Covid not easy to beat, say survivors
BRAVE FACE: MENTAL STRENGTH REQUIRED IS HUGE Side-effects felt months later, with doctors saying, ‘you’re perfectly healthy’.
South Africa begins its five days of mourning for victims of Covid-19 and gender based violence, called for by President Cyril Ramaphosa in November, today.
Around the country, flags will be flown at half-mast until Sunday.
We begin this week long series with three people who barely survived, and how they did it.
It has been more than five months since Calis Bruckmann tested positive for Covid-19 and the industrial designer, 29, is still grappling with the after-effects.
Bruckmann tested positive for Covid-19 in June. When The Citizen first spoke to him in July, about four and a half weeks later, he was still struggling with a headache, ringing in his ears and general fatigue. This week, he was doing better – but only somewhat.
“I’ve still got severe ringing in my ears. It’s very intense at night especially,” he said. “My energy levels are also still very low and I’m on medication to get them up.”
Bruckmann has been to see a number of doctors and specialists but no one has been able to give him any answers.
“The scariest thing is when everyone says you’re perfectly healthy,” he said.
But he also said he had made a conscious decision to, as far as possible, not let his physical health affect him mentally.
“I would have gone crazy a long time ago otherwise,” he said.
Another Covid-19 survivor emphasised the importance of the mental strength required to overcome the virus, which has claimed nearly 21 000 lives in SA.
“The mental strength required to survive this is huge but I am strong mentally and that gave motivation to my wife and daughter,” Ramohemi Motshegoa said.
Motshegoa was speaking at a virtual briefing by the Gauteng government, Surviving Covid-19: The Journey of Defeating Covid-19, in September.
Although Motshegoa put on a brave face for his family while fighting the virus in isolation at home, it was one of the worst experiences of his life.
“On the fi fth day, I began the Panado programme because I was feeling very cold on my back from the neck downwards.
“It got worse. Every night I would change pyjamas four to five times because they were wet.”
He slowly felt he was beginning to recover but on the eighth day, he questioned whether he could truly survive the virus.
“I felt some very painful experience around my kidneys and I thought this is what they mean when they say, once your kidneys collapse you are dead. The pain was extreme,” he said.
Motshegoa kept his diagnosis private. “I also decided that no one else should know that I am ill. As I am the pillar of strength of my family, it was going to create problems for everyone.
|The reaction I anticipated would be that everyone would be devastated.”
Although Motshegoa’s family has had to make adjustments, he is happy to be alive.
“I finally got cured. Right now my family and I are living on multivitamins.”