covid 19

 

Only now, at a remove of almost six months do I feel able to recount the events of January 2021. Then, snow fell outside the window, a light fall, clothing the back garden beneath a shroud of white. Today, a day of warmth and sunlight, some days before midsummer, the honeysuckle is in fragrant bloom, and the bees visit the sprawling cotoneaster beyond the window in humming droves. 

Midway through the month of January, M and I contracted Covid 19. M rapidly became extremely ill, developing pneumonia and a bacterial chest infection. Witnessing his desperate attempts to draw air into his lungs was terrifying. I called for an ambulance and M was admitted to hospital in Bath, where he was placed in Intensive Care, unable to breathe without the aid of a ventilator.

Each day, the hospital telephoned me with reports of his condition. I was advised that he may not survive his hospital admission. Days passed in fear and illness; I was less affected by the virus than M, but nevertheless, I was subject to muscular weakness, fever and the complete loss of the sensations of taste and smell. 

I slept on the settee downstairs, each evening waiting for the bulletin from the hospital, curling up under my cardigan to sleep after I had made telephone calls to M's mother and our families, advising them of his progress. Minos slept with me, folding himself into a succint coil beside the settee, only leaving my side to perambulate the snowy garden, before returning to take up his position once more. 

There came the day that , after a week of cautious calls from the hospital, that the staff were able to tell me that M was considered well enough to leave Intensive Care, to the cheers from the dedicated team of doctors and nurses who had supervised his care. I was overjoyed, my relief and pleasure knew no bounds; I made delighted telephone calls to family and friends.I had thought that I would not see M alive again; to hear his voice on the telephone following his discharge from Intensive Care onto the Respiritory ward was almost too much of joy.

In the weeks after his return home, M made slow, but steady progress towards health. he has been restored to life and health, even though he still tires easily, and reports that sometimes he feels twenty years older than before. He shall retire towards the end of this month, and, with gratitude immeasurable, we live each day in quiet love and companionship.