Thread by @DavidLat

1/ A year ago today is when I was admitted to @nyulangone because I couldn’t breathe, thanks to what turned out to be #COVID19 (but we didn’t know that at the time; it was early in the #CoronavirusPandemic, and I hadn’t been tested yet).

#COVID #Covid_19

2/ I didn’t want to go to the hospital, even though I was having a hard time breathing and my mom and husband were telling me to go. I finally went when my husband said that if I didn’t go, he’d call me an ambulance.

#COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

3/ I was so weak, it took me forever just to leave the apartment. I went from my bed to the dining table, from the dining table to the living room couch, from the living room couch to the door (and our apartment is not that big).

#COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

4/ Mask wearing wasn’t a thing yet, but luckily we had some leftover masks by the door that a family friend had given us back when we our son was a newborn and she urged us to have visitors wear them around him — so I put one on, plus gloves, and headed out.

5/ I took a cab because I was definitely not able to walk 15 minutes; I wore my mask and tried not to breathe much during the short ride (which wasn’t hard, since I could barely breathe even when I wanted to).

#WearAMask #COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

6/ When I arrived at the @nyulangone emergency room, I could barely stand; I had to prop myself up with my arms on the counter when checking myself in. #COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

7/ They quickly sent me from the main waiting room into an inner waiting room that was less congested. There were just a handful of us in there (which is why I was a little surprised when a new arrival took a seat just a few feet away from me).

8/ After a short intake interview, they sent me back to see the doctors. I don’t know what my oxygen level was, but they pretty much immediately gave me supplemental oxygen — which felt great and was a huge relief. #COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

9/ They put me in my own room in the emergency room, a negative pressure room that would prevent air from my room from going into the rest of the ER. So I was in that room, lying down, getting oxygen through my nose (nasal cannula). #COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

10/ There was a garbage can right outside my room; anyone who entered my room would put on a new set of PPE, which they’d throw away in the garbage upon exiting (so at least there wasn’t a shortage at the time). #COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

11/ At some point, they accidentally delivered someone else’s lunch to me (pasta with tomato sauce); I devoured it (my taste was back by then). It turns out I wasn’t supposed to be eating in there, but nobody told me that. #COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

12/ They eventually moved me upstairs to a private room (12-33) in the Kimmel Pavilion, the beautiful new wing at @nyulangone. It had a lovely view facing west. #COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

13/ That night, I got my #COVID test result: positive, as I suspected. I went on Facebook and Twitter to notify my friends and contacts, in case I had inadvertently infected them. #COVID19 #Covid_19

14/ Here’s what I posted on Facebook that night one year ago. I was in the first 500 cases in New York City and the first 1,000 cases in New York State — which now, a year later, have had 785K and 1.76 million cases, respectively. #COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

15/ I said in my Facebook status update that I was feeling blessed, which was true. I was at @nyulangone, a state-of-the-art hospital, in a luxurious private room, receiving excellent care from wonderful nurses and doctors.

#COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19

16/ So many other #COVID19 patients received much worse care or no care at all, suffering or even dying at home, sometimes alone. I consider myself very, very fortunate.

#COVID19 #COVID #Covid_19 #coronavirus #CoronavirusPandemic