Doctors first said Roger should be taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, Billie Collins said. Minutes later, they said Roger’s condition was so bad he had to be taken to a hospital in Olathe, Kansas, 85 miles (85 km) from their home, Collins told CNN.
Since July, Roger has had a stroke, he has been moved to another hospital in Kansas City, he has undergone a tracheotomy and he is now in renal failure. He was not a diabetic before Covid, but has now become insulin dependent, his wife said.
She hopes a specialist in the ear, nose and throat can help the scar tissue surrounding her husband’s tracheotomy so he can breathe without the help of a ventilator and eventually get home.
After a year of the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, some patients have been identified as long-term caregivers, and they are suffering from a list of ailments that last for months after initially testing positive.
In November, the CDC said it was “actively seeking to know more about the whole range of short- and long-term health effects associated with COVID-19” and that it is conducting multi-year studies to investigate long-term symptoms.
When they know it’s serious
The Collins were not very worried when they first heard Covid-19 was coming to the US. They were well stocked with supplies and had a reliable income in the 55-year-old family business, a card business.
Then big sports tournaments are canceled.
“They stopped the Big 12, and they stopped the NCAA tournament,” Billie Collins recalls. “I said, ‘It’s a lot of money out of a lot of people’s pockets. ‘
“Roger and I said, ‘This is serious, we need to start taking it seriously,'” Collins explained. “And we did. We didn’t let our kids run around.”
Collins said her husband, who is six years older than she is, decided he would do groceries during the senior hours at Walmart to reduce exposure to the family. Her three adult children also decided they would not go out.
Last May, they reduced the big wedding her son was planning. Instead, the family held a masked wedding with immediate family in the backyard of their home in Iola, Kansas.
“They brought six pews from this old church and put them in our yard, and someone else brought a bow and decorated it with some candles we had,” Collins told CNN. “It was very simple, some people.”
Then another disappointment: the whole family planned to take a trip with them after the wedding.
“We all went on a rampage, like it all bore fruit and then it was just canceled,” she said.
On July 4, the family traveled to Texas to celebrate their in-laws. They were wearing masks, Collins explained, but by the sixth of that month, Roger and their youngest daughter were feeling sick.
They were tested for Covid-19 and the results came back positive on July 13th. Roger was taken to the hospital by the end of the day.
Visited through a window
Collins personally visited Roger until October when, due to Covid’s limitations, she was no longer admitted to Select Specialty Hospital in Kansas City. She sat outside in a two-person sports tent and looked out the window through the hospital window.
“I’ll just sit there from nine until it gets dark,” Collins said. At night, she sleeps in the basement of her newlywed son’s home to stay closer to the hospital.
The family brought window crayons to write messages to each other. They also learned some sign language words so they could say, “I love you,” and “Thank you,” Collins said.
Their two-year-old granddaughter sat on the edge of the window and kissed her grandfather through the glass.
Collins had to deliver bad news to her husband through the same glass.
“His best friend in high school died of a massive heart attack, and I had to tell him that through a window,” Collins said in tears. “I had to tell him that his brother died through a window, I had to tell him that his uncle died through a window. He could not touch or embrace or comfort him. Just through a window.”
In January, the hospital began admitting her to his room so she could spend time with him, but that changed last week.
Now she can see him, but they can not touch. She can only stand in his door – and because of the tracheotomy he can not really speak anyway.
Financially, Covid was a corpse for the Collins family.
Roger was the main salesman for the family business, a card company called Central Publishing Company. With him out of action, they had to close.
“From July to October, the girls tried very hard. They tried so hard,” Collins said.
Return
The family stayed afloat ‘by the grace of God and people and our friends and our family’, she said.
It means accepting help.
“People went to pay our utility bill, or we had an Amazon list and people sent or donated. It’s so humble because we’ve always been the givers,” Collins said. “If you have to say, ‘I can’t afford to buy Tide Pods,’ you become very humble and very appreciative.”
Yet she and other family members donate blood, knowing that this is one way they can help.
“Every chance I get, I’m going to donate blood … because Roger had to have a recovery plasma. He’s had four transfusions since it started because he had a bleeding in his stomach,” Collins explained. “You only give back when people give it to you.”
In the week of Roger’s 59th birthday on February 1, Billie donated blood.
“I was like, ‘I have to do this, because this is what we do,'” she said.
She also made and donated about 4,000 masks with her daughters.
“Please, please mask,” Collins said. “If it’s not for you, for someone’s family member who has a lesser immune system.”
Collins said the ordeal taught her this lesson: “Believe in God, believe in yourself and believe in your family and friends, because they are the ones who will pick you up if you fall.”