By Chris Caraveo
Twitter: @ChrisCaraveo31

Janet Norwood has lived through an alcohol addiction and homelessness in her 80-plus years.

But those experiences paled in comparison to the hold COVID-19 had on her lungs — and her life.

Now recovered from the disease, the West Valley woman has multiple people to thank, including her children and Dr. Tam Chu, her primary care physician.

“They saved my life,” Ms. Norwood said about her children. “If they hadn’t called that day I probably wouldn’t be here talking to you.”

Back in March, when the coronavirus became more prevalent in Arizona, Ms. Norwood hadn’t taken the situation as seriously. She was out running around with her friends and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.

Then a few days later she began experiencing flu-like symptoms and started to stay home.

“She was having trouble walking from one room to the next,” said Dr. Chu, who works at Iora Primary Care in Sun City. “That indicated to me how short of breath she was even though she was speaking in complete sentences. She was having low-grade fevers. And with the pandemic going on I had to make sure this wasn’t something severe. I said, ‘Janet you need to go to the hospital and get evaluated.’”

Despite the pleas from her children and Dr. Chu to go to a hospital, Ms. Norwood thought she could carry on at home. But a few days later, she was on the phone with her two children when she started to become delusional and had trouble breathing.

“They couldn’t make heads or tails out of what I was saying,” Ms. Norwood said. “At that point my oxygen level was 78%. They called Dr. Chu too, and she said, ‘I think you need to get the EMT over there right away. My kids in California called the EMT. They came to the house. I couldn’t even get up to answer the door. They practically had to break the door down to get me. Took me off to the hospital. Didn’t know if I was going to go to the morgue, or upstairs to the ICU. I was that touch-and-go for the first couple of hours.”

She compared her experience with COVID-19 to barnacles that attach to the bottom of a pier.

“That’s what happens to your lungs. They choke it,” she said about the virus. “They encrust it and they just choke it. And then they’re just like jelly. They can’t function. It’s horrible. We have to breathe in order to live. We take it for granted.”

Ms. Norwood, who just about checked off every box for those most susceptible to the virus — heavy smoker, high blood pressure, older age — spent the next 18 days at the hospital. For 10 days she was intubated and wore a breathing mask. But at some point the mask started leaking, rendering it useless.

“I was just lying there doing nothing, going nowhere, not even getting healthy,” Ms. Norwood said. “I wasn’t getting enough air. On Good Friday the respiratory therapist came in, discovered the leak, and replaced it. We don’t know exactly what happened. We just know there was a big burst of life in energy in that hospital room. And within six hours I was off the tube and on regular breathing. It was a miracle. I was home within a couple days after that.”

During her time in the hospital, Ms. Norwood said she had to look for a rainbow — something meaningful, that would keep her from falling into a depressed state.

“When you’re in a room and locked up like we all are across the country, people are getting so depressed, that I discovered that one of the things I needed to do every day was look for a rainbow. Something important for people to look into that they really love or enjoy or makes them feel good,” she said. “Ironically, the only thing they had in the hospital was a gourmet menu. And they didn’t tell everybody about it, but someone told me about it. ‘You can order cheesecake every morning for breakfast if you want.’ And I did. I was looking forward every day to eating my cheesecake, because that was really about all I could find that was a rainbow in my hospital room.”

While COVID-19 has had an adverse effect on the elderly population, Ms. Norwood said she hasn’t been as scared as others may be. She recounted her times as a drunk, homeless under a bridge in La Paz County, and how she eventually came out of those holes. A story for another day.

“I was just tough enough and nasty enough to say, ‘You know by birthday is coming up on the 12th of May. I’m going to live to see that birthday and nothing is going to hold me back.’ My doctors were amazed because they wanted me home with oxygen and a walker, and I said I’m not going home with either one.”

But she cautioned that people need to take COVID-19 seriously.

“Our young people, our old people, they go, ‘Oh yeah, everybody’s going to get it but I’m not going to get it,’” Ms. Norwood said. “It’s probably the most devastating, the most awful disease you could ever want, because it tears your lungs apart. And when you get it, and you get it seriously enough, you probably are never going to recover. Every breath is an effort.”

But as the disease begins to die off in some and creep into the lives of others, Ms. Norwood says people still need to find that balance between fear and life.

“We all need to do it at our own pace, but we need to do it,” she said. “You have to be able to measure what’s smart, what’s good with what you need to do.

“I’m 80. How many years do I have left to live? I don’t know but I want to live every minute of it. I don’t want to have to look at my walls for the next 10 years. I think that’s the message for the seniors. They need to balance the fear with the caution, but also with the idea that they do need to make some steps, do something. Even if it’s just walking around the block every day.”

Today, Ms. Norwood and Dr. Chu continue to follow up with each other on the former’s progress. The same is the case for all Iora patients who have tested positive for COVID-19. PCPs are contacting their patients about every two days to ensure they’re well-cared for and that they’re situation isn’t worsening.

“She was doing much better. She was breathing better. She was saying she felt much, much better,” Dr. Chu said. “She was back to kind of her usual self. Full of energy, laughing, making jokes... With the virtual I get a window into more of who they are at home. So I thought that was really neat. Janet and I have always hit it off. We have a really good relationship and trust with each other. I always try to give Janet my recommendations and options, and it’s really up to Janet to make her choice on how she wants her care and treatments to be done.”

Dr. Chu says people should develop a good relationship with their primary care physicians, especially during a time like the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Just as Janet did. She reached out to me when she wasn’t feeling good,” Dr. Chu said. “It’s good to have a relationship with your PCP so they can know you and be able to respond to you and answer your questions and give you the next best steps in how they approach your symptoms.”