Good morning…
I woke yesterday congested, with a scratchy throat, possibly a bit of a fever. It is common for me to get a summer cold, out in the heat and back into the air conditioning, swimming in a pool and hanging out with wet hair. Hence the term “common cold.” I know what to do when I feel a cold coming on; I take Zicam (zinc) every three hours until the symptoms subside.
But we are living in uncommon times, and any hint of a fever makes me fear, “COVID?”
COVID has visited our home this summer. Before the Memorial Day weekend, I had known only four people who tested positive for coronavirus: a previous Monday class member, the daughter of a Monday class regular, a co-worker at church, and the niece of a close friend, who has also endured grueling treatments for cancer. Hospitalization was required for the two very serious cases, and the other two people weathered milder symptoms at home. Since Memorial Day, the number of people I know personally who have tested positive for the virus has skyrocketed to over fifty. Several of our kids’ friends have contracted COVID, some of their family members, a friend who was being very conscience about sheltering-in-place weirdly got it, and two of our four young adult kids, testing positive for COVID, have quarantined with mild symptoms in our basement for two weeks, at two separate times. (Hence the picture of food sitting on the top step of our basement stair, a common daily occurrence for four full weeks of this strange summer).
Now I am the one sequestering, so so grateful to have a home with a basement. I have relegated myself to this separate space since waking with achy symptoms yesterday. “Better safe than sorry,” I am embracing the old adage. It is probably just a summer cold, but what if it’s COVID? We are planning to drive to visit my 89-year-old mother-in-law in Pennsylvania soon, and there is no way we can take coronavirus with us. With rapid test sites in our area involving six to seven hours of waiting in huge lines, my husband and I reached out to a good doctor friend to schedule COVID tests last night at 6:00 pm, along with antibody blood tests to measure if we have had asymptomatic cases of the virus. (By the way, I am keenly aware that this is a white privilege, being able to call on the help of our black-skinned doctor friend). After we drove home in separate cars, me wearing gloves and a mask, I trailed down to our basement’s private entrance. Lovingly my family returned the favor, putting my dinner on the well-used top step of our basement stairs. I will self-quarantine here, working from home, until our test results return in about five days.
One thing I did last night, as I settled in to sequester, was to pull up an informative email a friend sent me back in April, explaining how to do self-care if COVID symptoms appear. This is very practical wisdom I am passing on to you, compiled by a pulmonologist who is my friend’s friend.
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COVID Self-Care – April 4th, 2020
Since they are calling on respiratory therapists to help fight the Coronavirus, and I am a retired one too old to work in a hospital setting, I’m going to share some common sense wisdom with those that have symptoms of the virus and are trying to stay home. If my advice is followed as given, you will improve your chances of not ending up in the hospital on a ventilator. This applies to the otherwise generally healthy population, so use discretion.
1. Only high temperatures kill a virus, so let your fever run high. Tylenol, Advil. Motrin, Ibuprofen etc. will bring your fever down allowing the virus to live longer, actually exacerbating the virus. Use common sense and allow fever to rise to 103 or 104, if you’ve got the guts. If it gets higher than that take your Tylenol, not Ibuprofen or Advil, to keep fever regulated. It helps to keep your house warm and cover up with blankets so body does not have to work so hard to generate the heat. It usually takes about 3 days of this to break the fever.
2. The body is going to dehydrate with the elevated temperature so you must rehydrate yourself regularly, whether you like it or not. Gatorade with real sugar, or pedialyte with real sugar for kids, works well. Why the sugar? Sugar will give your body back the energy it is using up to create the fever. The electrolytes and fluid you are losing will also be replenished by the Gatorade. If you don’t do this and end up in the hospital, they will start an IV and give you D5W (sugar water) and Normal Saline to replenish electrolytes. Gatorade is much cheaper than the ER, pain free, and comes in an assortment of flavors.
3. You must keep your lungs moist. Best done by taking long steamy showers on a regular basis, if you’re wheezing or congested, use a really minty toothpaste and brush your teeth while taking the steamy shower, and deep breathe through your mouth. This will provide some bronchial dilation and help loosen the phlegm. Force yourself to cough into a wet wash cloth pressed firmly over your mouth and nose, which will cause greater pressure in your lungs, forcing them to expand more and break loose more of the congestion.
4. Eat healthy food and regularly to keep your strength up.
5. Once the fever breaks, start moving around to get the body back in shape and blood circulating.
6. Deep breathe on a regular basis, even when it hurts. If you don’t it becomes easy to develop pneumonia. Pursed lip breathing really helps. That’s breathing in deep and slow then exhaling through tight lips as if your blowing out a candle, blow until you have completely emptied your lungs and you will be able to breath in an even deeper breath. This helps keep lungs expanded as well as increase your oxygen level.
7. Remember that every medication you take is merely relieving the symptoms, not making you well. Time is allowing your immune system to fight it off.
8. If you’re experiencing shortness of breath seriously consider calling your doctor or going to the ER.
I’ve been doing these things for myself and my family for over 40 years and kept them out of the hospital, all are healthy and still living today. Hope you found this helpful.
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I do find this information helpful, and I hope you will too, if you or a loved one are faced with the question, “Is this a cold or is this COVID?”
Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit (3 John 1:2, NLT).
…Sue…
