I recovered from Covid after 3 weeks. Here’s what helped.

[Turin]

I hope I can help in some ways as I recovered from the awful virus. I had it for three weeks and believe I caught it from colleagues/students at school who presented mild symptoms. The virus attacked me very slowly (headaches and fatigue very normal with teachers) and the aggressively- coughing and flu like symptoms. I was in bed for weeks after.

It was so bad at one point I gave my DS (single parent) the “if Mummy dies” talk. Breaks my heart that he had to hear those words.

So I just want to share what helped me in case anything can alleviate your pain:

1. Plenty of fluids despite making me vomit. The emptying of my stomachs helped clear mucus in my lungs/throat and helped me breathe. The only food I could graze on was flat breads or fruit.

1. Antibiotics- the GP said this was to treat a secondary bacterial infection on my lungs in the second week which helped me breath. It did.

1. Paracetamol x2 every four hours. Some days I was so weak it would take me two hours at 4am to take these. During the day DS was trying to nurse me the best he could.

1. Lucozade. I could not eat and my sugar levels were desperately low. Some days/hours I had no idea where DS was (big garden) as I was so lethargic and fatigued. The lucozade gave me the sugar rush I needed to gradually get up and try and be a parent to him. He is 9.

1. Steaming. My friend recommended doing this with whole cloves as this is used for colds in her culture. Again helped massively when I had the energy to boil the water and place in a bowl.

1. Turn of sky news if you have it! The sight of the giant red virus cell as their background was nauseating! Turn off the news in general. It doesn’t help morale hearing about death rates.

1. Have a heated pad or hot water bottle on stand by if you do get the chills. I had a microwaveable heat pad used for pets.

1. Don’t be afraid to call nhs for advice if you think you are getting worse. At one point, my son called 999 and said “my mum can’t breath”. He was told “unless her lips are blue and her head has gone floppy we won’t be coming out we are too busy”. My poor love having to listen to that.

However, It helped me focus on getting better massively as I understood the nhs was on its knees and my recovery was going to be better at home even though I was gasping for breath.

1. As my course of antibiotics finished and the steaming was helping, I started to do things like clean up and wash clothes. Don’t. Stop. They will exhaust you. Baby steps for at least a week as you will get a false sense of confidence thinking you are better and then relapse. This happened to me 3 times.

Hope this helps someone who needed hope that the chances of you getting better are higher than if you don’t.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

X

@Sheeeeesh yes either of these are fine I have the cheaper one.

A good friend of mine was also told the same, no ambulance unless Blue, unable to speak etc. He lives alone so how would he have got one if he couldn't speak!

Thankfully he's fine now, today is the first day he has no symptoms other than being very weak.

No wonder our death rate is so high when no one can get help until its almost too late.

I also believe I had it. I started getting low grade temperatures on 13th march. I was lucky that I wasn't coughing but my chest felt like there was a belt just below my boobs, if that makes sense? If I used sentences of more than say 6 words I would have to take a deep breath afterwards. My temp was max 38.1 and I only had mild aches and pains so I took paracetamol very rarely. Unlike most fevers, it seemed to lessen off at night, but was consistently over 37.7 for 17 days.

To the person asking about oxygen monitors, I was able to read mine from my son's cheap fitbit type thing. The Honor band 5 has an inbuilt oximeter and the watch is only £30. It's a really good buy. Fab watch. You can get others online but delivery times would be long etc. Taking my oxygen levels really put my mind at ease.

This is useful and statistically lots of people with covid won't be hospitalised.

The lovely Dr Sonia Hudson who is an intensive care consultant said on YouTube that proning helps ie lying on your front.

If anyone is interested in Dr Hudson's entire video on this it can be found under Dr Hope's sick notes (junior doctor) she is also an avid lego builder so has built an intensive care pod!

Forgot to add, on day 8 I think my son began to run a high temperature. He gave himself calpol and was fine a few hours later. He had no symptoms at all bar this.

