Doctors first said that Roger would need to be taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, said Billie Collins. Minutes later, they said Roger’s condition was so severe that he needed to be taken to a hospital in Olathe, Kansas, 135 kilometers from his home, Collins told CNN.
Since July, Roger had a stroke, was transferred to another hospital in Kansas City, underwent a tracheostomy and now has kidney failure. He was not diabetic before Covid, but he has now become dependent on insulin, his wife said.
She hopes that an ear, nose and throat specialist can help with the scar tissue that surrounds her husband’s tracheostomy so that he can breathe without the help of a respirator and eventually return home.
After a year of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, some patients have been identified as long-distance dealers, suffering from a list of illnesses that lasted months after the initial test was positive.
In November, the CDC said it was “actively working to learn more about the full range of short and long-term health effects associated with COVID-19” and conducting multi-year studies to investigate long-term symptoms.
When they knew it was serious
The Collins were not too concerned when they learned that Covid-19 was coming to the United States. They were well supplied with supplies and had a reliable income at the 55-year-old family business, a map company.
Then, major sports tournaments were canceled.
“They stopped the big 12 and stopped the NCAA tournament,” recalled Billie Collins. “I said, ‘This is a lot of money that comes out of a lot of people’s pockets’.”
“Roger and I said, ‘This is serious, we have to start taking it seriously,'” explained Collins. “And we do. We don’t let our kids run around.”
Collins said her husband, who is six years older than she, decided that she would do grocery shopping during Walmart’s senior year to reduce family exposure. Their three adult children also decided that they would not leave.
Last May, they cut back on the big wedding their son had planned. Instead, the family held a small masked wedding with close relatives in the backyard of their home in Iola, Kansas.
“They brought six church benches from this old church and put them in our yard, and someone else brought a bow and they decorated it with some Christmas lights that we had,” Collins told CNN. “It was very simple, some people.”
Then another disappointment: the whole family planned to take a trip together after the wedding.
“We were all going on a cruise, as if we had everything paid for and then canceled,” she said.
On July 4, the family traveled to Texas to celebrate with relatives. They wore masks, Collins explained, but on the sixth day of that month Roger and his youngest daughter felt bad.
They were tested for Covid-19 and the results were positive on July 13. Roger was taken to the hospital later in the day.
Visiting through the window
Collins personally visited Roger until October, when, due to Covid’s restrictions, she was no longer allowed to enter Select Specialty Hospital in Kansas City. She was sitting outside in a sports tent for two, looking at him through the hospital window.
“I would sit around nine until when, before dark,” said Collins. At night, she sleeps in the basement of her newly married son’s residence to stay closer to the hospital.
The family brought chalk from the window to write messages to each other. They also learned a few words in sign language so they could say “I love you” and “Thank you,” said Collins.
The 2-year-old granddaughter would sit on the windowsill and send kisses to her grandfather through the glass.
Collins had to give her husband bad news through the same glass.
“His best friend from high school died of a massive heart attack and I had to tell him that through the window,” said Collins through 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. Not being able to touch him, hug him or comfort him. Only through One window.”
In January, the hospital started to let her into her room so she could stay with him, but that changed last week.
Now she can see him, but they cannot touch. She is only allowed to stay at his door – and because of the tracheotomy, he can’t speak at all.
Financially, Covid was a death blow to the Collins family.
Roger had been the main salesman for the family business, a map company called the Central Publishing Company. With him out of service, they had to close.
“From July to October, the girls worked hard. They worked so hard,” said Collins.
Returning
The family has remained afloat “by the grace of God, people, our friends and our family,” she said.
That means accepting help.
“People have paid our utility bill or we have a list from Amazon and people send or donate to us. It is so humiliating because we have always been donors,” said Collins. “When you say, ‘I don’t have the money to buy Tide Pods’, you are very humble and thankful.”
Even so, she and other family members donate blood, knowing it is a way to help.
“Whenever I can, I will donate blood … because Roger had to have convalescent plasma. He has had four transfusions since it started because he had a bleeding stomach,” explained Collins. “You only reciprocate when people give it to you.”
During Roger’s 59th birthday week on February 1, Billie donated blood.
“I was like, ‘I need to do this because that’s what we do,'” she said.
She also made and donated about 4,000 masks with her daughters.
“Please put on the mask,” said Collins. “If it weren’t for you, for a family member of someone who may have a lower immune system.”
Collins said the ordeal taught him this lesson: “Believe in God, believe in yourself and your family and friends, because they are the ones who will recover when you fall.”