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

Its not about people being supportive, its about endless threads on here with scaremongering from people who don't know whether they have had it or not, therefore the title of the thread should be changed. And yes, telling your son that you might die is particularly horrible, sorry.

@Turin I’m not quite sure why your nine year old son was phoning 999 for you. Was it because you couldn’t speak in sentences due to breathlessness? If it was and they didn’t send someone out to assess you then you absolutely should make a complaint. If you could speak in sentences then really you should have phoned them yourself. Also you say that “you could hear the anxiety and panic in the paramedics voice” but it’s not a paramedic you speak to when you phone 999 it’s a call handler. Did a paramedic come out to assess you or speak to you over the phone?

I am not doubting that you had COVID19 I am just worried that this thread will be scaring the shit out of single parents who are already worried about how they’d cope if they get unwell.

This is the issue for many - there is no NHS care no matter how much tax we have all paid over the years. Hospitals have capacity but people cannot get hold of their GP, they cannot gelt hold of 111 and certainly if sick have no strength to try a line for hours and hours and it can take 9 hours to get an ambulance even if they can come out (our hospita lNorthwick Park was full at one point and Watford ran out of oxygen)

If I needed to go to hospital with it I think I would get a member of the family to drive me to an A&E (15 min drive) rather than wait 7 or 9 hours for an ambulance. One mother who died in London eventually got one to come out and they said she was not bad enough to go in. The next day her husband found her dead at home.

I know it's a tricky decision as to whether people are better off at home or in hospital but we might need earlier hospital for some to keep them alive rather than take them in at the last minute when they can only say 2 words not 6 (which I think for some is the test....). In fact I told my sons to say I could only say 2 words not 6 if we needed help just in case... otherwise I am not sure they even come out to you.

@Bringringbring12 I was struggling to breathe. Literally gasping and choking on my own words. He had to know how much I loved him.

In retrospect, my choice of words would have been better thought out, more eloquent and euphemistic. I just didn’t have the capacity or semblance of thought to put them together. Sorry if you disagree. I did what I thought best in a crisis situation.

OP I am glad you are well.
We always knew that a lot of people who got this virus would be very ill at home. That has been clear all along. If you don't need to be hospitalised, that is classed as medically mild. Of course it is not mild to those going through it.
I believe you OP that you had covid 19. But I also know the government are saying that testing of antibodies indicates only 2-4% of people in the UK have had it. So I do think there are a lot of people saying they have had a very mild case, who have not had covid 19. I suspect with more serious cases like yours it is easier to tell the difference.
I think though that some people will die at home who could have been saved if hospitalised. I know in my area the official advice is we will not hospitalise you until your lips are blue or your can't talk.

@Turin It is really easy for healthy people to sit on their sofa and say what they would have done. You were very ill, scared and trying to do your best. I have no idea if you did the right thing or not, neither does anyone else. They just don't like the image of a lone parent having to tell a 9 year old his mum could die. So rather than deal with those feelings, they attack you.

Thank you for posting @Turin. Your experience sounds very similar to mine, and I appreciate you taking the time to post about it. I think some people are scared and don't want to accept that people are getting this in large numbers in their communities, hence the perpetual "It might have just been flu", and pointless questions about tests.

I have had a nasty illness which started just over a month ago. No, I haven't been tested but strangely enough, influenza season is over, I haven't had flu since I was 7 years old, DH and I work and commute in a hotspot (Birmingham) and at least a dozen other staff that we know of across our workplaces came down with the same symptoms in the same week. So, guess what? I think we've had Covid-19.

Low-grade fever for weeks (still hasn't completely gone, in fact), short of breath, pain in lungs, total exhaustion. Headaches and sore throat early on, diarrhoea in the middle days. Shortness of breath/chest tightness didn't start until day 5. Days 8-12 were the worst, I felt really very ill. On day 12 I coughed up some blood and rang 999. The paramedics were kind and I didn't need to go to hospital, but it was scary. DH and DS have also had same symptoms but DH has recovered quicker than me and DS seems to have avoided respiratory symptoms (touch wood).

At my darkest moments, I had fears of us both dying (I knew rationally and statistically that this was extremely unlikely, but fears aren't rational). I was very, very grateful to have DH as I have no idea how I would have managed as a single parent. Your DS sounds like a wonderful little boy, OP, you must be very proud of him. Wishing you the best

@Bornlazy the call handler said a paramedic would call me back. One did an hour later.

I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, but I was struggling to breath. I could not call 999. I couldn’t get up. I could just about lift my neck to take sips of water.

I’ve recovered, I’m incredibly happy. I’m going to work next week, I can cook, I can clean, I can enjoy fresh air. Please stop with the criticism. My intention was only to pass on tips on this thread not to be shamed or have my parenting challenged.

I made an extreme decision in an extreme situation. I hope none of you ever have to go through it in order to understand my thought process.

@Spudina, is a sats monitor the same as an oximeter? Thanks!

