What it's like to have fluid in your lungs and why we need to take social distancing seriously
Mar 25, 2020
In my second year of college in the winter of 2008, 1 day in the middle a class, I coughed and when I pulled my hand back from my mouth there was bright red blood.
I waved to my teacher, flashed my bloody palm, and was escorted to the head of our departments office.
The paramedics were called and 20 minutes later they showed up and quickly dismissed it as "raw" vocal cords (as an acting student this seemed like a reasonable explanation to them).
I started to feel sick over the next few days, with a bad cough, and intense fatigued. My upper back was achy and I was having a hard time sleeping.
A few more days passed and I was pale as a ghost. A worried friend saw me in the hallway between classes and told me I should see the doctor on campus. I made an appointment for the next day.
When I went to the campus doctors office I was barely able to make it I was so exhausted. The doctor was alarmed by my color. They quickly determined I had pneumonia and gave me a prescription for antibiotics.
I mentioned my difficulty sleeping and the doctor suggest before bed that I fill up a bowl with boiling water and place it by my bed so the steam would help me.
I left to walk home and passed a group of students who were smoking and I couldn't breathe. I broke into a coughing fit. It was scary and I felt rage at them for smoking.
That night I started the antibiotics.
As the doctor suggested, I boiled water, filled a bowl, and took it into my bedroom. I leaned down to set the bowl on the floor and then it happened... I coughed up a LOT of blood.
My lungs had filled up with fluid.
The blood gushed out. I coughed and coughed and it kept coming. It was all over the floor. I ran into the bathroom and coughed more into the sink. I was choking on it as it came up.
My roommate wasn't home that night. I was totally alone struggling to get any air.
I ran back into my bedroom and called 911.
I could barely speak over the coughing. When the operator asked me to repeat my address I wanted to cry and I was so mad - I barely was able to say it the first time.
As I waited for the ambulance I kept coughing. I coughed up over a cup (250ml) of blood.
When the paramedics arrived they tested me and found I was at something like 70% oxygen.
I got my purse and they took me to the hospital. I was terrified. I was sure I was going to die.
At the hospital they gave me oxygen and in that moment when my body was flooded with oxygen I realized just how little air I was getting. After an hour I removed the oxygen to take a sip of water and I felt like I was drowning.
It was so bad the doctors thought it wasn't pneumonia and assumed I had a tumor. I was put under a day or 2 later and they concluded it was actually pneumonia, just a really bad case of it.
Waking up after having tubes down your throat is very painful.
I was in the hospital for days in isolation. I had permanent scar tissue in my left lung. If I breath really deeply I can still feel the rasp in that lung.
When my mom went to my apartment she said it looked like a crime scene.
I was out of school for 3 weeks to heal and I was still weak after that much time.
Fluid in the lungs is terrifying.
Pneumonia sneaks on, slow, so slow you can dismiss it until you're suffocating and weak.
I wanted to share this story to illustrate just how scary not being able to breathe is; the coronavirus symptoms are similar to pneumonia.
Even if you get it and you recover it's a horrible experience.
And dying from it would be an awful way to pass.
Being on a ventilator would be painful - tubes down your throat hurt - and COVID-19 patients in the ICU often have to be on them for days or weeks.
I've been shaking as I recounted this experience; it was the most vivid reminder of how mortal I am.
I've had pneumonia twice which means my lungs are susceptible. I'm taking quarantine very seriously.
Please, stay home. Practice social distancing.
❤
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