Paul's Heart

A Fate I Never Want To Face

This is Travis Campbell of Virginia. He is 43 years old. And yes, he is a Covid19 patient. He is also someone who has been resistant to taking the Covid19 virus seriously, including getting vaccinated. He is publicizing his journey on social media. In his words, he “messed up” in not getting the vaccine. His current status, having graduated downward in his condition, has him now in the ICU. In his videos, you can hear him struggling to breathe.

This is not the part of his story that gets me. I am tired, after a year and a half of trying to convince people I know, who either deny the reality of the situation or have gone full throttle conspiracy in getting through this pandemic. My friends who believe opposite what I do in regard to Covid19, know that I will respect their decision, no matter how wrong I feel they may be. Notice, I am not saying they are wrong, but rather, I feel they are wrong. And that is different. Because I really think, that if they took a step away from the resources they use to make their determination, and look at the science and facts, from reliable sources, like their doctors, just as I do, they would definitely at the least, have some doubt about their current stance.

But emotionally, I just cannot offer any sorrow at this point for anyone making the choices against prevention, against mitigation, against common sense, only to get smacked in the face with reality. I have several friends who work in health care, including a long term Hodgkin’s survivor who is “forced” to work, taking care of Covid19 patients in spite of her vulnerabilities. And I find it even more offensive than earlier, that with at least the option of being vaccinated, the majority of patients being seen, are not being vaccinated. My only thoughts and prayers are not for those patients, but for my friends and other front line workers and their families who have not asked as part of their career choice, to take care of people who blatantly have such disregard for public welfare and saftey.

In any case, I do not wish ill on anyone, and I do hope that Mr. Campbell can recover. Though his last update yesterday, does not offer that promise. He has been switched from different levels of breathing assistance, and moved into the ICU for his care. He stated in yesterday’s update, that he now has blood clots as well as a crystalizing in his lungs, both common side effects of the virus, known from the beginning, and for me, being vulnerable, all I needed to know, to know that I could not afford to contract Covid19, confirmed by my cardiologist who stated very plainly, “if you get Covid19, with your heart and lungs the way they are, you will die.” That is not Facebook or any news outlet, that is my personal doctor who knows my health. Of course I take this seriously. But you do not have to have my vulnerabilities to know that blood clots and this crystalizing to know they are bad for even “healthy” people.

It is the next part of my post, that is what bothers me the most, and honestly, should have been a no-brainer for Campbell, long ago. He is now likely heading to the next level of care, and possibly the final level of care, being put on a respirator. And as most know, being put on a respirator for Covid19 is a bad prospect, with fairly good odds of never being able to come off of it. Death. Even the possibility of death while being on the respirator is not enough to convince people to do what they can to avoid Covid19. Ask any of us, who have ever been put on a respirator for any of our non-Covid19 procedures (myself at least six times that I can remember), and how unpleasant the process of being intubated is, should be enough to turn you back into giving a shit. But not Campbell.

It is his last words from yesterday, that have actually broken through my shell, and really have me shaking my head with his situation. He has two young children. As do I. As he prepares to be placed onto a respirator, he held a conversation with his son, 14 years of age, that if by some chance, he does not survive, he asks his son, that when the time comes that his sister gets married, he would “give his sister away” in his place.

When I watched this, I lost it. My friends and family know how much they all mean to me, and will not take offense to this comment, but my daughters are my world. Anything and everything I do is for them. From the very first health crisis I faced, my emergency open heart surgery, through the too-numerous-to-count more events, I have fought through everything, for them, so that they would never have to experience the loss of their Dad, at least in their youth, like several of their friends.

My life almost ended in 2008 with a widow maker heart attack, were it not for the emergency surgery. And then I found out, why that condition happened, and all the other health issues I deal with today, late developing side effects from my treatments for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, high doses of radiation, and toxic chemotherapy. Yes, I have survived 31 years because of what was done to me, and it has come at a cost. But, my doctors have all told me, they will do what they can, to at least keep the pace of the development of these issues as slow as they can, since it cannot be reversed. And we all have the same goals: to see both my daughters graduate and possibly go to college, perhaps get married, and even give me grandchildren. I am close to that first milestone with my oldest one year away from graduation. And I am doing all that I can to get to all of these milestones.

That is what finally broke through me about Campbell’s situation. I never want anyone else to need to walk my daughters down a wedding aisle. And that is why, knowing what I know about my health, and knowing what I have been told by those closest to me that I trust the most, my doctors, I am doing all that I can to avoid contracting Covid19. Is it a guarantee? Hardly since I live in Florida and the majority of people are still fighting the obvious, and a governor who refuses to encourage any kind of precautions. But I am doing all that I can. And for those crying “my freedom” or as I call it, free-dumb, I am still “free.” Like all the other illnesses that I have gotten through in my survivorship, it is because I listen to those that know, my doctors, that I am living my life, one day at a time, doing all the things I want and need to do.

As a father, I can only hope that Campbell can recover so that he can walk his daughter down her wedding aisle. I could never imagine anyone else doing it for my daughters.