Thirdy on his COVID-19 recovery: I treated it as an injury

Thirdy Ravena on the bench for SanEn NeoPhoenix in the Japanese B.League. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Injuries are normal for any athlete but getting something as unpredictable as COVID-19 is another thing.

Thirdy Ravena was one of the unfortunate athletes to contract the virus and he dealt with it the way he knows how–like treating it as an injury.

Living alone in Japan, Ravena said he took the advice of doctors in regards to overcoming the virus and all the while keeping in touch with his family and friends during his two-week isolation.

“I thought of it as an injury because you can never plan for something like this,” said Ravena in an interview with Inquirer. “I don’t know where I got it exactly. So I basically followed the protocol of being in quarantine in my apartment for two weeks.”

“I kept telling myself ‘this is like an injury, I’ll just have to do rehab,’” added the San-En guard who recently extended his contract to stay in the B.League.

Ravena, who got COVID-19 in November of 2020, eventually tested negative for the virus but he said that the effects lingered even after more than five months of recovery.

He said that he felt a shortness in breathing for the better part of one month while his sense of smell only came back five months after he got the virus.

To keep his spirits up, Ravena said he constantly talked with his family as this was the first time in his life that he had to live by himself and in a different country.

“I talked to my family and friends all the time because I was living by myself, I was alone the whole time,” said Ravena. “I just needed company with me.”

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