Page 5 - JULY 20 TNT

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Awake!
Awaking with the ventilator apparatus inserted through my larynx, I could only use rudimentary sign language to communicate. Simon and Anna, two of my many wonderful nurses, tried hard to understand my version of charades. With my arms restrained to keep me from pulling out the tubes, I motioned that I wanted it removed. It wasn’t particularly painful, just uncomfortable. It felt as if I was choking when coughing. I was ready to progress to the next phase – surviving. Apparently, I was very convincing as Dr. Tauseef Siddiqi, one of my ICU pulmonologists, along with Dr. Vigi Sankar and Dr. Randy Dalugdugan, agreed to remove it two days earlier than planned.
I wondered when they would remove the tube when sud- denly I saw one of the nurses in front of me say, “1, 2, 3, pull!” That question was quickly answered. With the ventilator removed, the day before Easter, I still had a significant case of double pneumonia and fever to overcome, so another course of intravenous antibiotic was ordered.
Now breathing on my own, which was very painful with the pneumonia and coughing, my next step was to recover. I thought, “Here I go again.” If I didn’t fight hard enough and prove I could do it, they would intubate me again. At this point, I had lost more than 25 pounds during the first 12 days, which resulted in significant weakness. Still on phenobarbital, and with some of the sedatives still in my system, it was like flying through clouds without instru- ments – difficult to understand exactly what I was doing. Even under these conditions it was important to build my strength, so I started my own exercise program that day. At first, I could only raise my legs an inch or two, and simply lifting my arms was almost impossible. I looked at my legs and the muscles appeared to have disappeared. So much for mountain biking with Jane.
When I came out of the induced coma, my vision was in bad shape. Again, my first thought was my medical. I couldn’t open up my left eyelid fully, and when I could, the vision in that eye was very poor and my depth perception was impacted. Ana knew I was a pilot and would repeatedly tell me to open my eyes. I then resigned to myself that if it didn’t improve, Jane needed to complete her BFR so we could fly. Over the next several days I worked to focus my vision by doing my own eye exercises and using anything I could find as an eye chart. Within four days, my vision was almost normal – one less concern for my medical.
Two days later, I was out of the ICU, and still in isolation, moved to another floor. I told the nurses to avoid coming into my room unless necessary since I knew they could be exposed to the virus and the last thing I wanted was for them to get ill as well. The care and concern of the medi- cal staff was simply amazing, and I immediately made it my primary goal to remember as many names as possible to thank them later. I would tell my doctors to just call me on the phone, however, they insisted on visiting in person. Every day housekeepers, orderlies, therapists, nurses would don multiple layers of protection to care for me. My sister Diana and my son Tigre started a fundraiser to purchase PPE for the Kaiser staff and other hospitals.
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July 2020 / TWIN & TURBINE • 3