Let me share some things you need to know about life after recovering from CoViD-19.
It’s been two months since CoViD hit my little caboodle. I remember how dragging it was to realize we couldn’t actually do anything else but just sleep and stay home.
It was paralyzing to hold errands, especially the daily and usual routine of a normal and typically-busy home with two toddlers.
We literally rested from the mundane, and hibernated for 21 days. We slept 16 hours every day, as per the doctor’s advice, because when you get CoViD, the best way to fight it is a lot of rest and vitamins.
And for someone who regularly exercises, this was somehow frustrating. But, we also knew that we were at high risk of compromising our health if we insisted.
So, it took a lot of sleep, vitamins, and eating healthy food until we finally tested Negative.
First thing that came to mind was, “Yes, we could finally exercise!”
We were really itching to get back to our active lifestyle, but we were advised to rest some more, and specifically just do walking.
We were strictly told to just do minimal exercises, not even light-to-moderate, but exclusively light exercise only.
We felt generally okay, except that we occasionally felt tightness in our chest.
And that explains why we couldn’t jump back to the normal routine right away.
To easily understand the matter, a concerned friend put it very well, and said that our lungs after going through CoViD become “glass-like”.
Which means it’s very fragile, and could easily break without any notice.
Explains why there are so many reported deaths of athletes going through or dying of heart attack after extreme exercises without their body, especially the lungs, fully recuperating.
CoViD’s sweet target are our lungs, which is why there is difficulty in breathing in most cases.
In lieu of testing our limits, Jadon and I heeded our Doctor’s advice; after all, they know what they do best.
And what’s a little delay compared to what could be a lifelong regret.
After testing negative, Doctor told us to wait two more weeks just to make sure we give time for our lungs to recuperate.
After two weeks, we updated our Doctor regarding our health progress, and as soon as we got cleared, we slowly went back to our usual routine, albeit gently and gradually.
We were advised to exercise according to what our body’s capacity can only take.
If we felt like we were catching our breath, we immediately paused, and took our time to recover.
We weren’t going to push our limits. We knew very well that it could take a huge toll on our health if we persisted.
So we went about doing what we were told.
The first two weeks, we strolled around the boulevard, even joined a little bit of Zumba with my little girl Chebby.
After two weeks, we had another mandatory check-up to see if we were now fit to level up, and execute moderate-to- extreme workouts.
Luckily, our results showed we were now able!
However, Dr. Johanna Bandoy warned us to stop exercising when we felt something unusual.
So we then started with a little bit of cardio, which was skipping ropes, followed by body weight exercises like jumping jacks, lunges, burpees, squats, etc.
We still felt the tightness of our chest from time to time, and stopped whenever this happened. But we kept trying until our bodies could adapt and adjust.
When our symptoms were at their worst, we focused on resting and hydrating. Now that we were taking the road to recovery, we focused on listening to our body, and it’s capacity to recuperate.
Resting is important, but it is imperative to know that exercising is just as important.
Being athletes or having active lifestyles may not spare us from CoViD-19 but exercising can boost our immunity, and that’s exactly how we could fight the virus.
But that’s not to say that all the symptoms would go in a snap; in fact, we still experienced our chest squeezing in from time to time.
You see, the severity and duration of the symptoms vary from person to person, and your recovery process is very much contingent on that.
It may be frustrating and inconvenient for others to wait several more days to get back at the “new normal” but it is important that we listen to our bodies, too.
It was only a matter of time when the tightness of our chest gradually faded away. It took consistency and kind effort to really respect what our bodies could take only.
And now two months later, I think it’s safe to say that we’re absolutely back on track.
We’re finally busting it out again in boxing, juijitsu, and a whole lot of other vigorous activities.
As for me, I’m so glad I could finally sink and dive in the water again.
Remember to consult your doctor first. I swear they are our modern heroes, they not only help curb this unforeseen virus but are especially saving lives, and sometimes in exchange for theirs! Do not forget that.
P.S. My little family trains at Pure Muscle Gym headed by coach Harvey Nichols Paltingca a.k.a Intoy Paltingca. They offer kickboxing and juijitsu lessons which are not only best for cardio but for self-defense, too.
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Author’s email: [email protected]
