I had a health scare during COVID-19 pandemic and somehow I got lost (Part 1)

I had a health scare during COVID-19 pandemic and somehow I got lost (Part 1)

July 1, 2020

To be honest I don't know how to start this. My thoughts are everywhere and I am writing this a few hours before I take my scheduled 2D Echo later at 2:30 in the afternoon.

You are probably asking why I need a 2D echo, well we share the same question when my general physician referred me to the cardio.

So yeah, let's start from the top. 

It's just two weeks ago when we had a COVID-19 scare in our home because our barangay hall was locked down when a positive patient visited it. During that time our parents were going back and forth there since they are fixing some papers. So when the news about it being locked and subjected to sanitization we were advised to stay at home by our officials when we contacted their hotline.

During that time I was extra sensitive with the things happening around me. Call me overacting, but between being OA with a smoker father, hypertensive mother, and a 93-year old grandmother, I’ll take OA and clean-freak any time of the day.

We bought pineapple juice, vitamins, milk, and other stuff needed in fear that we might be infected. We don’t have the symptoms but our thinking was that it’s better to lock ourselves than to be a carrier of the virus. We are all aware that there is a chance that we might be asymptomatic and might encounter someone with a weak immune system and although the trend on how people infect others is not yet clear, at least to us, we know how grave it is for other people who might not be physically, mentally, financially, and emotionally capable of contracting it.

I know there is no way to prepare someone for this kind of virus, it’s just that some people don’t have the capability to adapt.

To be honest, at that time, I’m just so grateful that we have the means to buy foods and isolate ourselves without starving. I know a lot of people have been struggling these past few months and it’s been an eye-opening experience.

Remember that this too shall pass.

During the precautionary home quarantine that we took, I’ve been super sensitive to my body and the way I feel things. Maybe it’s nerve or something but it definitely made me anxious about my health.

I notice that I get easily tired and I get bouts of shortness of breath. I notice changes in my heartbeat and it alarms me since I get it even at rest.

The week prior to my return to work, I decided to finally see a doctor to lay everything at rest once and for all. I had prior issues with my ears and since I’m returning to work I want to make sure that I am fit so I went and got an appointment for two doctors, EENT and a Family Medicine.

GETTING IT DONE

That was the first Saturday, June 27, that I’ve been out since March so it was a work for me to wake up early and get up.

Actually, I was rushing everything since I’ll be reporting to our office on the following Monday. I want to put everything at rest and 

The first I did was to get an appointment for the Family Medicine Doctor. I went by the clinic and got myself an appointment around lunchtime. To use my time wisely, I went ahead and tried to get myself checked by an EENT while waiting for my scheduled appointment with the Family Medicine Doctor.

When I got to the clinic of the EENT, which is a walking distance from the Family Medicine Doctor’s clinic, I saw a long line.

The EENT that I went to is well-known so it was not a shocker. I waited for almost two hours before I got checked for less than five minutes.

Yes, it only took five minutes and I wasn’t sure if I’ll be glad or disappointed about it. The doctor said my ears are fine, thank you very much. But I honestly felt like I wasted the consultation fee for nothing!

Anyway, it’s good. I come up to the realization that it’s okay to cash out consultation fee than to find some grave stuff to deal with.

So with a light heart, off I went to another checkup.

I BET IT STUNG

I might have a blockage on my heart’s valves.

That is the possible cause of my shortness of breathing according to the family medicine doctor that I went to after reading my ECG result which I took as advised by the clinic’s assistant while interviewing me as I wait for my time to be check. While waiting, I took the ECG from the laboratory adjacent to the clinic, I want to know once and for all what’s causing my exhaustion and shortness of breathing so I’ll take whatever test needed to have my peace of mind.

During that time I was getting nervous and scared. The fear of not knowing what’s happening to me and the fear of the possible diagnosis is getting me really anxious.

Probably one factor is the fact that it’s a heart, I’m having difficulty breathing. And while other people suffer from an emotional heart problem, here I am having the possibility to get an actual physical heart problem.

Not fair.

My doctor found irregularities with my ECG, although she said that in some cases those irregularities are normal but still she told me to get checked with a cardiologist.

I won’t lie, I was scared.

I daydream to somehow be part of a cardio team but not as a patient, I was hoping I’ll be part of it as a medical worker. I love Grey’s Anatomy, Altman, and Yang. And despite seeing bouts of heart cases on the series, it’s really difficult when you happen to be the patient.

As a Grey’s Anatomy student and all the general knowledge I got from the show, I feel silly to say that I somehow went blank.

Thinking about it, I was in denial. I know I’m healthy so I can’t be sick. It’s just overfatigue. I can’t be sick.

But like other challenges that came my way, I dealt it by encouraging myself by asking a question.

“Why prolong the agony?”

And so my journey in finding the wrong in me started while repeatedly saying the line that keeps me pushing whenever I feel like I don’t have the strength and braveness to more forward.

Fake it until you make it.

To be continued...