From severe COVID-19 and illness to walking a healthier path free from type 2 diabetes

Nicky Gebka's health and fitness journey started because of a severe battle with COVID-19 in 2021. In the eight weeks she spent in the hospital, six of which were in ICU on a ventilator and undergoing dialysis, her doctors didn't think she was going to survive. Today, Nicky is 53kg lighter than she was then and she no longer needs medicine for type 2 diabetes.

Her health path towards recovery

"Thanks to doing a Vitality Health Check for insurance purposes, it showed that I had high blood glucose levels, and I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 40," she says.

It was 2021 when her life changed and Nicky (57) praises the treatment she received when she had COVID-19. "I was fortunate to receive treatment that oxygenates blood outside the body for the heart and lungs to rest. This ECMO machine is a last intervention and there are very strict criteria to receive this treatment. I was also fortunate to get off this treatment and that my health improved - because most people who were in ICU passed away," says Nicky.

Her miraculous recovery was marked by a haze of medications, and she says it's her daughter's voice calling out to her that helped her through. "I realised that maybe I could actually fight it, and I did." Nicky stresses that for families who face the trauma of someone being ventilated, "Please, please talk to your loved one. I could hear my family despite being in a coma and highly medicated. It helped knowing my family with their constant chatter was there, even if I didn't know where I was or who it was".

After her hospital stay, Nicky spent a further four weeks in a rehabilitation centre, learning to walk again. She also received therapy to help her through post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Nicky says that mental health therapy after such an event is essential for the entire family unit that goes through PTSD. "Speak to your medical scheme, Discovery Health Medical Scheme, especially, knew how difficult it was to adapt after the trauma and how powerless family members can feel to help."

Driven to transform her health

During her recovery period, Nicky lost 20kg. As she slowly rebuilt her life, she became driven to gain control of her health. After having COVID-19, Nicky was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, which compromises her immune system further. "I didn't really worry about losing more weight at the time. Then I went to have my ankle, that was fused due to psoriatic arthritis, checked and the podiatrist took a video of my whole body. When I saw what I looked like, I realised I had to make changes if I wanted to be around for my son (26) and daughter (23)."

Living with healthier habits that changed her life

Nicky started following a diet suited to manage type 2 diabetes under the supervision of her doctor and started seeing a biokineticist three times a week. She says it mainly involved managing her carbohydrate intake and her physician monitored her blood glucose throughout the process to carefully adapt her medicine and insulin based on her bod's changing needs. She says she uses her Vitality HealhyFood benefit quite regularly to save on foods that are now part of her daily life.

Along with a new way of eating, Nicky also started walking and now she can walk anything between 10km and 12km a day. She laughs and says, "They call me the lady that drags the dog along the road. My "reluctant" Golden Retriever, Hugo, and my smartwatch, linked to Vitality, are such great motivators - I love closing the rings as I reach my exercise goals. This also gives us a chance to save on flights through Vitality when we go to our "happy place" in Plettenberg Bay to take a break from the hustle and bustle in Joburg," she says.

Every step makes her health improvement more profound

"Before I had COVID-19, I saw a doctor who told me I needed to lose some 'bulk;. I went to see him again recently and he didn't recognise me. You've got to commit to making the changes for yourself and then get help. My recent Vitality Health Check also gave me an extra R10 000 from my WELLTHFund, which I now use for my biokineticist visits."

"I'm grateful to everybody who supported me and there are so many ways Vitality and Discovery assist with lifestyle changes (Nicky is also a Discovery Health Medical Scheme member). I keep thinking about why I survived and that drives me." Nicky's plan is to be a health coach and while she has some health challenges, each step she takes makes her health improvement more profound.

"I want to inspire people - I lost weight and no longer need medicine for type 2 diabetes because of my current habits. I want people to know that it is possible. I have been off all of my diabetes medicine for around four months, and this follows a slow and careful process of decreasing my medicines over time, also supervised by my doctors. After dealing with the condition for 18 years I would, without doubt, consider myself to be in remission from diabetes.

I attribute this to a combination of the changes I made to my eating, to losing 53kg and to keeping up with my daily physical activity - including getting in those 10 000 steps and more."

Nicky still checks her blood glucose regularly to make sure it is within normal levels and cannot stress enough how important it is to have regular health screenings.