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- A man talks about his Covid-19 trip, which required a lot of mental strength.
- Ramohemi Motshegoa describes her experience of excruciating pain on the eighth day of her trip.
- Motshegoa fought the virus in isolation at home with the support of her family.
A Covid-19 survivor who has shared his journey of recovery has emphasized the importance of the mental strength necessary to survive the virus that has currently claimed more than 15,000 lives in South Africa.
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“The mental strength necessary to survive this is enormous, and fortunately I am mentally strong and that motivated my wife and daughter, that if dad looks like this we can survive.” [because] it’s not as bad as we think, “says Ramohemi Motshegoa.
Motshegoa was speaking at a Gauteng government virtual briefing titled “Surviving Covid-19: The Journey to Defeat Covid-19.”
Although Motshegoa was putting on a brave face for her family as she battled the virus at home in isolation, she knew, in her words, that she was having one of the worst experiences she had ever had in her life.
He recalled during his recovery how he would have to change his pajamas several times in one night.
“On the fifth day of my trip, I started the Panado program, because my back was very cold from the neck down.
“It got worse. Every night I changed my pajamas four to five times because it was wet, like they came from the bucket of water or something,” he explained.
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He slowly felt like he was beginning to recover, but on the eighth day of his trip, he wondered if he could really survive the virus.
“[That] is when I felt that this is it, I’m about to die.
“I felt a very painful experience around my kidneys and I thought this is what they mean when they say, once the kidneys collapse, you are dead. Fortunately I did not, but the pain I felt was extreme and terrible,” he said.
Motshegoa coped with this virus with the support of her immediate family, but decided to keep her diagnosis private from everyone else.
“I also decided that no one else should know that I am sick. As I am the pillar of my family’s strength, I was going to create problems for everyone. The reaction I anticipated would be that everyone would be devastated. Between us until I got better,” he added.
Since then, Motshegoa has survived his ordeal, and although his family has had to make adjustments, he is happy to be alive.
“I’m finally cured. Right now my family and I are living off multivitamins.
“I’m fine now, alive and well, working from home.”
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