I have just had Covid 19
It was one of the scariest and traumatic couple of weeks of my life. I have had friends who have lost their lives due to Covid and have heard stories of other “friends” and colleagues having had Covid too with varying levels of illness.
Fortunately, up to this point I had managed to avoid it. A combination of having two doses of one of the approved British vaccines and married with being careful when outside the house going to different events/places. etc.
Whilst this has managed to help keep it away from the family home, you always have that thought in the back of your head that one day it may come along anyway. I was hopeful that if we were unfortunate and did indeed contract it, I may be one of the lucky ones and not end up in hospital but rather just get flu-like symptoms
Well, as I said I did get Covid, but the symptoms were indeed fairly severe. At one point my blood oxygen level (referred to as sp02) was down to 88. Now the standard range of this sp02 “should” be between 95 and 100, so anything below 95 worries medical staff as your body cannot sustain itself.
Mine as you can from above was a bit below the minimum threshold married with a very high fever over 40 degrees. These were definite stats that meant I should have been admitted to the hospital and be treated there!
However, these figures were measured and recorded during the middle of the night whilst I was in the midst of the fever. I was unaware at the time, that these figures were not good, so instead,, I remained tucked up in my own bed struggling for breath
The following morning as I was still pretty bad I seeked medical assistance by ringing the medical services here in the UK. The doctor I spoke to over the phone wanted my previous night’s readings which I gave him over the phone. He said I needed to go to hospital straight away if my readings were the same now as overnight.
He asked me to measure them again whilst he was on the phone and thankfully they had gone up somewhat to relieve the immenet danger. This meant I didn’t need to attend hospital straight away, but I was informed I needed to check them every couple of hours and if they dropped again, I was to go straight to the hospital, no messing about.
My breathing was still laboured but I wasn’t in as much discomfort as during the night.
The whole episode was rather unsettling but thankfully things started to gradually and slowly improve over a number of days.
A couple of weeks on since contracting Covid, I am still not 100% right. I still struggle for breath at times as well as being weak just going up the stairs. So by no means have the problems completely gone
So in summary, everything has been totally on hold whilst I was ill.
Why am I telling this story you may ask? Well any goals and aspirations you may have will come to a halt (or be severely impacted) if you health is compromised. So the point is to look after your health and try best to keep as healthy as you can, as any goals and dreams you have can be stifeled or parked altogether if your health is not right.
Now I am not saying you cannot succeed if you have health issues, as that is not true either, as there are many examples of people who have succeeded despite health problems.
But when your health is not right, it can certainly hold you back. So ensure you look after your health as best you can and don’t damage your body intentionally by doing things you know clearly are not good for it. If you get ill due to natural factors, then that is just a fact of life. But if you aid the breakdown of your body by abusing it such as taking drugs, smoking, excessive drinking to name a few, then you are not helping yourself maintain healthy in order to pursue your goals