On the sixth day, in the morning, all symptoms are gone. One of my best friends says on the phone: “Dude, you sound like the least sick person in the whole universe.”

In the evening the tide turns. Very high fever. Taking the maximum dose of paracetamol hardly brings down the fever, but causes me to break out in sweats, during which I lose liters of fluid.

I call the emergency doctor for the first time

April 19, 2021
I plan to cook a large pot of chili to feed me through the next few days.
After peeling the onion I'm so exhausted that I have to lie down for ten minutes. I pull myself together again, cut the peeled onion in half and dice one half. I have to lie down because I can no longer stand. I can't breathe, hyperventilate and call the ambulance for the first time. Although I can't stand on my feet and have trouble breathing, the values ​​are still stable enough that they don't take me with them.

This isn't normal. You won't survive this.

20.-21.04.2021
I get bad diarrhea at night. I also have a very high fever and am sweating gallons, accompanied by a thirst that cannot be quenched. Panicked and afraid of dehydration, I drink gallons of water to compensate. For the first time I realize: This isn't normal. You won't survive this.

For the second time I call the emergency doctor. I vomit four liters of water into the hallway because I can't make it to the toilet. The emergency doctor presses his stethoscope into two places on my back and says I need an antibiotic because my lungs are rattling. And drinking a lot would be important when you're so sick.

Both lungs are full of corona particles

22.04.2021
Even though I breathe more often and take deeper breaths, there is no longer enough air in my lungs. For the third time I call the emergency doctor. I am taken away with oxygen saturation that is far too low.

Admission to Covid ward, X-ray, MRI, 12 liters of high-flow oxygen. Both lungs are full of corona particles, but with plenty of oxygen it will be fine, the doctors say. Every breath is torture because the pleura has also become inflamed. The artery in the wrist is tapped with a long needle three times a day to check blood gases and oxygen levels. If I survive, I would love to be able to continue playing bass, I pray that no string gets hit.

I hear people shouting loudly for help

24.04.2021
From now on there was a significant deterioration. Breathing is very difficult and it feels as if the last available plug is being tugged at. “We have to transfer you to intensive care.” A special access to the artery is made on the wrist so that the blood gases can be continuously monitored. The artery cannot be found on either side and needs to be pricked very often. I would love to still be able to play bass if I survive and pray that nothing gets hurt.

There are ventilated patients in the next room. Brief music is played regularly throughout the night, from classical to Ballermann. I hear people shouting loudly for help.

I give another close friend access to savings for a possible funeral

April 25, 2021
I have to go to the toilet and realize that I can't get up anymore.
Only with help and with great effort do I manage to sit on the edge of the bed. The meter shows a blood pressure value of 220/140. Then I realize that things are much worse for me than I want to admit. 20 hours ago I went to the toilet on my own, but now I can't even sit up on my own. “We have to intubate immediately, you have acute respiratory failure. Your beard has to come off.” My beautiful beard.

50/50 chance of survival.
A process is initiated when one knows that one is approaching death. Nobody is allowed to come to me, I write with my friends on Whatsapp and Threema. A dear friend who is a priest agrees via WhatsApp to bury me if it comes to that. I give another close friend access to savings for a possible funeral. I write to my best friend and fellow musician that everything in my place that has to do with music belongs to her.

I'm 41 years old, lying here dying naked in my own shit and can't even say goodbye to family and friends in person because the cause of my situation is called "Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2" and could put any visitor in the same situation when I infect him.
Hopefully I didn't infect anyone before I had symptoms? Two sentences come to mind:

1. This disease is not fatal.
2. I will not die, but live.

Two fragments from the Bible that I otherwise wouldn't have thought of in my life.
These words and the contact with my friends via Messenger give me the hope and strength I need. An armada of doctors rush in, cannulas are placed in both arms and in the neck. The plunger of the syringe hits the shaft and everything turns black.

28.04.2021
“You have been transferred to another hospital, your values ​​are very good, we are extubating.” A long, black shadow slides out of my mouth, accompanied by a hellish burning sensation in my throat. “Tomorrow we will transfer you to the normal ward.”

The smell of this virus is unbearable

28.04 – 10.05.2021
I try to text with friends but I can't hold the phone because I'm too weak. I can't do anything alone. Total helplessness. “I thought you had been in a serious car accident and were here because you tested positive for Corona,” said my bedmate in the normal ward when I was already feeling better.

Coughing up corona particles for four days.
The stench of this virus is unbearable. I wish my sense of smell had returned much later. Coughing for four days and nights until a rib cracked. Eight weeks of hellish pain because of four days of coughing up Corona. Slowly being able to sit again.
Try to get up. Take a step. Days later I was finally able to go to the toilet alone. After more than three weeks, I was able to shower alone again. Always walk a few more steps around the room. Not being able to leave the room because you are infected with Covid. Slowly eat normally again. Swallow lots of Novalgin for the unbearable headaches after anesthesia.

Days or weeks when I have so little energy that I can barely get up

10.05.2021
Fighting your way back to life with the consequences that are rarely mentioned in the media: four weeks of rehab, shortness of breath due to intubation injuries, which have resulted in two operations so far and were not the last because the inflamed tissue keeps growing back, days or weeks when I have so little energy that I can hardly stand up, colleagues and acquaintances gossiping like “you’re the only one we know who had it that bad.”

Rediscover life and be grateful that there is a 50/50 chance of continuing to live.

Grateful for a vaccination that can prevent something like this and which I have now received. If only I had been able to get vaccinated earlier, I might have been spared this journey!

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