Varvara Kovaleva, RIA Novosti Crimea
When the pandemic in all numbers in Crimea began to decline, all friends were vaccinated or had been ill, the RIA Novosti Crimea correspondent "jumped" into the last carriage, but not somehow, but with bilateral pneumonia straight into the holy of holies COVID-19 - the "red zone" … It is to the place from which some do not return, and whoever returns, will definitely look at life and the world in a different way.
Bacteriological weapon on two legs
In the "red zone" of the covid hospital. Simferopol
First of all, be ready to realize that you are in the "red zone", which means no visits to loved ones, exits to the store, "smoke" and other delights of ordinary life. You are a prisoner. Consider that for a certain period you are a bacteriological weapon and spread the infection. Try to accept it. It will not come immediately, "howl" will begin the day on the third. The only way to walk is from one taped and sealed door to the same one at the other end of the corridor.
Nails - cut down, bed - throw away
Everything that you bring to the hospital automatically becomes infectious, so everything will come back with you only upon discharge - there are no "return" packages from the hospital. "Transfers" resemble prison ones - bags with a note attached with tape - "4th floor, infectious diseases ward 2, ward 15, full name" - everything should be clear and without errors. Ask your loved ones not to give you jars, flasks and other things that will only litter your ward and disturb others. It is also better to take things to the hospital that can then be thrown away, the doctors themselves advise. Out of harm's way - the coronavirus has not yet been thoroughly studied, who knows that the laundry will live on even after washing and ironing.
For girls: your wonderful nails with a fashionable design can become an obstacle to diagnosis, namely, they will interfere with the measurement of blood oxygen levels with a finger pulse oximeter. And they will measure often: three times a day and once at night. If you have already called an ambulance and your intuition says that you are more likely to be hospitalized, take a file with you.
Sound that you recognize from a thousand
There is a pandemic, it is not over. All the horrors and difficulties of the "zone", which are told from the screens, exist. Tired heroes-doctors in stuffy coveted suits who day and night help patients banging on the wall and screaming from the inability to breathe. The nurses who, according to the rules of covid, wash countless wards every two hours and take out tons of garbage on their fragile shoulders, the same sound of oxygen machines and ventilators that you now recognize from a thousand, and night gurneys along the corridor. So, someone was transferred to the second floor - to the intensive care unit. Best case scenario
"This is it"
For almost a year of fighting the pandemic, doctors have already gotten used to identifying "covid" almost by the cough and the general condition of the patient. On the very first day, the doctor easily destroyed my little hopes for pneumonia and "made me happy" - this is "it". But I myself realized that I would join the caste of those who had been ill after a couple of days. In addition to coughing and sore throat, you start those very coronavirus "buns" - the feeling of "not your own head", wild weakness, replaced by sharp rushes of imaginary vigor, hellishly aching and burning back, and other sensations that are definitely not like all yours previous ailments, colds and SARS.
You measure the temperature, and it turns out to be "turned" in the other direction. 35.9. And you're on fire. And this can only be corrected by a pain reliever, sympathetically injected by a nurse with the words "be patient, baby, it will be a long time."
The antibody test result is coming soon - no doubt about it. You have COVID-19. All your dissident thoughts in places are swept aside - there is a virus, it is terrible, and it does not matter if you are 65 or 23 years old. Mows everyone down.
The Matrix Reboot
The exit from the "red" zone occurs as in slow motion. A nurse helps to carry your things into an elevator with double protection, for another moment - you are in it, literally 40 seconds and a nurse meets you from the "clean" side and leads you to the exit. Another moment - you leave the hospital. At first it seems that you have been loaded into a computer game and everything around is just a figment of the imagination of its author.
A man sitting on a bench, guards arguing among themselves, cars, birds, trees. You suddenly realize that during these 14 days the world around you continued to live, develop and become more beautiful. With a feeling of exaggerated happiness from what you see, you will stay for a couple of days, then everything, of course, will gradually come to naught, but you still feel that something “clicked” in your head and no matter how pathetic it sounds, you will never be the same.
Every breath of fresh air, every sunset, every person you meet - everything will seem to be anew.
I would like to stay a little longer in this state of joy and surprise at simple things, dissolving less in everyday life and problems, and breathe clean air - a lot, deeply and for a long time!