MUNCIE, Ind. — Nowadays, Tony Uggen does a lot of writing. After all, it beats staring at the wall inside the Intensive Care Unit.
Uggen, the athletic director and head baseball coach at Blackford High School, was in the ICU at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital Sept. 8-14. On Monday afternoon, he was told he was now considered a Progressive Care Unit patient, another step in the right direction.
He tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 31 after having showing several symptoms — mild fever, cough, trouble breathing and occasional chills that left him shaking — a few days before.
After being admitted to IU Health BMH on Sept. 3, Uggen was immediately moved to isolation, then to the ICU on Sept. 8. The virus entered his lungs, he had pneumonia and was put on a breathing tube. He began taking hand-written notes of his experiences to help pass the time and to keep track of the dozen or so medications that have entered his system since his arrival.
"It's tough because you're sitting here by yourself 21, 22 hours a day staring at nothing," Uggen said over video chat as he rotated his laptop to show his surroundings.
In the room, across from his hospital bed, there's a camera. Uggen hadn't noticed it at first but said when he asked one of the nurses what it was used for, they responded, "That was put in early so that COVID families could watch their family members die."
Let's be clear; Uggen isn't close to dying. He calls himself "one of the unlucky ones," who had the virus enter his lungs. But he's alive. And for that, he's thankful.
Uggen has been spending most of his days writing or scrolling through Facebook, friending everyone he's met over the years. He's been sharing updates of his personal battle with the novel coronavirus on social media.
He doesn't do it for sympathy, rather for motivation, support and to let people know that "they don't want this." As the United States has been dealing with the global pandemic for more than six months now, Uggen's story serves as an important reminder that the dangers of COVID-19 are still very real.
"I just want to — hopefully it’s a glimmer of hope," Uggen told the Star Press. "Hey you can survive this and then (show) what people can do for others just to help me and my struggle to get through this. Like I said, I’ve got a long journey ahead, but I’m doing alright. I miss my family.”
Uggen sees the comments that are left on his photos on social media. The negative ones like "Only 2% die!" or "You know that others are dying?" His least favorite was a comment left on a picture of an X-ray of his lungs, when someone he never met talked about how "terrible" they looked.
He understands that there are people a lot worse off than him. That's not why Uggen's sharing his story. He's sharing because if he hopes that he can keep them from going through what he is.
"I was like everybody else, I was like 'I'm going to get it and I'll probably have a bad couple days,'" Uggen said. "But it went into my ACE2, whatever it is, receptors in my lungs and that's why I'm having the issues that I'm having and other people don't."
Uggen's cough started on Friday, Aug. 28. He remembers joking with his athletic secretary Lisa Musselman, saying "I coughed. I have COVID, I'll be out two weeks." That night, he drove his 83-year-old father and two other 80-year-old-plus men to Blackford's road football game against Eastern.
Little did he know the exhaustion that his stepson, Brandon, felt a few days earlier was actually COVID-19. As a precaution, Uggen wore a mask in the house and kept his distance. He wore a mask most of the time, especially at school. But at home his wife, Lisa, began feeling sick a few days later.
Uggen didn't find out until later that Friday night, after the football game, that his step-son tested positive for COVID-19. Immediately, he called the three men he drove to the game. The 55-year-old athletic director took a free test the next day and got a positive result two days later. He was relieved when he found out two of the three people in his car that night later tested negative and the one who tested positive had no symptoms.
"That’s the thing, you really don’t know who you’re affecting," Uggen said from his hospital bed. "You could be affecting people every day and be like, ‘Eh, life goes on.’ I don’t want to say who did I kill but who did I put in this position without knowing it?"
Uggen says he wished more people realized that, while the virus might only affect a percentage of people and some might not even show symptoms, others aren't as lucky. In the hospital, Uggen was told the story of a healthy 52-year-old in Fort Wayne man who died in ICU.
Hearing stuff like that was scary for Uggen, who himself had days where he struggled to breathe, woke up soaked in sweat and had chills that left his body shaking.
But there have been more moments that have kept his spirits up. The Zoom calls with family, catching up with people on Facebook and watching Chicago Cubs pitcher Alec Mills throw a no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers Sunday, to name a few.
"To watch those guys, as the baseball coach, you like to see those average kids, average guys do great stuff," Uggen said. "They were blowing them out and I kept thinking, ‘He’s got a no-hitter.’"
Uggen's been watching other sports like basketball and football. He's been working, too, entering scores for Blackford's football team on MaxPreps, which he noted was a lot easier on him during the game against Alexandria (Sept. 11) than it was against Frankton (Sept. 4).
As of Sept. 14, Uggen didn't know when he'd be released from the hospital. He said that for every day he spends there, it'll take three days for him to fully recover. It'll be a while before Uggen is back to 100% and he laughed when saying the baseball season "couldn't get here fast enough."
Even through all this, Uggen knows that sports offer some sense of normalcy during this time. After all, he almost cried watching Mills and the Cubs. But Uggen also hopes people stay vigilant, stay home if they're sick and, of course, wear a mask.
"(Sports are) something to grasp on and the main thing is, ‘can they do it safely?’" Uggen said of playing. "... Everybody's different. It’s not the same for everybody and I totally understand that but if Notre Dame can put 11,000 people in the stands and they can all wear masks, 150 people can wear a mask at a high school whatever and protect themselves. And I know some people are going to say, ‘Masks don’t work, blah blah blah blah.' You know, but it’s one less chance of being here."
MORE LOCAL COVID-19 COVERAGE
►Delaware County confirms 5 COVID-19 deaths in past 2 weeks, 237 more cases this week
►Why contact tracing is difficult — and what is being learned
►Ball State now reporting COVID-19 recovery stats
Robby General covers East Central Indiana high school sports for The Star Press. Contact him via email at rgeneral@gannett.com, on Twitter @rgeneraljr or phone at 765-283-8864.
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