over the following days she became sicker.
“i had terrible coughing and shortness of breath. it felt like my hip sockets were on fire. it was incredibly painful.”
after a few days she got a phone call from someone at ottawa public health, who asked whether her oxygen saturation was below 92 per cent. the question surprised chohan, who had no idea she should be monitoring it.
then she found news stories about covid-19 patients being found dead in their homes after their oxygen levels had plummeted and she became terrified and asked a friend to pick up a monitor.
when her oxygen dipped dangerously low and she noticed her thumbnails were blue, her boyfriend called an ambulance. that was april 27.
chohan was first at montfort hospital for three days. she was later transferred to the civic in case she needed to be intubated and put on a ventilator. she never was, but remained on high-flow oxygen, at times so weak she was unable to move.
after the worst of her symptoms began to ease up, chohan surfaced to find a nurse beside her hospital bed. she asked if she was going to be ok.
“you are not out of the woods yet,” the nurse replied, “but i think you are going to make it.”
nearly a month after getting out of hospital, chohan is seeing progress, but still feels “unmoored” because so much is unknown about the long-term physical and cognitive effects of covid-19.