I’m OK with this because the dreams were 90% good, and when I became more lucid, I quickly learned the worst things didn’t really happen. Maybe it was my body’s version of the “COVID fog,” but I really think it was just the heavy doses of medication I was on to keep me calm. This reinforced that we are all connected.) (I’m not a religious person, but I have faith and believe I’m more of a spiritual person. Talking to them later, I described the recurring folks in my dreams, and we got chills. Two others were “sent” to me by friends of mine who formed a bond and were eager for my recovery. He was 19 days old.Ĭredit: COURTESY OF SABRINA STARRETT-WOLFFĪ few other people kept appearing in these “dreams,” besides real-life nurse Maureen. He was “there” for every big procedure and milestone during my stay.īefore Sabrina Starrett-Wolff was transferred to a long-term acute care hospital to continue her recovery and prepare to have her tracheostomy removed, she met Harrison for the first time March 18. When I was on the ventilator, the nurses called him often to let him talk to me, even if I couldn’t talk back. I later learned Mike called the hospital four times a day to check on me, and he called four times a day to check on our son in the NICU. I also remember one of my first nights in the second hospital, freaking out and a nurse calling hubby on FaceTime to have him calm me down. Of course, I thought we were in a different hospital, in a different city, with a different set of circumstances. I do remember the first time my husband got to visit me in the first hospital. Now I know why no one actually came in my room to see me - it was all a dream. I also thought all my closest friends and their families took refuge in the hospital to ride out a wave of COVID-19 that was sweeping the country. I dreamed she braided my hair - which it turns out she did, because I have a braid in the pictures of me meeting Harrison. I then thought I was staying in an open-air hospital near Key West when my mom visited me during her only allowed visit in the ICU. (This nurse does exist, and her name is Maureen). I remember a nurse who kept talking to me, telling me what was going on and that if I didn’t keep my hands away from my throat, she’d have to restrain me again, something she didn’t want to do. I kept thinking I was tied down - which turned out to be true because I did have to be restrained so I wouldn’t try to pull my tracheostomy out - or my limbs were too heavy to lift, which was also true because of the sedation and pain medications I was on. I thought I had gone deep sea diving taken helicopter rides - including being rescued from deep sea diving and ascending too quickly been in four different hospitals - including one that was within walking distance of the Florida Keys and another that had me “on display” as what incredible postpartum recovery looked like. I was in an underground dome in the Bahamas, and I was on my way to meet my son. I thought it was 2022, and I was thawing out from being frozen underground to keep my unborn son and me safe from this illness we didn’t know about. They were rooted in truth, but the picture around them was completely different. I do remember some of the crazy dreams I had.
#Meet me im a wife and a mother of 3 full#
The first time I got to hold him was 23 days after that, a full six weeks after I first entered the hospital. Or touching him or inhaling that newborn smell. On March 18, I met my son for the first time. A few days later, they prepped me for transfer to a long-term acute care hospital. Doctors also inserted a feeding tube into my abdomen. On day 14, I was taken off the ventilator for good and underwent a tracheotomy to help me breathe. Then I came out, on a ventilator, headed to the ICU. He saw Harrison Paul Wolff (who was born at 1:42 p.m., weighing a whopping 4 pounds, 13 ounces - which is big for a kid nine weeks early) come out of the operating room and head to the NICU. My husband was allowed in to see me (which isn’t standard for someone who has tested positive for COVID-19), and he was allowed to wait. Husband, Mike, and son Benjamin days before her COVID-19 diagnosis.
I also remember being emphatic that I could take off my own necklace in the operating room. 28 to say they were talking about a C-section. I vaguely remember texting my husband the morning of Feb. I spent most of the day in the ER, hooked up to two sources of oxygen and texting friends and family. But my breathing got worse a few days later and my husband called an ambulance. I underestimated what COVID-19 was like - and what it was like for a pregnant person.Īfter a trip to the hospital and ER in late February to check on the baby and my lungs, I was diagnosed with pneumonia, given antibiotics and an inhaler, and sent on my way. I’ve been fortunate to have a strong immune system, so I had thought that if I DID get COVID-19 (despite all our precautions), it would be like a bad cold that I would fight off quickly.