Thank you for your service. My lowest emotional point in recent years would have been April 20, 2020. My husband had been in the hospital on a ventilator for a week, having gone by ambulance at 2 a.m. a week earlier, and that was the day they said I could come in to actually see him, so I could say goodbye, because he had not been responsive for many hours.
So I stayed home from work, and remember getting dressed that morning, trying to “look good” in case he would have any awareness of me being there, etc., and I had to wait for the hospital to call to tell me when I could come, and where to go in, etc. (this was when all the Covid-19 protocols for isolation were just getting wings).
So I had to wait at home for the call, trying to keep my emotions together, so I would be able to drive to the hospital. And they finally called and said they had weaned back his sedation a bit, and he seemed to be waking up.....
Then he was taken off the vent in a couple more days, and then moved out of ICU, then moved to a nursing home/rehab place by the end of the week. It all had a good ending, and luckily his room at the rehab had a first-floor window, so we could visit him outside his window for the 4+ weeks until he could come home.
PS He did not have Covid, but it took 3 days to get his Covid test results back, during which time they gave him the hydroxychloroquine and zinc treatment, which may have saved his life.
But then my story reminds me of the many, many people who lost a loved one during this past year and a half, and were not able to say good bye or to comfort their loved ones, in their final days.
Sounds rough but at least the ending was good.
I know of someone who was unable to see her spouse (of 50 years) after he went into the hospital and suffered for over a month (until he eventually died from Covid).
My own mom was put into a rehabilitation center for several months in 2020 (for an infection/antiobiotic and physical therapy) and we were unable to visit her and worried about the transmission of Covid while she was there.