Still Worried About Getting Sick

 

Now that we're in year 3 of COVID, I know most people have gone back to Life as Normal. But, I am still afraid of getting sick. 

There's good reason for that!

We are a family of 5, and 4 of us have asthma. Severe asthma. When my kids were little, they were in the hospital 12 times - and 2 of those were ICU. They had the "crash cart" outside my kid's room - and I still have PTSD because of the reoccurring stress and trauma. 

The cause of being in the hospital so many times? Pneumonia (for most of them), and a few of the times the culprit was wildfire smoke. 

Now that my kids are adults we still battle respiratory diseases. They haven't been in the hospital for 15 years - but we all still have Urgent Care and ER visits for asthma. 

And we will - for the rest of our lives. Asthma doesn't go away.

If pneumonia wasn't bad enough for us, along comes COVID. Both times we have had COVID, we have been very sick - and almost ended up back in the hospital. 

Many of my friends and colleagues that have had COVID tell me, "Meh. It's just like a cold." Not when you have asthma. Every respiratory infection is a LOT worse when you have asthma.

I was very sick for a month. I needed Albuterol breathing treatments every 4 hours (around the clock.) And heavy duty doses of oral steroids (in addition to my daily, controller high dose inhaler.)

I was coughing so hard I would gag and try not to vomit. My oxygen level still hasn't recovered from having COVID a year and a half ago. And I need overnight oxygen. When I got COVID again last month, I needed oxygen during the day too! 

I also wasn't able to eat because I was afraid I was going to aspirate my food because I was coughing so hard. 

So, there is a good reason I am still afraid of getting sick.

Since COVID started, I haven't gone back to church, book club, or any neighborhood pot luck dinners. I will stop and chat with neighbors if they are outside, but indoor activities where there is likely to be a lot of germs makes me really nervous. So I still wear a mask - or just skip indoor baby showers or bridal showers.

Am I the only one still feeling this way? For the rest of you with asthma - do you still worry about getting sick?