I Survived COVID: Fourteen Days of Hell

              (Thein Htun Htun’s article from his FACE BOOK on July 24, 2021.) 

In the afternoons of both July-1 & 2 I worked out one hour each day on my treadmill machine at home with no problems at all. But on July-2 midday I had to go see my doctor at the Han-thar-waddy Hospital for my recurring back-pain.

I was in full PPE there, I washed my hands thoroughly with hand sanitizers, and I took a long shower when I got back home. Then on July-3 I went out to nearby Inya Lake and tried to jog a few laps on the lake-bank for the weather was fine with not a rain in that evening.

I usually jog three or four laps, but that day I was getting really exhausted after just one lap and so I decided to stop running and just walked in the Rangoon University Campus and came back home. On my way back home I noticed my fingers were slightly swollen and I immediately sensed that something was going wrong with me.

I was even thinking today July-3 could be the Day-1 of my COVID journey since COVID has been everywhere and at almost every household in Rangoon. But I still thought it could just be a minor flu, so I took a long shower, have my dinner, and have a shot glass of Scotch Whisky. I was feeling normal like any other day.

On July-4 I was still feeling normal. Since my hair was a bit long I took out the hair-clipper and shaved myself, took a long shower, had my dinner, and as usual a shot glass of whisky. On July-5 I was still okay as I felt nothing wrong. Only that day just after midnight I woke up horribly cold and shocked. My sons took my temperature and my fingertip Oxi-meter reading. High 102 degree and low 93%.

That day on July-6 my COVID sufferings had started. The Day-4 of my own personal COVID journey. And I was horribly depressed. But I followed what everyone in Rangoon had been doing since this third wave of COVID has been ripping through the city of more than ten millions.

I took Paracetamol tablets and some CIVID Virus killing pills which I didn’t even know what exactly inside were. Forced myself to eat regular meals even though I was not that hungry. Amazing thing was unlike other COVID victims I knew, I still have my appetite. And I drank a lot of hot tea just to sweat myself out. And I was sweating like hell that sweat bled out of my body like water.

I also drank a lot of saline solution for I was beginning to shit like hell. And I had red spots on my inner thighs as bouts of diarrhoea was getting frequent. But I still had my sense of smell and my appetite. Only on July-9 the Day-7  I lost my smell and my appetite. But I still manage to force myself to eat rice porridge and boiled chicken pieces. And two chicken-eggs per day.

On July-10 I got tested and found COVID positive. Be strong and don’t get depressed, I AUTO-SUGGESTED myself and it seemed to have worked. As many doctors have suggested I tried to sleep on my stomach or my sides, not on my back at nights.

And I did breathing exercise frequently. Breathe in four seconds, hold it for four seconds, and breathe out four seconds. Ten repeats per set, three sets each time, ten times a day. Rest of the day I concentrated my in-out breaths at the tips of my nostrils as in a Buddhist meditation.

I then started waking up sweating at middle of the nights after nightmares on and after July-11 the Day-9. My fingertip Oxi-meter readings were jumping up and down all over the places. And my sons changed my COVID pills to new one which is said to have a side effect of severing diabetic. So they kept constant watch on my diabetic readings.

Luckily my diabetics did not get worse, but my blood oxygen was suddenly dropping. I had to start inhaling expensive pure oxygen out of a cylinder. I used to take my COVID pills at night but the excessive sweating at nights forced me to change pill-taking time to midday as I was afraid I would catch a severe cold at nights. On July-12 the Day-10 I started coughing severely.

I stopped using phones as I felt so exhausted whenever I tried to talk. One friend gave me a traditional Burmese cough medicine made of Dant-da-lun leaves (Moringaceae) with Tumeric. After two days of taking religiously that Tumeric-Dantdalun medicine my cough was stopped and my bowel was back to normal.

By July-14 the Day-12 my body temperature was back to normal and I was feeling better and getting comfortable physically. At midday I made a fuck-up I shouldn’t have done. I took a short but warm shower.

That evening my body temperature was shot back up to 120 again and my suffering had extended two more days. Only on July-16 the Day-14 the temperature came back down to normal. Since then I was getting better and feeling almost normal again.

Of course my body is still fighting the COVID and my blood oxygen was still going up and down and up and down, but it doesn’t really matter as I was feeling much better as I concentrate on my regular breathing exercises.

Today is July-22 the Day-20 and I consider myself almost cured of bloody COVID. Thanks to my close friends and family supporting me all around, especially my two sons. Without them I would have been dead weeks ago.