Renuka Dhinakaran

On this day, 5 years ago, I was isolated in a Covid ward - on my birthday. I could not breathe, eat or drink. I couldn't see my husband, as he was at home, taking care of our son who also had Covid. I vaguely remember hearing doctors mentioning "ICU", nurses singing happy birthday & begging me to eat applesauce or else I might need an NG tube. I had almost died once in April 2019. I thought this time I was most certainly going to die. Six months later, I wish I had. The #LongCovid community knows my story after that. How the whole world came together, in a spirit of generosity, to take me back to India in an air ambulance, how the amazing doctors Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre saved me and brought me back to life, how my husband, son, parents & brother took care of me, how I had to give up practising law but slowly came back to it (albeit in a limited way but with all my clients waiting for me). As I write this while hooked to my BiPAP (12 hours a day), relying on a wheelchair & oxygen machine while I leave the house, being able to eat ten things, and barely remembering how life was before my birthday in 2021, I am grateful for one thing: that I am alive to raise my son, teaching him to manage his congenital conditions and live a good life. Everything else is just added bonus. Today PEM has met PMS, on a gloomy day in the Netherlands. So I'm going to be in bed, with my beloved BiPAP, and listen to Stray Kids (on the cool, CD player that my boys gifted - thank you, Anand). I may be fatigued to my bones but I shall rest in style.

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