Today marks the almost 3-month point when I contracted covid, and the 2-month point since I was released from the hospital.  I continue to look back at the past three months with one key emotion: gratitude.  Despite having had to go through the most harrowing experience of my life, I am deeply grateful because my Father in Heaven has been with me and watching over me through all of it. 

 

I continue to be reminded of the story of the old gentleman who was a survivor of the Willie and Martin handcart company tragedy, and his comment that the members of that company became “acquainted with God in their extremities”.  This phrase perfectly reflects how I also feel about my experience.  For whatever reason – that I am still trying to figure out – through this experience with covid/pneumonia, my Father in Heaven decided to reach into my life and literally pull me deeply into His endlessly loving embrace, and into a deep relationship where I not only know more about my Father, but I know and feel personally acquainted with Him more than ever before.  My heart is filled with love for my Father, and spiritually my life has been blessed and changed.


I am also grateful to my Father in Heaven and Savior for blessing me physically the past 2 months to make good progress on my recuperation journey.  Here is a short capture of the progress the past two months:

  1. Walking: from the initial week of being able to walk for 1 mile-per-hour, some of this with oxygen assistance, to being able to walk for 3.75 miles-per-hour – all without oxygen and for up to 90 minutes
  2. Weight: from losing almost 50 pounds to gaining half of that back (and now trying to maintain at this weight without gaining it all back! ;)
  3. Voice: from no voice to gurgled voice to full voice; can sing again
  4. Lungs/sinuses: from pretty extreme shortness of breath and clogged sinuses to stronger lung capacity and more open sinuses

 

While I am confident that the above progress will enable me to fully recover in the future, my lungs and sinuses were so damaged during the battle with covid/pneumonia, and full recuperation will take more time.  Therefore, I have come to accept that I am a long hauler (I assume you know that term – if not, here’s a definition: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-it-means-to-be-a-coronavirus-long-hauler/), and will continue to have to deal with an extended time period for covid-related recovery.  And while I can get impatient at times – and want to be fully recovered now – I am also content with where I am at in my physical recuperation, as I have full faith that God has the best intent for me and I am willing to fully accept His will in my life ahead.

 

I continue to be so grateful to all of you for your abundant faith and prayers these past weeks, without which I could have never made it out of the hospital, and could have never made the recuperative progress I have made since then. 

 

This will be my last blog, as I now move ahead to “seize the day” in moving life forward across many endeavors.  I wish God’s blessings upon you all.

 

Love, 

 

Eric McAllister

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