It’s so frightening thinking “do I have it, don’t I?” It’s like when someone talks about head lice, what do you do? You start scratching at your scalp. Try and not let every minor symptom make you think you have it.

Remain positive and rationalise it.

My mother got ill in a care home. She was not tested. She died. Doctor cited COVID as cause of death on death certificate. It seems that doctors are able to diagnose based on symptoms alone. I know testing is the gold standard but without testing diagnosis can be made on symptoms alone.

@peapod29 I think bacterial pneumonia is a side effect of Covid-19. When mucus can't be shifted out the lungs efficiently and it stays put too long, it'll cause bacterial infection.

jewel I’m so sorry

Good luck with your recovery OP

Turin so glad you are feeling better, your poor son I know the hospitals can be busy ( I am frontline) but, I can't believe the response to your poor son. However you recovered without hospital care thankfully, not everyone is so lucky.

The government and medics keep advising people to call for help etc as we are still able to see people but, with this response you wonder how many people have died or have existing conditions getting worse. That is my big worry. I also wish they would test people more otherwise how accurate are the figures?

You clearly have a wonderful son who sounds very mature. I hope you continue to improve.

It’s just occurred to me that this is actually the first time I have actually been able to coherently articulate what happened because it was so traumatic. 😕

My lovely headteacher and colleagues didn’t know the extent of my illness because I couldn’t share. I actually felt ashamed, I don’t know why. They set online work for me and replied to student emails.

If you are the relative of someone who is recovering, try and consider this element. The embarrassment. Maybe it’s because I irrationally feel I didn’t safeguard myself enough- was I too close to students/parents pre lockdown? Did I not wash my hands enough? I don’t know but just so grateful to my GP for checking up on me, the kindness in her voice when I cried and asked for her help. I’m overcome with humility.

Without being tested though you dont know you had it.

People don't want to believe that you can be really ill with this and still be considered "mild" and manage at home. Don't want to believe the ambulance service is very overstretched in some areas (even before the pandemic).
Hence all the "did you get a test?" "it could have been flu" "the ambulance service would never have said that" comments.

@TKAAHUARTG so only those tested are allowed to talk about their experiences and offer advice? Even if it wasn't covid, her experiences are totally valid.

The laws of probability though...

Thanks so much for sharing ! Brilliant thread. I'm really glad you and your boy are as good as you can be 😁😁🏆🏆

@TKAAHUARTG

Only because there are a lot of dimwits claiming they can give advice about a virus they may not have even had. It is not helpful.

Whilst it being an arsehole of a virus, surely tips on dealing with the symptoms are pretty standard and should cover any respiratory virus? whether or not it's Covid.

I'm not in the UK but are things really that bad that a 9 yr old can't get an ambulance for his mother when she can't breathe?

@MyDcAreMarvel thank you

@Turin I know what you mean about embarrassment. I was WFH throughout (kept insisting I was 'fine') and my worst day was definitely day 7 (of temps, I had a froggy throat for a couple of days beforehand). By that day 7 I was exhausted after busy week wfh and my breathing was at its worst that evening. I went to bed after bickering with dh and just sobbed, which made breathing harder. I was so scared. Luckily, the next morning I felt loads better. But I only told my friends about that night a few days ago. They had no idea I was so low.

I've had it. Tested positive through work. I work for the NHS and they were ringing every day to see when I was returning to work.

OP your DS is amazing

@ NeverTalksToStrangers glad you are feeling better. My best friends (teacher and social worker) have said that when they’ve done daily welfare checks they
can hear that some parents are clearly unwell. Coughing and heavy breathing. They’ve said they are “fine” and do not require support. Does make you think though.

Our GP recommended buying a sats monitor so I did and I’m glad I have one in the house now.

Great post op. Ignore the naysayers ! some people have very weird agendas
Alot of our patients are very dehydrated due to their temperatures and rapid breathing so encouraging sips of fluid seems about right.