CHRONICLES OF A COVID SURVIVOR By Vinit Taneja On 25th November 2020, | was admitted to Apollo Indraprastha Hospital with positive Covid, high fever, breathlessness, and oxygen levels between 93 and 95. Within 2 days, spent in their room, my condition deteriorated, and | was shifted to the ICU on a non-invasive ventilator (NIV). | spent a total of 21 days in different ICUs, Covid and regular, then a room and was finally discharged on 22nd December. Since then, | have recovered almost fully from the ailment. My lungs could not be better, and my blood parameters are mostly normal. lam sharing some of my insights from this brush-with-the-beast experience that may be useful.First and foremost, | realized that my problem arose because my lungs were already weakened by the pollution of Delhi and from being a smoker even though | gave it up 28 years ago (but your lungs still have a residue of your indiscretions). These lower your default oxygen saturation level. When | was admitted, even my Hb1ac was found to be on the higher side. | was already a pre-diabetic. This meant a co-morbidity that can impact your organs, especially since the steroids given as part of the Covid treatment, significantly elevate the sugar levels. Fortunately, my kidney, liver and heart were in good shape despite this condition, which was extremely helpful in my recovering. | realized that constipation is a major source of stress and trauma for patients in the hospital. In the beginning, | had no appetite and | tried to eat chicken and fish as | liked the taste, butthis made me suffer as well, since | was not taking any roughage. A timely reminder from my kalyanmitra Nithya Shanti helped me make this shift and | am really grateful to him, not just for this but for many learnings on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well- being that | dipped into during this experience. So, my first learning is that PHYSICAL WELL BEING is critical, both as a preventive and in order to recover from the illness. It is important to maintain regular body movements and not be sedentary. It is also crucial, from Covid standpoint, to maintain healthy lungs by avoiding smoking, using air purifiers in polluted cities like Delhi, and by lung breathing exercise like Pranayama. At the same time, if you have Covid, select your diet carefully and provide good roughage to move your bowels.When | was taken to the hospital, my daughter was 25 years old. Sadly, my father- in-law was also taken to the hospital in an ambulance in 1985, from the same house, when my wife-to-be was the same age. He never came back. This was a deadly coincidence and traumatic for my wife and daughter. Before being admitted, | made a commitment to both of them that history will not repeat itself. | WILL BE BACK. | referred to this commitment being like that of Salman Khan in his movie Wanted. (ek baar jo commitment kar li, toh main apne aap ki bhi nahin sunta ). During my hospital stay, | was strongly anchored to this commitment. | was SURE that nothing will happen to me. In fact, | told God that, this time, | was not accepting any outcome other than my complete and rapid recovery. | was like an obstinate boy, not pleading or praying but demanding. During this period, | rarely thought about the past and the future. | was in the present fully. Thefear of death did cross me a few times, but | would playfully ask this thought to step aside saying, “jaane de yaar, not this time”. | would also joke with sisters and doctors, keeping the atmosphere light and jovial, instead of heavy and sad. All this may sound trivial now but my POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE most definitely kept me alive and helped me recover fully. Even the doctors were amazed by the extent of my recovery. My attending doctors mentioned that this was a distinguishing feature of my hospital stay and they found that many patients just gave up. So, my learning is, NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVE UP. Make this commitment to yourself and to your loved ones that you will be healthy. It keeps you going and yatha drishti, tatha srishti, after all. | have learnt alternate energy healingtechniques like Pranic Healing. During my hospital stay, | was giving this therapy to patients near me. Engaging with healing others uplifted me. | could feel their pain deeply and therefore connect with them in empathy. | was also consciously thinking of reasons to be grateful in the present moment. The sisters and doctors served selflessly and connected wonderfully with the patients. For 6 hours, they are neither allowed to drink any water or go to the toilet, whilst they are in their PPE suit. Despite this, it was amazing to see how they had no complaints and only love to offer. | was grateful to them, to my friends and wellNwishers who were praying for my well-being every day. One of my friends, Rajan, actually organized a yagna in Rishikesh whilst another, Sunil, did somethingsimilar in Pune. And my classmates and energy healing soulmates were in online zoom sessions every day. During my stay, | found reasons to specifically appreciate a few nurses and doctors. One of the nurses would arrange special meals for me after checking up with the pantry whilst a doctor fired the hospital pharmacy for not stocking the cheapest medicine alternatives to make it easier on the patients’ pockets. | called these out and this also helped in creating an atmosphere of love and appreciation rather than complaint and despondency. My third lesson from this is that EMOTIONAL INSPIRATION AND UPLIFTING THOUGHTS aid prevention and recovery. If you can consciously find reasons to be grateful instead of complaining every day, if you can CATCH PEOPLE DOING THINGS RIGHT ANDAPPRECIATE THEM, if you can give and receive healingenergies/prayers to keep the energetic circle of life going, you feel uplifted. This works closely along with your positive mental attitude, to lift your spirits and help you stay well or recover. Whilst in the hospital, | was engaging with the nurses and doctors, trying to understand my condition and the medication | was being given. | found that all of them are rather overworked and overwhelmed and could sometimes miss things out. If |am conscious, | should engage in my own recovery by asking questions and helping myself along. As an example, | initiated ‘proning’ (lying on your stomach & sides to increase oxygen saturation) after influencing the doctor to initiate it for me. So, my last major lesson was that, besidesbeing grateful, | must also CONSCIOUSLY HELP MYSELF for God helps those who do. A few additional points. | wrote my will when | was 36 years old (l am now 63). | maintain details of my financial assets, howsoever humble, in a fairly meticulous fashion and my wife can access this information routinely. We often leave these things too late, and our family ends up suffering due to our inaction. | would urge everyone to HAVE A WILL AND SHARE FINANCIAL ASSET & LIABILITY DETAILS with family members by design. This is more of a life lesson than related to Covid. Secondly, you must COVER MEDICAL INSURANCE. You can otherwise be cleaned out because of this one variable. | spent over 12 lakhs on my treatment, most of which was covered by Insurance. Let me end this by expressing my heartfeltgratitude to many (even at the risk of missing some). To my daughter Saadhvi, who took charge of the hospital coordination and keeping in touch with my extended network to update them about my progress; to my wife Renuka for holding up all of the backend whilst feeling emotionally overwhelmed and suffering from Covid herself; to my lovely friends and well-wishers who never stopped praying and healing, in sessions led by Sanjai, Sandip, Divya, Anita, Amit and Alexandra, to name some; to Step One for organizing cars and ambulance for my testing and transfer to the hospital; to the nurses, doctors and other attendants/cleaners in the hospital who served selflessly and, last but not the least, Dr Rakesh Gupta of Apollo, in whose hands | surrendered my life and who navigated the entire journey skilfully to bring me back in great shape. He took total ownership and painstakingly coordinated with multipledoctors whilst personally being off Covid duty for most of the period | was in the hospital. | hope you will find these reflections useful for yourself, not just to recover from Covid or any other ailment, but also to prevent falling into such situations, to start with. Vinit Taneja — 1st June 2021 at New Delhi, India +919810160004 Vinit.taneja@tresonance.com Www.linkedin.com/in/vinittaneja