Everyone has times in their life which are especially difficult to experience, and when this happens it is something that you are going to need to think about how best as you can to ensure you know how to get through it. No matter what the nature of that difficulty might be, there are certain aspects which are always going to help you to get to the other side.
In this post, I want to take a look at what those difficulties might be, so you can ensure that you are going to live a fuller and happier life regardless of those issues.
Apparently I’ve had Covid for a couple of weeks now, but only found out on Thursday (yesterday) that I was COVID positive after have a 15-minute rapid COVID test come back negative. My husband, Mike, was also probably struggling with COVID for several weeks but because he was on antibiotics for a possible sinus infection, his lungs were attacked by COVID and they were white on x-ray and didn’t look much better on his Chest CT, because he also had severe pneumonia. He was admitted to the hospital (into ICU) on Wednesday evening and his oxygen levels (SATs) were erratic at times, but they were low. Then about an hour after I left the ICU, his SATs dropped down to around 44 and the doctor told me that they almost lost him, so they had to put him on a ventilator.
When I went to the ICU Thursday morning, where they had Mike on his stomach, temporarily paralyzed, and on a ventilator. The doctor said that his best course of treatment was something called ECMO, and that they were working to get him into either UTMC, Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, or UK Medical Center in Lexington, Ky. UTMC wouldn’t accept him; Vanderbilt would accept him but didn’t have the equipment available to treat him; but UK accepted him and said that they could treat him.
So late last night, a cardio-thoracic surgeon at the local hospital here placed an access line so the UK ECMO treatment team could immediately hook him up to their machines and transport him from here to Lexington on their dedicated ECMO treatment ambulance. One of the transport team members called me when they got to our local hospital and then called me again after they arrived at UK and gave me an update.
As of right now, he is stable and undergoing 24-hour ECMO treatment. It’s still a touch-and-go situation and one of the treating doctors at UK told me this morning that Mike is the sickest patient they have on their COVID floor right now.
And because I am COVID positive, I am quarantining at home… alone… with only my four-legged furry babies. Although I am by myself, I have a wonderful support system full of family, friends, co-workers, and people who know my husband. I am trying to remain positive and trying to stay busy, which is why I felt it was important to post about “getting through the tough times”, because right now – for me – is a very tough time.
Get Creative
Very often, you can do a lot to make the most of a bad situation. Usually this will require that you get creative in some way or another, and find a unique solution to your problem, even when it seems as though there is no solution at all. By thinking outside of the box, you can get closer to an appreciation of how to manage this, and that is something that is really worth bearing in mind. Try to use all of your intellectual capabilities to really work out a great way forward – and you’ll find that everything becomes easier.
Manage The Situation
If you are in a difficult situation, there will usually be certain things that you just have to do in order to get through it. Sometimes these things will form those strange kinds of administrative tasks that we have to do. For instance, when someone close to you dies, you have to arrange the funeral, get the cremation jewelry for ashes, and inform people about what has happened. All of that can be hard to do, but it can also actually help, and focusing on those kinds of things can make it all a lot easier.
Faith
Not everyone automatically has faith, at least not of a religious kind, but you don’t need that in order to understand just how important this kind of understanding and approach is. Really, in the broader sense, faith just refers to the ability to see that everything is going to be okay ultimately, even if it is going to take a while to be so. That is something that can be hard to appreciate, but it is generally true, so you should remind yourself of this whenever you are feeling particularly lost or as though nothing is right.
Friends
Finally, remember who your friends are and make sure that you are using them for support. Just ask yourself what you would want to do if a friend of yours was in your situation – and then make a point of asking someone for exactly that. You will be amazed at how readily people come to your side, so this is really something that you are going to want to think about. The more people you have to do this, the easier it will be to get through the tough times and out the other side.
I’m truly finding out about what it means to have your friends and family around for support. Asking family and friends for help is hard for me, but I realize that I will need to rely on them to bring me a few groceries or something to eat. I also realize that I will probably need someone to bring some goat and horse feed for my our miniature horse and special needs goat before I can get out of quarantine next Saturday.
I know that everyone faces difficult situations that can often be a long process arduous process, but getting creative, managing the situation, and relying on your faith as well as your friends and family can help you get through the tough times.
Yours Truly,
Vanessa
{Featured Photo by Matt Moloney on StockSnap}