By Chana Lipkind as told to the COLlive Magazine:
By Danit Schusterman
In the beginning, I started feeling not well. My health deteriorated pretty fast after that and I don’t remember much of the experience in the hospital. I know I was on a ventilator and was intubated.
While in the ICU, I remember many hallucinations. I remember one day hearing two voices. One male and one female. The male was saying to leave the ventilator in, and the female was saying to take it out. Baruch Hashem, it was taken out and I was slowly on the road to recovery.
What got me through the long and lonely days in the hospital was having somewhat of a routine. I didn’t allow myself to dwell on the fact that I wasn’t home with my children. There was no end in sight. I didn’t know if I was going to be there for three more days or three more months. My daily routine really helped me through this. I was very blessed to have excellent care in the hospital.
After I returned home, I had 6 weeks of physical therapy. I really thrived through this. It really helped my healing process.
Interestingly, one of my biggest challenges throughout this experience was the following: I am 77 years old. I have never thought of myself as an ‘old lady.’ But in the hospital and in rehab, I was treated like one. I was constantly told by the doctors and therapists how lucky I was, and how so many people ‘my age’ did not survive this. It took a lot of work on my part to get out of the mindset of ‘old lady’ and get back to my usual self.
My husband passed away 24 years ago. I have since been in the mindset that ‘I can do this. I can deal with this. I will deal with my emotions but I still need to keep going.’ This really helped me get through so many difficult moments.
I really had an amazing team running the show while I was out of commission.
My oldest daughter worked round the clock researching an experimental drug. My youngest daughter kept the house in order and made sure to pay the bills. I had people from all over the world davening for me. To this day, I am still humbled just thinking about how many people davened, sent flowers, candy, and showed they cared in all different ways.
Today, I am so much better. I definitely feel tired and achy sometimes and get some brain fog. But for the most part, I am slowly getting back to myself. We don’t know much about this virus. We don’t know if we can get it again or not. We need to be responsible. There are no guarantees that this can’t happen again, so we have to be careful.
Going to Dr Feldman as a kid, and her working together with a family member of mine for so many years, she is and has always been the kindest lady. She is a true example of warmth and grace. We are very happy that is she is much better, we are all praying for her. Even today when I need something from the office, she is there to help no questions asked What an unbelievable aishes chayil.
I enjoyed this article…thank you for sharing your story here. Wishing you a complete recovery and continued health & happiness for many years.
hope you feel completely better
B”H for all the healing up till now
<3
BH Hashem has watched over our nurse Chana, who has helped heal so many. May she continue to do well and have much nachas from her dear children and grandchildren.
This article was simple and powerful.
Thank you for sharing your experience and lessons.
May hashem bless you to live till the coming of Moshiach and beyond.
Boruch Hashem,. Hashem looked with mercy on Mrs. Lipkind. A wise, , humble mother and grandmother of a wonderful family. May you continue to have good health and nachas, b’ezras Hashem.
Bh. It’s a great story of victory! B”h for his kindness. Very happy for you and your family.
Beautiful story thank you for sharing feel Better Chana
Beautiful. Refuah S’helamah!