I was stricken with COVID last month.
You probably expect me to now explain how awful it was, how I laid around in bed, suffering in agony, and was nearly carted off to the hospital. But that would be a lie.
The real story? I had some congestion, did lots of sneezing, and was quite fatigued. I pressed through it though, continuing to work from home, and would have simply thought I had an unusual, but mild, cold had I not been alerted to potential exposure and then tested positive.
Standing on the other side of COVID, I’m thankful to have had it for several reasons. As I’ve mentioned these reasons to others, I’ve seen them suddenly encouraged, for they are not often heard in our fearmongering news cycle.
The first reason is obvious: I had COVID and lived to tell about it.
The second reason I’m glad I got COVID is that I learned a few interesting things about treatment options. When first diagnosed, a nurse called me up, confirmed I had the virus, and then basically told me to just sit tight and fight it out.
A doctor friend of mine, however, gave a different story. Having left the overbearing medical system to set up his own private office several years ago so he could be free to actually practice medicine, this doctor was free to try other treatment routes. He treated a relative of mine, who is in one of the higher risk categories, with a steroid and several other treatments, noting that the earlier a patient is treated for COVID symptoms, the better chance the patient has of recovering before the virus escalates to a severe level.
These treatments worked well for my relative, and apparently have worked well for other patients of this doctor. Last I heard, he had yet to lose or hospitalize a COVID patient. This revelation has me asking whether we could have saved many lives through simple treatments prescribed early on, rather than sitting around, twiddling our thumbs waiting for the vaccine, which has now arrived on the scene but may take a while to distribute.
Finally, having COVID enabled me to ditch the great fear of the unknown. As mentioned earlier, everyone seems to think that a COVID diagnosis is the kiss of death, landing them in the hospital or on the growing lists of COVID fatalities.
Fear is infecting more Americans than the virus. For months we have sat in our homes, shied away from others, and listened carefully to the diktats of “experts” who tell us exactly what to do to prevent the virus’ spread.
I’m not denying that the virus can be dangerous—it is. I happen to know two older adults who sadly passed away from COVID just as I was forming the idea for this article, so I’m not oblivious or callous to the ravages of the disease.
Paine’s prescription for such fear, however, is truth. “But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks,—and all it wants,—is the liberty of appearing.”
That is why I present you with some tidbits of truth that I learned from my stint with COVID, hoping that like me, you too will take heart and press forward into the next year with more hope and less fear.
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