7 things Howie Severino realized while in isolation as a COVID-19 patient

During The Lusog Isip Talks hosted by Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA) on Tuesday, Howie Severino shared his experience battling the coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19).

The Kapuso journalist is Patient 2828 and inside his isolation room, he didn't just fight for his life. Severino also managed to reflect on his life, career, relationships and mortality. He shared a few of his reflections this afternoon. We took down notes.

1. Patients don't heal by themselves. For Severino, it's a partnership between the patient and his primary caregivers. "It's teamwork," Severino continued. "Doctors are there to make the big decisions. They drop in, make decisions, and then leave. It's the nurses who are really there. Sila yung nag-aalaga talaga sa amin."

He adds the illness came with a mental challenge, requiring fortitude from patients, and luckily it's not all up to them. "You will get it from your nurses, your family members, your friends."

2. Small talk matters. In his stories and in his documentary, Howie has been consistent in saying COVID-19 is the loneliest disease in the world, in history. He said the same thing on Tuesday and added "malaking bagay talaga yung small talk" with his nurses.

"I really got to know him," he said of his nurse Gab, adding that when he felt well enough to consider making a documentary, his nurse was a perfect accomplice. "He was sharp, a quick learner and he was interested — not just in documentary but in helping me heal. He knew I wasn't going to just lie there and feel sorry for myself. I needed to be productive." 

3. Frontliners are not just frontliners. For Howie, they became his friends. "Hindi lang sila 'yung taga-palit ng IV mo, o taga-intubate," he said. "Nurses are not just nurses. They are your emotional support. Sometimes, they are your only psychological support."  

4. Journaling helps. At his lowest, and despite having his IV connected to his dominant hand, Severino kept writing, taking notes of the details, taking pictures. "There was no intent [to release anything]. What was important to me was to write the details down. I wrote as much as I could. And when I started to feel a little better, don ako nangarap," he said. "It's important for others to know about it."

5. You don't want to waste the time you're given. According to Severino, getting sick allowed him to re-examine his life and maybe re-arrange his priorities. "Baka mali ang priorities ko," he said. "I'm so focused on my career, I realized maybe I haven't devoted enough time to my relationships."

Howie spoke about how he thought he was going to die and called up his wife to give important things like ATM passcodes and email passwords. "She walked me through meditation exercises. And we talked about really cheesy stuff — how I proposed to her, recalling details of our romance. We never had that conversation before, natauhan ako."

6. It's a chance to think about your mortality. He is not religious, Severino said, but while sick, he found himself praying. "And I felt guilty. I was only praying when I needed something? So maybe I need to rediscover the spiritual side of myself. Maybe I haven't reflected on that enough."

7. We will have to find other ways to show affection. "This isn't going to end soon," Severino said. "We may not have physical contact for a long time, so we have to find other ways to create quality in our relationships. Conversation is just as important [as physical contact]." We will have to find other ways of showing affection, he said, other ways to demonstrate feeling.

"We can recreate our world and make it better," he concluded. — LA, GMA News