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

@Turin thank you for your post. I think so many of us are terrified and every little cough /"feeling hot/sore throat/headache has you panicking.

We are a house of 3 adults, myself in my late 60's with underlying health issues DH, and DS and DDil (both DS and DDil are asthmatic) I am so frightened of what would happen if one of us got it.

sounds very scary for you and your DS :-(. i think the advice re proning, fluids and rest is very important.

However, what if we just turn up at our local A&E? surely they can't turn someone away who is struggling to breath? I know they have a covid and non covid entrance so why not just present there?

Where are you in the uk?

Im really shocked they told a 9 yr old that. A panicking child whose mum is very ill is not necessarily going to be able to distinguish blue lips and floppy head from bresthless and very ill. Theres no one to take you to hospital should things decline. That could easily end up killing a patient.

@ Sheeeeesh he is.

I anticipated the lockdown so managed to buy a Nintendo Switch online before I got ill. He didn’t ask for it to be opened or set up once. “Come on mum you can do, just sit in the garden for two minutes that’s all I ask”

His teachers were also calling regularly so that helped his morale massively.

A very well thought out and helpful thread OP. Fair play to you and thank you. The only negative point is as has been mentioned and should be reiterated: Paracetamol x2 every four hours, you did not say the dose but the average dose sold is a 4 hour max tablet - 500mg. 1000mg is probably ok but not for everyone and not as a recurrent dose, over days.

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

How does this work then? Will I be OK if I focus on getting better?

I'm fairly certain my daughter had it, 111 seemed to think so when I rang and explained her symptoms.

I can completely believe the OPs son being given that response as it was the exact same response I got when I called 111 about my daughter when she started to struggle to breathe on day 7.

"Unfortunately we are not able to take action until your daughter is unable to speak without gasping. Call us back then and we will put you in touch with a medical professional"

Luckily she's fine now, residual breathlessness and fatigue but fine.

It must be a regional thing with the only calling an ambulance if you’re on deaths door.

We are 99% sure my mum has had it. She went to her gps surgery after 3 weeks when the cough wasn’t getting any better and the dr thought it was. No swab test though and she works for the NHS. Fucking ridiculous!

The Dr said to her if you feel any worse at all than you do now ring an ambulance.

She also had to have antibiotics to deal with a residual bacterial infection caused by coronavirus.

Thankfully she’s on the mend and has managed to walk a few doors down the street and back today. Glad you’re feeling better op and thanks for sharing.

So glad you are getting better and so sorry you and your DS had to do through this.

Agree with PP that your DS is amazing.

*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.

This.

Why are people Clapping for the nhs, they have free beds. You should have been in one. Our death rate is horrendous. Or at the very least a visit to check on you from a healthcare worker.

Basically don’t call 999 unless you are dead. Oh ok.*

Sadly still having bed capacity at the hospital doesn't magic up more ambulances or paramedics - if this shows one thing (and it shouldn't take this as even in normal times you hear about ambulances taking ages) it's that the ambulance service has been stripped back far too badly

@SkelingtonArgument no it was just about remaining positive. Positivity may not physically help get me better but it motivated me focus on visualise betterment. Being able to parent again and look after my child rather than vice versa.

@Wired4sound glad she is feeling better.

This post and your comments about your son are so poignant they brought tears to my eyes. This brings back memories of my own DM when she was diagnosed with her terminal illness: her first thoughts were for how this would affect my brother and me, rather than her. The first thing she did on release from her first stay in hospital was get on the internet and start searching for information on whether her condition was hereditary. Bless her.

The response received by your son was awful: a terrible level of responsibility to place on a child. No wonder you were so upset.

You sound a wonderful, caring mum who is cast from the same ilk as mine. Your DS is lucky to have you. I'm sorry you had such an awful time with this virus and send all my best wishes for a thorough recovery.

@Zomblie theres a big difference though between an adult reporting symptoms and a child. A panicked 9 yr old is going to be unreliable in their reporting.

Not to mention your 7 yr old has an adult to look after them, OP has no one. If OP takes a turn for the worse theres no one to take her in etc.

Plus that poor child is going to be massively traumatised, a child calling 999 to me is an absolute cry for help and then just leaving them with their very ill parent with 'advice'

Glad you are ok OP.

Your son sounds wonderful.

Thank you. How terribly traumatic for both you and your little boy. It will take time to heal both physically and emotionally. Just take your time as much as you can.

I’m a single parent ds is older. I worry if I get it and have to be taken in to hospital my mum (70) has said she will come over and look after him otherwise it would be foster care and I do not want that for him but then she is more at risk she feels that is a risk worth taking

I try not to think of the worse but I’m at high risk of catching it because of work and those that I know around my age who have had it have thankfully not been too ill.

Turin, glad you're on the mend and what a wonderful son you have raised.

I was given anti-biotics and they did help me get better. I’m pretty sure bacterial infection had started.
It must have been something they anticipated. When my symptoms started my sister, a nurse, told me to ask for an asthma care pack (which she thought was being distributed to all asthmatics in preparation) containing inhalers (brown and blue) and steroid tablets and antibiotics.... She (or I) may have got this wrong because when I spoke to a locum at my surgery he had no knowledge of them, a friend with severe asthma didn’t get one and also my sister is in a different NHS area. I consulted that locum to get the things suggested and he offered anti-biotics aswell. I queried this as ‘it’s a virus’ and he (who had had a long day) impatiently told me not to bother then. I did need them.

Thank you for sharing your experience. How scary for you both. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Hope that being able to talk about it here helps with the recovery.

@MarieIVanArkleStinks thank you so much, that means a lot. I never thought I would be having the “university, relationships, respect for women, responsibility, love and compassion” talk all at once rather than over his lifetime. I deeply regret it but didn’t know any better at the time.

@enthusiasmisdisturbed I pray that doesn’t happen. I can imagine how agonising it must be but focus on what you can control rather than the what if.

I read recently that Linda Lusardi and her husband got it. Ambulances were sent for them and they were immediately tested (positive), but they were both able to go on social media regularly updating us. I really don’t think they seemed as serious as others I’ve read about, as in you wouldn’t have the energy, and yet they received first class treatment. Special treatment for celebs perhaps?

@snackcollector it has helped thank you. It has put me off sharing it public ally though as MN is a great way of gauging and verbalising peoples hidden thoughts.

Glad to get back to my students online on Monday.

I think this is a very interesting post for several reasons.

Why are some posters hung up on testing? I certainly think there is a massive role for testing and that we should be doing more, but why be sceptical about a person's illness just because it hasn't been 'validated' by a test but extremely symptomatic?

OP's experience and advice of what helped her could be invaluable support to many suffering in the community. Whether covid or not, these are things that helped one person in a severe viral infection and are not crackpot advice.

Suggestions of the efficacy of ventilators is now being raised in the medical world, as it may be that it is the treatment that kills to an extent. Of course we are at a bit of a blind spot where alternative treatments are unknown. Antibiotics for secondary infection and cpap for oxygenation seem to be looking preferable though - there seems no point in forcing oxygen via ventilators into lungs lined with a sticky yellow fluid that will not let it pass through.

Thank you for all that useful information and amazing to hear you have recovered. Your poor little boy - you must be super proud of him.

You’re ok! I’m glad. I got quietly invested in your plight. I told my OH that I was worrying about someone who posted on a forum (you).

Thank you for the advice, and for coming back. From a relived single parent.

I'm surprised the 999 person didn't insist on speaking to the OP.