Severe Covid,ICU,Ventilator,Trache,lung fibrosis,esophageal dysphasia

I was infected with Covid and hospitalised for 4.5 months in 2021.

I would like to help others thru my story and recovery progress if I can.

I was in ICU during the Delta variant in 2021, on ventilator, had trache in my throat. I also experienced vivid hallucinations and crazy dreams while in the ICU and after. I lost ability to distinguish what was the reality and what was the dream. I was convinced there were people trying to kill me. It was a very traumatic experience.

I am so grateful and happy to be alive today.

It has been two years now since getting infected. I’m still recovering and not socially active but getting better and better with each day. I had to learn to walk again, breathe differently, work on my extremely deconditioned body and mind.
I have been focused on maximizing my efforts to get to my 100% recovery fast. New goal to get to 💯 is the end of the year 2023. As of today August 31,2023 I now only use oxygen at night 1.5L. During daytime I get shortness of breath on exertion so I bring my portable oxygen with me whenever leaving my house. I can breathe on my own without portable oxygen when sitting and doing nothing. I was able to get off the daytime oxygen very slowly, it took me about 7 months after being discharged from the hospital. I did home care therapies for the first 5 months, then outpatient pulmonary rehab for 5 wks once I was able to drive again. It really helped me learn to breathe differently. I have been working from home part time for the first 5 months after discharge from hospital and then full time remotely for a year after. Right now I work 50/50 from home and remotely. I still can’t taste nor smell. I still experience memory issues, focus and concentration issues, lack of energy, swallowing issues, and sleeping disturbance. Recently I was diagnosed with esophageal dismotility and dysphagia, it’s also a post covid issue as I started choking on water after my first 14 days in the hospital. It was before ICU and the intubation. I still have trouble swallowing and coughing. Post hospital my lungs capacity was at 42% capacity and now 2 years later it’s close to 74%. I’m getting better slowly but surely and it does take work to retrain the brain, the lungs, and to dealing with constant shortness of breath and exhaustion. I had extreme anxiety and panic attacks which subsided a lot now. My heart rate was very high while BP was very low, while in hospital I was told by my cardiologist it was due to the autonomic disfunction. The brain and heart communication was dysfunctional when brain was telling the heart how many beats it’s supposed to beat. Covid messed up with my brain. Maybe because I was Covid positive for 45 days contributed to such variety of problems this horrible virus could affect in my body.
There are still several post covid issues but I am determined to keep moving forward with great attitude and thankfullness to God for preserving my life. 🙏🫶