RICHMOND, Ky. — Richmond man is back home after spending 45 days in the hospital battling COVID-19.
Charles "Chuck" Neeley is among the many Kentuckians hospitalized during the recent COVID-19 surge in cases that took place in August and September.
His wife, Nicole, and his three children have stepped up and have helped during this recovery journey.
Each morning, Nicole starts her day by getting medicine ready.
“I have it separated by morning, dinner, and bedtime,” Nicole Neeley said.
She does much of the preparation by checking Chuck’s pulse, oxygen levels, and blood pressure, daily.
“This is the mask he wears when he sleeps,” Nicole said, as she shows an air mask that hangs in their bedroom.
For a month and a half, Chuck received treatment for COVID-19 at Baptist Health Richmond.
“We celebrated our 23rd anniversary while he was in the hospital,” Nicole said.
Chuck barely saw his family and missed many milestones.
“And you know usually, you go in the hospital and you're with your loved ones and me being a nurse and knowing what he's probably going through but not being able to be through that process was very difficult,” Nicole said.
Nicole said it’s the uncertainty that’s really difficult.
“You know COVID[-19] kind of changed, everything. They were letting him come home before they normally would have let people come home Pre-COVID[-19],” Nicole said.
On Oct. 21, the hospital told Chuck he could go home sending cheers to him down the hallway when he was released and their community of friends and family put up ‘Welcome Home’ signs along the driveway as they inched closer to home.
“I have a 50-foot hose to get me wherever I need to go in the house,” Chuck said, as he describes his dependency on oxygen.
The couple is relieved for Chuck to be back home and begin healing.
“Well, I have to make it to the dinner table for sure, and then I have a room a TV room and then, of course, to go to bed, my bedroom. And then if I want to go outside I can at least get to the porch. But after that I got to have an oxygen tank to go further,” Chuck said.
Since returning home, for nearly three weeks, Chuck’s lungs kept him homebound.
“Just my normal exercises and walking through the house. But yesterday I got outside, actually, put tennis shoes on and walked to my shop and tinkered on cars and stuff with my kids,” Chuck said.
“I'm still never off of oxygen. I’m on it constantly. If I take it off completely, I can go about four and a half minutes till I hit a saturation rate of about 70. And so after that oxygen is going to go back on,” Chuck said.
He’s working to get his health back to what it once was.
“It is very hard to go from a very active status to doing nothing status. And of course for 45 days while I was in the hospital, you know I lost, I was, even so, inactive I lost muscle mass. So I've got to build all that back up now too,” Chuck said.
The Richmond man credits his faith to help him battle COVID-19 and along with his church family during this healing journey.
Chuck says he is not vaccinated and he plans to get the vaccine early next year when doctors clear him. His wife and children are vaccinated.