To hell and back

…..Kholumo’s lone battle against Covid-19….

BUTHA-BUTHE-FOR many fear-struck Basotho, contracting Covid-19 signals a step closer to the grave.
Not for Thabang Kholumo, the Qalo MP, who just spent three weeks in quarantine after testing positive for the dreaded virus.

While others who have tested positive have experienced relatively mild or no symptoms at all, the 56-year old politician said the infection hit him hard.

Stuck in his bedroom, he refused to let negative thoughts take over as he plotted his recovery by taking vitamin C and multi vitamin tablets, paracetamol, fruits (oranges mostly) and vegetables and a traditional herb called lengana.

At first he had flu-like symptoms and he took it lightly as he still felt fit. He even continued doing chores such as going to the field.
However, he said he suspected he was infected when his body started aching, while diarrhoea, a dry throat, severe headaches, suffocation in his sleep, loss of taste and smell soon took over.

“Those symptoms were enough for me to suspect I had the virus. My wife, a qualified nurse, advised me to get tested.
“I honestly don’t know where, when and who infected me but it was proven that I had it,” he said.

Getting tested was not a straight forward affair.
He said he went for testing on July 10th but the nurses were reluctant to test him as he didn’t have any travel history to the affected countries and he didn’t know who may have infected him.

“I had to persuade them until I was tested,” he said.
Afterwards, he said he was told to be prepared to go to any of the quarantine facilities should the test bring a positive result.
“I was very ill that I had to see a doctor after testing,” he said.
He said the doctor tested his oxygen saturation and temperature which turned out to be fine.

“I was given flu medication inclusive of Panado to relieve pain as my whole body was aching,” he said.
He said he went back home to prepare his luggage for the quarantine centre.

When he arrived home, his wife quarantined him while awaiting results, which came positive 27 days later.
He said he was told the results would not have been released should he have died before they came out.

“I was told they were not going to come,” he said, adding: “This shows that the available statistics are inaccurate as I recovered on my own and many people out there without a travel history are not being tested.”
He said the delays in releasing results could lead to faster spread of the virus as some don’t quarantine while awaiting their results.

“Results should be released on time to avoid infections that could have been stopped. The question remains, how many died without knowing their results?”
He said his wife had to take time off work to nurse him and, although she always wore a mask, she developed some signs as well forcing her to go for a test.

“It was difficult for her to test as I still hadn’t got my results but since they were her colleagues they tested her. To date, we are still waiting for her results,” he said.

He said as his state worsened, it became difficult for him to swallow food and he had to force himself to eat a slice of bread and eggs.
He said he had to buy vitamin C and multi vitamin tablets.
“I ate fruits (oranges mostly) and vegetables (meroho),” he said, adding that he also drank a mixture of traditional herbs three times a day.

“It was my new drink and I found it helpful,” he said.
Kholumo said he also used a mixture of traditional herbs such as Artesia afra, peppermint tree, helighrysum, bluegum, pine, alipedia (lengana, peperebomo, phate ea ngaka, boleikomo, phaena, lesoko) to steam three times a day.

He said his throat was very painful when he inhaled cold air as he would cough non-stop.
“I felt like I had to drink something oily to soften the dryness.”
However, he said he opted for his favourite Borstol remedy cough but it was not of much help.

“It felt different when it passed through my throat but after a few minutes I was back to square one,” he said.
Messages from his wife helped too, he chuckled.
“It was very helpful.”
He said as he got better he would venture out into the sun for an hour daily.
“My wife would clean the locks, toilet and passage I used with Domestos daily.

Still, there were times he feared for the worst.
“Sometimes it was difficult for me to sleep as I would be afraid, wondering what if this is my last sleep, let alone I was alone in that room,” he said.
He said even though it wasn’t easy for him not to see his children, “I accepted it for their sake, and mine. I wouldn’t want them to experience what I was going through”.

He recalled one night when “I felt like my soul was leaving my body”.
He said his wife used to check on him every 30 minutes but on that night she did not sleep.
“I had so many suffocation attacks which lasted some seconds and through our WhatsApp group we prayed with my family,” he said. “It was very painful when it stopped,” he said.

He said his family has been supportive “through it all” and the children understood that they had to distance themselves from him for a while.
“I wonder whether I could have made it should I have known my results earlier and be taken to an isolation centre.”

Kholumo said it has been very hard for him as each day felt different.
He said the government was failing in its handling of the virus outbreak.
“We are only protected by God,” he said.
He said it was the ministry’s fault that we still have some Basotho who do not believe the virus exists.

Kholumo said sidelining Parliament, especially the social cluster, when dealing with the virus was a big mistake.
“The ministry works with Nacosec only. Should the parliamentary committee be involved, ho kabo mathoa mpetleke and if things continue like this, it will lead to where HIV led us,” he warned.

Stigma is another issue which is coming up as a direct result of a lack of adequate awareness programmes, as many people shun people who were once infected by the virus.
“It hurts,” said Kholumo, noting that he tries to take remarks about his infection lightly.

He said some people still don’t believe that people do recover fully.
“I am now treated differently. When I approach other people, they would say hana joale oena o motho oa li corona butle re kenye li mask tsa rona be re tsamaelle thokoana.” (Oh, i remember that you have corona, let me put on my mask and keep my distance)
“I wonder how others cope with that.”

He called on Basotho to accept the existence of the virus and take care of themselves despite lack of adequate government support.
“Don’t expose yourselves to the risk basing yourself on what the government does,” he said.

’Mapule Motsopa