So You Want To Be On A Ventilator?

If you're squeamish, pass this one by.

Seriously.

I recently read an article summarizing information from a funeral director on what corpses actually look like after long times spent on ventilators due to covid. Some of what they see during embalming or before cremation completely shocked me, not being something anybody had been talking about. If you're still reading this, you have been warned.

Covid wreaks lots of damage on the whole body. It's why it isn't "just the flu". You've heard about blood clots in major organs. I don't need to describe that here. But it renders lungs essentially non-functional, which is why ventilators are chosen as a treatment, in hopes that the patient can recover. Somehow. And some do. Covid is perhaps unique in that family members are not allowed to visit, and don't see the progressive damage being on a ventilator itself can cause.

Let's start with the fact that many people, like me, are allergic to medical adhesive. It takes tape to hold a ventilator in place. In my case, something other than brief contact with that adhesive raises skin blisters which peel away with the tape as it is removed and changed. (Yeah, been there.) This opens the skin up to pain, of course, and these openings give access to invading bacteria. This means infection, and more pain, particularly as alcohol is what is used to dissolve adhesive residue on the skin, as well as giving some level of defense against germs. But it's not a perfect solution.

Saliva is toxic. Never thought of that? It's the body's first level method of dissolving our food while your teeth grind it up before it heads for the stomach, being slightly acid. Our teeth need super protection to keep it from dissolving holes into them. (Ever had a cavity?) When you are unconscious your body gets turned to help avoid bedsores. Turning has also been shown to make breathing easier, a prime goal in covid patients on ventilators. Some of those positions result in saliva running down over your cheeks, further eating away at your skin. Gangrene can start, eating away at healthy flesh as deeply as to the bone.

If the patient recovers, survival itself is what counts. It far outweighs the damage occurring in long term ventilator use. But whatever else you are dealing with post-hospitalization, post ventilator, along with physical therapy for long unused muscles, and whatever else was the reason for the ventilator in the first place, you will also be dealing with whatever is necessary to correct the damage to your face. 

If it can be repaired.

If you can get healthy enough again to go through what is needed.

It's so much simpler to get vaccinated.