Chris de Chavez recounts COVID-19 ordeal: 'This is something we'll never forget'

"The scary part about it is it’s super, super unpredictable."

This is what professional basketball player Chris de Chavez has to say about the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

He and his family are among the thousands that contracted the illness and lived to tell the tale.

In an episode of GMA Public Affairs' "Survivor: Tunay na Buhay," the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League and Chooks-to-Go 3x3 National Team player said that he didn’t expect to get the disease at all.

After all, he, his brother and father were athletic individuals.

However, the disease soon found its way into the family after their mom, who was a nurse in a New Jersey hospital for 30 years now, came home feeling sick.

"That’s the scary thing about COVID-19, you know," Chris said. "It could affect anybody. It could affect the healthiest, the sickest. The young, the old."

It all began when Chris, who lives in Marikina, decided to fly out to the United States on March 18, just days before the enhanced community quarantine was imposed.

He went there to be with his family, especially his two-year-old daughter. Little did Chris know that he would get the disease there.

When his mom came home feeling sick after working in the hospital, his father soon started to show COVID-19 symptoms. Then, the rest of his family followed.

"The first week I just started feeling flu-like symptoms. It felt like a flu times five, you know. It just felt really bad," Chris said. "I was feeling weak. Body aches. Congestion and I couldn’t sleep. Sleepless nights. I think I didn’t sleep for like, four or five days straight."

"It wasn’t just me and my mom. My dad caught it. My kuya got it also," he added.

Chris' dad Jun said that he brushed it off at the beginning and just thought it was just another flu.

But when the symptoms got worse, he realized it wasn’t just like any flu anymore.

"Sobrang hirap ng dinadanas namin," he said. "'Yung short of breath. Tapos hindi ka na makatulog. Hindi ka na makakain. Talagang yung hirap na hirap ka na. Tuyo lagi ang lalamunan mo. Para kang sinasakal.  Tapos pawis na pawis ka lagi."

The family soon went to the hospital to finally get a swab test. However, because the hospital was fully packed, they decided that they all just stay at home and take care of themselves.

Road to recovery 

After catching the disease, Chris decided to isolate himself and his family away from his daughter.

Because his daughter was the purpose of his trip, Chris said he couldn’t help but feel sad about the situation.

"I think that what makes me the most sad because I don’t want to wait a little more to see her.  At the same time, I don’t want to go see her and expose her to this virus. You know, that’s my biggest fear for her to get sick," he said.

He then made it a point to do everything he could just to finally be with his daughter. Even when he was sick, he would force himself to workout, from using their bike at home or doing different exercises.

The basketball player said, "I think one thing about COVID is it just forces you to be weak. It just forces you in your bed. But you really have to force yourself up to get up and fight kasi if you let the virus beat you, it’s gonna beat you."

Aside from exercising, Chris and his family also tried out home remedies.

According to Jun, they’ve tried stretching, drinking ginger tea with lemon and honey, as well as steam inhalation, an activity his mother used to do back in Batangas.

The steam inhalation, locally known as "suob," is a process where you put salt in hot water and you put a towel over your head as you inhale the steam.

Although Chris said that after using the steam therapy for a week their congestion started to feel better, a doctor pointed out that there is no scientific proof that steam inhalation can actually help a patient.

"Actually ang steam inhalation traditional na ginagawa yan pero alam mo sa ngayon wala talagang strong evidence, very weak ang evidence na ito'y nakakatulong, the more dito sa coronavirus no," said Dr. Rolando Dela Eva, a pediatric pulmonologist.

He added, "Baka 'yun ay nagkataon lang, baka sila ay spontaneously talagang nag-recover kahit hindi nila ginawa 'yung steam inhalation."

With the help of their healthy lifestyle, Chris said everyone in the family started to feel better come April, just in time for Jun's birthday.

"'Yung papapasalamat sa Diyos, sobra sobra, sa mga taong tumulong samin, sobra sobra," Jun shared.

'Believe'

Now, Chris is finally reunited with his daughter in Florida.

The basketball player said that people need to learn not to take their health for granted, and to always eat healthy and build their immune systems.

To remember the hard times his family went through to survive COVID-19, Chris decided to have the word "Believe" tattooed on his body.

"I got a tattoo that said, 'Believe.' ‘Cause during that time, I really believed that I can get through it and there’s a higher power helping us out. It’s just like my little reminder of that time," Chris said.

He added, "‘Cause this is something we’ll never forget. This is something that me and my family will never forget."

—Kaela Malig/JCB, GMA News