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Shane Bogema says he is thrilled to be home – and alive.
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His bout with COVID-19 saw him spend a couple of months in Brantford General Hospital where he was hooked up to a ventilator, had a tracheotomy and was placed in a medically induced coma.
Now home for about three months, the Brantford roofer said he is in rough shape.
“My breathing isn’t great,” he said in an interview.
“I spend 20 to 22 hours a day in bed. I’ve been sick to my stomach two or three times a day since being home and both my feet have severe nerve damage to them. ”
Bogema continues with therapy and faces scores of medical visits and tests for various issues. His feet are his big worry right now.
“They have no feeling in them. You could stab them and I’d have no pain, but the nerve pain is horrendous. It burns like something I’ve never felt before. ”
Before COVID, Bogema was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes but was otherwise healthy, untouched, he said, by a cold or the flu for decades.
“Every day since I’ve been home from the hospital, I’ve had the flu or a cold and it’s not COVID, because I’ve been tested. I think my body still just hasn’t recovered 100 per cent and can’t fight it off. ”
Bogema’s doctors have told him COVID is too new to know for certain what its after-effects are. The problems he is experiencing could be the result of the virus, his weeks in a coma, his diabetes or a combination of them.
“I know that I never had foot issues before COVID so it makes me believe it has something to do with COVID or the coma.”
Bogema entered BGH last August. He was intubated and eventually had a tracheotomy. Weeks later, when he was brought out of his coma, he was strapped to his bed so he wouldn’t dislodge the numerous tubes and wires connected to him. He couldn’t speak. He said he couldn’t distinguish between dreams and reality.
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“It was the scariest time I’ve ever been through.”
While complimentary about the care he received at BGH, Bogema insisted on leaving four to six weeks earlier than recommended.
“They wanted me to go to rehab and be able to walk on my own before I left but, mentally, I just couldn’t be in that bed any more. I thought I was losing myself. ”
Bogema was carried into his home by his brother, Dan Bogema. While he got settled, Shane’s partner, Lyndsay Wardle, and her son kept Shane’s beloved boxers in the yard.
“They put me in bed, then let the dogs in and it was a royal rumble fighting over my love!”
Shane’s business, The Roofing Company, was maintained by his supporters so his workers could finish projects but he has considered that he may never again step onto a ladder.
He’s encouraged some of his workers to start their own companies.
And he said he plans to take online classes and move into a new career while still running an aspect of his roofing company.
Shane’s also connected to 50 to 60 other COVID patients.
“Some people I talk to every single day now. It helps me and it helps them. I’m not the only one who’s had serious complications. ”
Despite the wholesale changes in his life and his ongoing pain, Bogema said he feels blessed.
“I’m in good spirits,” he said. “I’m happy. I have some issues that time may be able to fix and I’m in a better place now than I was when I was in the hospital. ”
And he said he appreciates the support he has received.
“From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank my family, friends and strangers for everything they have done for me and for being there for me.”
@EXPSGamble