Last Tuesday was a night of total chaos. Cindy was in quarantine recovering from COVID. She was staying in our guest room which has an attached bathroom, so it was almost as if she was in a different location. We talked by phone off and on between the times that she was resting. We were all sad that after the vaccine and the booster and careful attention to masking, COVID was still able to invade our lives. She had a couple of bad days when we were really thankful for the vaccine because we could see how much worse it could have been. We were ready for recovery.
Late Tuesday she called me on the phone. It was clear that I needed to get to her quickly. She described the rapidly growing symptoms—tingling in body, followed by her hands drawing up into knots and then freezing, her speech becoming noticeably slurred. It looked a lot like a stroke. We thought of driving to the hospital. She tried to get up from the bed and then knew that her legs were not responding. I went to call 911. I picked up our house phone, which we do not use much, but I figured it would be helpful in this situation. The handset’s battery was dead. I called on my cell phone. I answered questions. I directed them to our house. I opened the door and moved furniture to facilitate the stretcher getting to her. We waited anxiously.
Since I was showing the symptoms of COVID and she had definitely tested positive for it, I felt it was important to inform the EMS team. We were all wearing masks. I asked if I could join them in the hospital. They advised me to wait at the house. They whisked her away. The door closed. Then I waited. It felt odd, but I had fixed dinner, so I sat and ate something. I paced. I wondered. It remained my of the first week of the pandemic when my Dad was in the hospital. Eventually, the word came from the nurse that I could join Cindy. I drove up to the hospital.
The team was efficient and helpful. They saw immediately that it was not a stroke and that it was probably due to potassium deficiency caused by dehydration from the GI distress of COVID. This was confirmed by blood tests. The treatment is to administer potassium through an IV. Unfortunately, it burns if given in a high concentration, so it takes several hours to drip it in. Eventually, they felt she had been given enough through the IV and the rest could be taken by pills. We loaded her up in the car and headed home.
Storms filled the air. The power went off in the house and 3 big worms were inside the house at the back door. It was unusual, but felt like par for the day. I got the worms back out of the house and then sealed the door with tape. I did not want more worms in the house and we had been having some trouble with the weather stripping. We were all exhausted and went to sleep. The dogs were freaked out by the ongoing storm and the sleet near me. The power came on in the early morning and lights came on, which was very dissorenting. I got up and shut the house down again.
The next morning I got up and went to check on Cindy. The floor was covered with worms. The dogs were dancing around trying to get to the back door and I was trying to hop from clear spot to clear spot. I got a broom and a shovel and started gathering worms at the back door and then ejecting from my house. It was grim work and some of them did not make it out in one piece. It felt like a biblical plague. I counted 24 worms. Most were over a foot long. Cindy later counted at least a dozen more in the guest room. It was freaky. In 26 years, we have never had such an invasion. I was told that the long rumbling thunder was to blame. I just know it came on a weird night for us.
The next day things seemed to be looking up until night approached and Cindy’s symptoms returned — tingling, slurred speech, knotted and frozen hands. This time we put her in the car before her legs stopped working. We drove to the ER and waited in the driveway. We confirmed with our Dr. that it takes several days for the potassium to level out. We waited for about 30 minutes and the symptoms began to subside. We went back home. I worked on the back door and the weather seal. Cindy went back to resting. Flickers of the symptoms revisited her several more times, none as intense as the initial attack.
The worms did not return. They left almost as mysteriously as the sickness. They are still out in the yard. I imagine that I cannot keep them out indefinitely. There is a huge unseen world at play in our lives. Germs in the air, minerals in our blood, worms in the soil. And there is an unseen spiritual battle. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm”. Eph 6:12. I think this has gotten lost in the last 2 years. People are looking for someone to blame and friends have been turned into adversaries. We have an enemy looking for every opportunity to undermine our world. Let’s not give into the enemy's chaos.