Christmas with COVID: McAllen mom recalls spending holiday in hospital with virus

Janice Rivera poses at The Monitor on Thursday, in McAllen. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])

One evening, on Christmas Eve, someone stood outside Janice Rivera’s hospital room, where she had been battling COVID-19 for days, and did something special.

After waking from much-needed rest, Janice opened her eyes, looked around the room and noticed something different. 

Her family was there.

Not just in spirit, but in photographs as well. 

Luis Rivera, her husband, stood outside her hospital room that night to make sure Janice would wake up to pictures of her loving family on her window so she wouldn’t feel alone during the holidays.

Last Christmas was the most difficult and emotional time for the 43-year-old and her family after she was hospitalized two days before Christmas due to COVID.

Janice, a McAllen resident, first encountered the virus when her husband, Luis Rivera, came home sick from work.

“Sadly my husband got it at work and then he brought it home, and although he tried to quarantine … it was unavoidable,” Janice said. “My daughter got it right after him and then I got it.” 

Although her husband and daughter both had the virus, Janice was the only one hospitalized.

It all started when Janice wasn’t feeling well one day. Then things took a turn for the worse.

“I started feeling very tired, I did start getting a mild fever but then the worst of it was when I started coughing and I couldn’t stop,” she recalled earlier this week. “I would cough and not be able to breathe. On a Monday I started feeling bad … called my doctor and went in for a COVID test  … but then the next day I woke up I was extremely weak. I could barely walk and if I would move, again the coughing would start. It got to the point where I would cough and I couldn’t breathe.” 

After seeing the condition she was in and not being able to reach her doctor, her husband took her to the hospital. 

Janice was hospitalized for nine days, from Dec. 23 to Dec. 31.  The first three to four days were extremely difficult, she said, due to anxiety caused by extreme coughing and the inability to breathe.

However, Christmas proved to be the toughest day to endure for Janice both physically and emotionally. 

“Christmas was the hardest for me …  it was the first time I was away from my kids on a Christmas,” Janice said.

Despite being separated from her family during that time, her husband was determined to bring Christmas to her.

Taking a page from Santa’s playbook, he hatched his Christmas plan in the “middle of the night” and decorated her hospital window while she slept.

“He put pictures of my family, and my friends, and my mom, and my dog and basically everybody who loves me. He put a sign that said: ‘We Love You,’” Janice said, her voice a little shaky as she remembered the joyous occasion. “He put a prayer there. Kind of like a reminder so that I wouldn’t give up and to continue fighting because obviously there were people who love me and needed me.”

Along with the gesture from her husband, Janice explained that her children played a key role in making her situation easier. Her daughter was her “rock” who helped her father take care of her brother while her mom was in the hospital.

Janice said her daughter was a big help in keeping the magic of Christmas alive during that difficult time.

With support from her family and the care of nurses, Janice was able to return home. However, that came with challenges of its own.

“When I got home I was still very weak, I was still mainly in bed for a good two weeks after that. I slowly started walking, but just walking from my bed to the bathroom I would be out of air,” Janice explained. “It took me a while to be able to get stronger again, to be able to walk, even in the house I was in a wheelchair; I could barely stand. So, it took me a little bit to be fully recovered. I still had to be on oxygen. I was on oxygen for maybe a month after because (with) the slightest movement I would start coughing.”

After dealing with the challenges of the virus last year, Janice explained that this Christmas is more special than ever. 

“We are just going to be home. My inlaws are here, my mother’s here, my husband and my kids are here, so we are just going to be home, just us, being thankful that we are together,” Janice said. “I honestly don’t know how to describe how happy I am and how special it is for me to be here.” 

This Christmas she has taken extra precautions to avoid getting sick again. She explained that her son told her that last year’s holiday was the worst Christmas he’s had and doesn’t want to go through that experience again.

“So this Christmas I am going to be home, enjoying time with them doing Christmas activities — building gingerbread houses, singing and eating and just being with them,” she said. “I don’t want to do anything else but be with them.”


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