I survived Covid-19

By Herbert Vego

 

THANK God, I have returned to this corner after three full weeks, counting from March 26, 2021. In 12 of those days, I was confined in a hospital. To make those long days short, let me just say I fought and beat the world’s most dreaded coronavirus disease (Covid 19).

Was it providential that I had to experience the disease to get an answer to the question “why” one year had passed without the World Health Organization (WHO) and our own Department of Health (DOH) recommending medicines that could cure Covid-19?

Why were they more interested in asking us to participate in a “waiting game” where our chances of winning rested on the efficacy of vaccines, which are by nature merely preventive rather than curative?

Only the Big Pharma stands to amass billions of dollars of profit from even just half of the 7.7 billion world population patronizing them!

If there were no effective medicines, I had repeatedly asked, why do the majority of Covid patients – around 85% — recover?  I could only guess it was because they were mostly asymptomatic – having no symptoms of the disease at all – and therefore had greater chances of recovery.

I had also written about Dr. Allan Landrito, who was stopped by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from prescribing Ivermectin to his Covid patients despite his claim that it prevents “cytokine storm” or the excessive inflammatory reaction of the human body to a foreign body.

A “personalized” answer to the “why” question dawned on me mid-morning of March 27, 2021 — the day I was wheeled into a spacious hospital room after checking positive for Covid-19 despite my normal temperature, blood pressure, respiration, and pulse. My only complaints were diminishing appetite and body weakness.

An X-ray done in another laboratory had bared “both lung fields clear.”

Oh well — I still defended my doctor’s “logic” behind the seeming contradiction — why wait for the worst that could happen in the unfolding hours? Mild Covid, case studies show, could suddenly turn critical.

I was allowed only my better half as “bantay” who would have to literally confine herself within the same room in the duration of my hospitalization. She had her own bed three meters away from mine.

Only special nurses in PPEs could enter the room. My doctors (four of them) would have to peak by the window to speak to me, and that included an infectious-disease specialist I was seeing for the first time.

On top of the “standard” antibiotics, he offered a “cure” worth P73,000 (senior-C price) for 10 intravenous doses, provided I sign a “waiver” that would render him and the hospital unaccountable in the event of “unforeseen circumstances”. The cost could not be passed on to PhilHealth.

How could I refuse? I was in an inevitable hit-or-miss position. I could only beg for time to decide.

Meanwhile, I managed to reach via text messages two of my doctor friends – one a surgeon, the other a high-school classmate who used to be deputy chief of the Philippine General Hospital. While both had a different cure in mind, they could not interfere.

The surgeon, however, did me a remote favor I could not write about yet for being “FDA-unauthorized”.

Before Day 1 was over, nevertheless, I got tethered to dextrose and an “introductory” double dose of the offered drug, which I would rather not “remember”. Got the clue?

On Day 2, I asked one of my nurses to tell Doc to discontinue the “rem” due to its apparent side effects, namely heart palpitation and skin itchiness. I also asked to be “disconnected” from an oxygen tank because I was still breathing normally.

He agreed and offered an oral, less expensive substitute, which I am hiding by the shortened name “Favi,” for which I had to sign another waiver.

I would like to presume that, at least, the drug had prevented my disease from progressing. But there were “interventions” from outside the hospital that I could not elaborate freely at this time. I would be more generous with the “secrets” at a more opportune time.

On Days 9 and 10, respectively, I was X-rayed and RT-PCR-retested in my room.

On Day 11, one of my doctors revealed that both the X-ray and test results had rendered me “healed”. I hollered, “Praise the Lord!”

I also heaved a sigh of relief for my better-half/bantay who also tested Covid-negative.  We moved out on Day 12.

To all my generous siblings, friends, relatives, politicians, and everybody else who would rather stay anonymous, a million thanks!

 

‘HARVATERA’ CONDOLES WITH THE ROYAL FAMILY

REMEMBER when this corner broke the scoop about fellow Ilonggo Victor Martin Soriano on the receiving end of a legal case, where his tormentors were no less than the United Kingdom’s (UK) Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle?

Soriano used to be a celebrity, too. He astounded us on August 7, 1994 when he swam the Iloilo-Guimaras Strait continuously – a distance of 4.2 nautical miles (7.7 kilometers). Nobody else had done that feat.

This time, the Prince’s Archewell Foundation of UK was questioning before the Intellectual Property Office in Taguig City his use of the name Archewell Harvatera as the brand of his commercially viable tawas deodorant.

The last word we have on the matter is that Prince Harry and Megan had lost interest after his lawyers failed to beat the deadline set for filing opposition to Soriano’s use of the word “archewell” in his products.

The grateful Martin celebrated his apparent win with a TikTok showing a 15-second song-dance dedicated to Prince Harry’s son Archie. The performance (of which Martin himself is a participant) as posted on Youtube has generated 75,000 viewers in the UK.

When we last got in touch with Martin, he begged of us to relay his condolences to the prince over the passing of his grandpa, the 99-year-old Prince Philip, who is scheduled for interment tomorrow (Saturday in the UK). Philip was the husband of reigning Queen Elizabeth.

Congrats Martin.

 

MORE ‘NOT GUILTY’ ONCE AGAIN

WE can’t blame MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) for being “defensive” whenever brownouts shut the lights and sounds of Iloilo City. The company has, unfortunately, become the scapegoat for power outages beyond its control. The truth of the matter is that whenever it fails to deliver power, MORE naturally earns less.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has begged for “understanding” over power outages scheduled tomorrow (17 April 2021) from 6:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon (five and a half hours) and on Sunday from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (11 and a half) hours.

NGCP reasons they have to shut down in view of preventive maintenance of its  Sta. Barbara–Ingore power barge and its associated high voltage equipment.

NGCP has the crucial role of linking power generators and distribution utilities to deliver electricity where it is most needed. Its network of interconnected transmission towers and substations serve as the highway where electricity travels from various energy sources to the smaller thoroughfares of distribution utilities and electric cooperatives until it reaches the households.

MORE Power would exploit its opportunity to perform parallel maintenance of its power lines.