Struggline to breath seems to be a key thing. One of my adult daughters in London had a really awful headache for 2 weeks which would not go even with pain killers - then near the end had a day of finding it hard to breath. She had to tell her boyfriend he may need to come out and take her to A&E if she stopped breathing (this was only on one day and the next she was fine). She has never had a breathing issue before in her life and is very fit young and strong and active and thin.

She will never know if she had covid 19 but I suspect she was one of the many London mild cases because of that breathing thing (and the fact some have had bad headaches with it).

My doctor father years ago told us all what he wanted done if he were sick and also made a will and had a power of attorney. Whatever your age is it very very helpful to make a will. I made my first at 18 and even my student sons have wills. It spares the family a lot of hassle after even if you feel you have no money to leave as at least you have named guardians in the will and then do what we all do in this family send everyone a photocopy so there are no nasty surprises later.

Please Turin has been through a really frightening experience. We don’t know what we we do we only know what we think we would do.

But thankfully all is fine. Please don’t be hard on yourself and concentrate on you both relaxing. Watch lots of nice films Lego Movie is great

I cried reading your experience it’s horribly traumatic xx

People just don't want to believer that Covid could actuall happen to them. It is something that happens to other people, on TV. That's why I was so shocked when I received a official diagnosis of Covid....I didn't actually think it could happen to me!

This is terrifying to read, I'm glad you're better op, but gosh you can see why people are dying, I've not actually read anything in the press about the ambulance service being at breaking point, that's hugely concerning.
I also think I got covid at school, luckily I was only mildly ill, mild temperature for a few hours, relieved by paracetamol. I was in bed for a week. I also had a massive headache that I put down to stress and lack of sleep before the temperature kicked in.
I can completely relate to the feeling better then overdoing it, I was needing naps in the afternoon for about 10 days after I felt well.

Thank u OP for your recommendations, glad u are over it

My fear is that the both 111 and ambulance will do a tough assessment and only admit to hospital when close to death's door - otherwise they would be totally overwhelmed.

So your advice to do use home remedies as soon as feeling unwell is spot on, thank you

@alloutoffucks that sounds incredibly accurate. Easy to be judgemental. It was the scariest experience of my life and I’ve had a fair few.

@everythingisginandroses I’m so glad you are feeling better. I think it’s normal to think worst case scenario when your symptoms are so aligned to covid. I am from a BAME. Background and over 40 too so for me the reality was very startling.

@Xenia brilliant advice. A will is on my priority list as soon as some sort of normal resumes.

My sister updated hers over the phone so will even try and look into it earlier.

@Turin in that case you really do need to make a complain. If a paramedic called back spoke to your nine year old son because you were unable to speak on the phone and then told him directly that you needed to be blue and floppy before they would come out that is totally unacceptable.

It is incredibly difficult to get tested we test now hospital cases and NHS workers.

When we had symptoms I did the NHS 111 checker and it said the symptoms matched.

When my DD cough got worse I had a telephone consultation with a doctor who heard her cough and said it sounded like it but to stay at home unless her chest tightness and breathlessness worsened (it thankfully didnt)

I have had flu (Swine Flu) and it was different, it felt different in my lungs you could feel it there. And the loss of taste and smell was nothing I had before.

If I didnt have it it was very coincidental that I had something so similar in lockdown. At the beginning I did think it was unlikely but to see DD get it

We live in London as well which I think has a higher proportion of cases

Speaking to my partner, it turns out that he spoke to the doctor on the phone, described my symptoms, and the doctor called an ambulance. But 111 did speak to me as well to assess my symptoms - I really was unable to do anything for myself at that point.

I think you have done an amazing job. I think your little boy will grow up to be even stronger and more resilient because of this.

In your initial post you talked about 'What worked for me' and not 'This is what YOU or anyone else should do'. So you weren't giving wrong advice because you weren't giving advice, just sharing your experience.

Also the chances of this being anything other than CV are extremely remote and you have a gp diagnosis, I can't see any reason at all why that should be questioned - but hey ho, even if the cause was something else, what you did worked and may give someone else ideas on how to cope.

Really pleased to see that you are well on the way to recovery. Give your lad a high five from me. He's a survivor too.

@Turin, so glad that you are well now. If I was a single parent, I really don't know what I would have done. My child is the around the same age as yours. I would have had to get him to make all the calls. I am lucky that my partner was able to speak and advocate on my behalf.

Hi I am so glad you are better.

I decided not to take paracetamol. I have a very strong fever for 3 or 4 days .. I can't quite remember.

I had a device which measured my oxygen rates blood flow and had a peak flow meter. I also took temperature and pulse rate.

I also had it mild but still couldn't walk one day, got disoriented at one point.

You are so right to mention being hydrated.

I wonder if you are tired of being asked if it is just a flu? I don't tent to tell people I have had it because I keep being asked that ..

And the fever worked for me (not suggesting it works for anyone else) because I knew that the virus was not easily able to replicate while I was at a high temperature.

It sounds as though you and your little boy have a wonderful relationship.

Made me cry reading that. You and your ds are very brave. Thank you for posting 💐