On Aug 31, one of my sisters brought our mom to RMC or Rizal Medical Center in Pasig City due to extreme fatigue and fever. Prior to that, she brought our mom to a different hospital due to continuous fever for three days; our mom's initial diagnosis was UTI and high blood sugar.
She was immediately admitted at RMC ER and considered as person under investigation (PUI) since she was manifesting Covid symptopms. She underwent PCR or "swab" test. Hence, all family members exposed to her were also considered PUI and must quarantine. I haven't visited my mom since February to minimize her exposure. Our mom is considered as immunocompromised individual due to her Hypertension and Diabetes not to mention that she is already 72 years old.
Initial diagnosis at RMC, aside from suspected Covid positive, was uncontrolled Diabetes, her blood sugar was above 300, and controlled high blood pressure plus sign of mild pneumonia.
She needs to be admitted but considered as PUI so she followed Covid protocol; meaning she would be isolated and won't be transferred to "clean" room unless her swab test result is negative.
The following day, my mom was transferred to a Covid "private" room since the swab test result is not yet released; my sister stayed at the waiting area of RMC. With the help of nurse on duty, she provided a celphone to our mom so we could call her from time to time. More so, she needs to talk with our Dad because he wouldn't eat or take his medicines without talking to our mom.
They treated my mom's high blood sugar, hypertension and pneumonia while waiting for swab test result. She was in oxygen the whole time. Aside from medications, my mom was put in "proning" position from time to time to aid her breathing. Her vital signs were stable according to her doctors though blood sugar remained high.
On Sept 3, we got the result. Our mom was positive for Covid.
We kept on calling our mom day and night since we are aware that there are cases of Covid patients not being able to say goodbye to their loved ones. We are also aware that we won't be able to even hug her body if the worst thing happens. We were praying and all eight sibllings and grandchildren were united in this trial.
Since our mom was Covid positive, the family members that have been exposed to her went for swab test in Pasig City. All of their tests returned negative. Though we were happy with the result we were wondering how come that only our mom became infected? She never went out of her house when the pandemic started.
What lifted our spirits was our mom's determination to recover. Though she started getting annoyed and sometimes raising her voice whenever we call her we were happy to know that she is stable and "grumpy" when she run out of diapers, lol.
My sister signed a form allowing my mom to undergo "Remdesivir" treatment; she needs 6 vials, two vials on first day and one vial daily for the following days. I asked another sister who is a nurse why we need to sign a separate form. According to her, this is because Remdesivir is a new and costly drug. One vial costs around 7,000 pesos.
To make this short, our mom completed 6 shots of Remdesivir. She also completed her moderate pneumonia treatment and now taking insulin for her diabetes. After two weeks in RMC, her swab test result returned negative and she is now recuperating at home.
Her bills reached 203,000 pesos including professional or doctors fees. After Philheath and senior citizen's discount we paid 43,000 pesos.
My (nurse) sister told me that in private hospital, the bill could easily reach 500,000 pesos.
We need to ensure that she wouldn't be reinfected by Covid because Philheath discount would dramatically decrease in case she got reinfected by the same disease in 3 months.
All told, we are very thankful to God that our mom is back "online," lol. Many thanks too to RMC staff for taking good care her.
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