When the patient advocate becomes the COVID patient

On Mother's Day, while out to brunch with my family, I started feeling exceptionally tired and weepy.

I immediately chalked it up to working too hard, and to my happiness at being with my children, enjoying a nice meal, reading mushy cards, etc. Later on, when the feelings did not pass, I decided to test myself for COVID. Sure enough, I was strongly positive.

After notifying family, friends, employees and distant family of a change in vacation plans, I went into quarantine. The next day, my husband tested positive and we called our doctor and asked for the new emergency-use-only oral antiretroviral drug, Paxlovid.

If you're not familiar with it, Paxlovid is a five-day course of pills from Pfizer that treats COVID symptoms. Studies showed that, in unvaccinated people at serious risk of COVID complications, it was very effective at cutting the chances of hospitalization or death from COVID. For those who are vaccinated, it can help you get back on your feet sooner. And it did help a lot to alleviate symptoms within 24 hours.

It's not without risk, however. A retrospective review of several hundred COVID patients treated with Paxlovid at the Mayo Clinic showed that several of them experienced rebound symptoms about nine days after the start of treatment. All of them recovered without additional COVID treatment, but it's something to be aware of. Long story short: It looks like we will be wearing masks on and off and testing for the foreseeable future.

Here are a few of my lessons learned during my forced period of quarantine and isolation:

I am so glad I was triple-vaccinated before I got this virus. It was brutal for the first few days, and I can see why people less strong than I am or with medical complications could easily be hospitalized. When an overweight diabetic husband of a friend was diagnosed, the ER doctor told him: "The bad news is that you have COVID. The good news is that, because you're vaccinated, you'll survive it."

At this point, I am losing patience with people who still refuse to be vaccinated in the name of "rights," which potentially harm others. I lost a 53-year-old brother who died needlessly because he was an antivaxxer. Please vaccinate, people. It's easy, it's low-cost or even free, and it works.

Use the rest time to your advantage. Stop and smell the roses, literally. Once I started feeling better, I was delighted to realize that I now had five full days to do my spring yard work and set out my garden art and bird feeders. There is nothing like sitting among flowers and watching the hummingbirds visit the feeders to restore my soul and make me cherish the goodness of God's good earth. Life is good and it is beautifully healing.

The best tonic for overcoming the effects of adversity is to lend a hand to someone else in need. That's what I love most about my job. As I was recovering, there were plenty of opportunities for me to help my clients virtually. They are people who are truly suffering from long-term, painful and even fatal maladies.

One of my favorite long-term clients died. Comforting that family helped me heal. Talking with the husband of a young woman with cancer gave my life meaning. Giving encouragement to a woman recovering from two serious surgeries made me see that I have the best job in the whole world.

And hearing from advocates all over the country who came to the Chicago Patient Advocacy Symposium, who were equipped and encouraged and inspired, made me decide to make next year's event even bigger and better. Anything I can do to help people is well worth the effort to get out of bed every day, COVID or no COVID.

• Teri Dreher is a board-certified patient advocate. A critical care nurse for 30+ years, she is founder of NShore Patient Advocates (www.NorthShoreRN.com). She is offering a free phone consultation to Daily Herald readers; call her at (847) 612-6684.