Wait till the clouds roll by...

Last week when dad had a fluid collection in the body due to his renal disease, we had to rush him to our family doctor. Since his creatinine levels were bit high doctor advised us to keep him under medical care for two days. He also told us, as a protocol before taking any inpatients they had to rule out COVID- 19. CT scan of the lungs was done and dad was put under observation as we were waiting for the report. We were worried only about his kidney functions, COVID -19 was not even in our remote thought. Dad was feeling much better after taking diuretics, we were much relieved. But only by then my sister had collected CT report and called me to share dad’s lung is showing COVID like changes, he was classified under COVID suspect, which means he had to go in for a Swab test. Before we could figure out what could be done, got a call from Doctor stating that he can’t be treated there as they are not authorised COVID centre. Our hunt for beds started, three hours of back to back phone calls connecting with senior journalists and hospital owners, was in vain. None of the hospitals had beds. We were helpless because even though we were willing to deposit the lumpsum money the hospitals were charging we could not get one single bed. Money, contacts everything is meaningless during this time. This is something which I couldn’t digest because denials are not my cup of tea. Meanwhile, dad was recovering very fast from his other discomforts, so the doctor had agreed to retain him for that night. Next day swab was taken, there was again a call from the doctor saying that two patients who got admitted for surgery tested positive, so the best option was to take dad home and quarantine him at home. Dad was back home and was under self-isolation, but by immense grace of God, he tested negative. This episode taught me one of the finest lessons. Sometimes denials are blessings in disguise. Had we got a bed in one of the hospitals, we definitely would have exposed him to the virus, we would have also shelled out quite a lot of money. Most of the time when we go through tough times, we would want to give a solution to that particular issue immediately. But when our hands are tied we get demoralized easily. Moral of the  COVID incident is to "put in your 100 % effort, nevertheless wait for the clouds to get cleared”.