My Battle with COVID-19: Lessons Learned

These thoughts range from wholly unremarkable and glaringly obvious to perhaps some nuggets of wisdom. I am just letting the stream of consciousness out. This is a collection of thoughts from my family and I on what we learned from our experience. A total of seven members of my family tested positive. I had symptoms for ten days, after which I basically had a post nasal drip and a voice where I sounded like a 15 year old hitting puberty. My symptoms were double barrelled, meaning that I got sick and started to get better but then sort of relapsed into another few days of sickness. Let me start off first by linking the Ivermectin treatment Protocols I previously posted: https://www.americanpartisan.org/2021/08/ivermectin-treatment-protocols/
My initial symptoms started with a headache, and soon followed with a phlegmy cough and a fever. I had gotten the text that I was a close contact but had thought nothing of it since the entirety of that contact time was outside, so I actually went for a six mile ruck. On the back end of that ruck is when my cough developed, and over the next couple of days my fever spiked to 103.3 degrees. The body aches were actually the worst part – it had felt as if I was in a head on car crash because my traps, neck and mid back were so sore from coughing. On Day 3, I lost my sense of taste and smell. This soon calmed down and the fever went away, though my senses remained MIA. I thought I was on the mend after Day 5 and had accepted not having them back for a period of at least two weeks.
The fever came back in a lower form on Day 6 and was joined by a nagging cough. It was a dry cough, but you could just feel that layer of phlegm under it you just quite couldn’t loosen. It was after Day 7 that I made a telemedicine appointment in hopes of getting Ivermectin (as I mentioned in the protocol post here, I had delayed picking up some “pony paste” and was anxiously awaiting its delivery in the mail). The first doctor I saw was so utterly useless, I will never go back. His simple suggestion was tylenol and Mucinex only and then scolded me for not getting the vaccine. He told me I needed to get it right away once I healed.
I found a second doctor who was treating the rest of my family and who had prescribed them Ivermectin. I managed to secure an appointment with him on Day 9, and he was exactly as a doctor should be. I was prescribed Ivermectin (albeit at a much lower dose than I should have been – 15mg instead of 28mg), Dexamethasone 4mg steroid, and Benzonatate 100mg (wasn’t really needed to control cough). He also understood my fear of pneumonia on the backend (see Lessons Learned below) and had Azithromycin waiting in the wings should I need it. As for the vaccine, he said that there was no reason for me to really get it and even if I wanted to, he recommended waiting at least six months past my infection date because they had seen too many complications when people got it quickly after recovery.
I took the Ivermectin starting at 4pm on Day 9; by 11:00pm, my fever had broken, and by 6:30am the next day (Day 10) I had taste and smell back. As I write this on Day 14, I am 100% and now only have a nonexistent voice and slight cough as the rest of the phlegm gets the hell out of my body.
Lessons Learned

1) You probably weigh too much and you need to lose weight. You weight affects your ability to fight the disease and your viral load. This holds true for me. Just shut the fuck up and get it done.
2) Have the pony paste on hand so that you can begin treatment at soon as you are notified as a close contact or begin to exhibit symptoms. The incubation period for this infection seemed to be about 5 days or so, and my family averaged an R-0 of approximately 4 before we got the infection under control.
3) Have at least 2 pulse oximeters on had (see links below) and extra batteries (typically triple AAA). If your sp02 or piox drops below 92, you should potentially seek out medical care for oxygen. Call an ambulance instead of driving yourself – at that level of oxygen, you may collapse before making it to the hospital. The ambulance will at least bring oxygen with it.
4) The risk of viral or bacterial pneumonia on the backend of COVID is real, particularly if you have some sort of preexisting condition such as asthma. I had one family member in which this occurred.
5) Have at least two digitial thermometers on hand (see links below) and extra batteries (typically LR41). I learned this because one of mine had the batteries die in it. I picked up three more thermometers and a pack of 100 batteries for the future, giving me 5 thermometers total.
6) COVID affects your family members who AREN’T affected. My oldest brother and his family were the only ones spared the infection, and they were very stressed the whole time – particularly with my parents. Their children were also affected as they constantly were asking to see their aunts and uncles and grandparents. Just because they did not get sick does NOT mean they weren’t affected.
7) The worst time period was typically 3am. At that point I would often awake and find myself in incredible pain while coughing because my body had been allowed to rest and seize up. My back was on a constant stream of ice packs or heating pad.
8) Some research we came across during this suggested that it is not always good to suppress fever unless it becomes towards the dangerously high range (I personally say 102 or above, but that is simply my opinion and wholly unscientific).
9) You never have enough cough drops. Seriously….
10) Hydration, hydration, hydration. I would do 20oz of water at a time with a few ice cubes and add in some apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, lime juice, and a pinch of salt. Occasionally I would add my vitamin C or magnesium powder or liquid zinc as well.
11) In terms of sleeping, either sitting up in a recliner or sleeping on my stomach with my head slightly elevated gave me the best relief possible.
12) A humidifier can be an important tool in loosening phlegm. If you don’t have one: boil water, cover head with towel, and lean over. You can also fill a sink with hot water as well.
13) Tea with honey will help soothe the throat after a long bout of coughing.
Medicines I Found Useful

Vitamin Regiment (260lb White Male).

Necessary Equipment

2 – Pulse Oximeters (with batteries)
2 – Digital Themometers (with batteries)
Heating Pad
Ice packs (I used this set and this set of flexible ones)
Conclusion
It wasn’t the worst thing I experience, but by no means fun. I was surprised that it affected me at much as it did, and it gave me a real eye opener in terms of where I THOUGHT my health was versus where it ACTUALLY was. It was the flu with a few extra tricks up its sleeve and just made it a shitty way to end our summer. I hope to get an antibody report in 9 months to update everyone on what level of immunity I still have. Most of my family had it much weaker than me with the exception of one who needed several days in the hospital on oxygen, which was very stressful for the family. Many of them are still in the midst of the backend of the infection.
I have absolutely no regrets about not getting vaccinated and neither does the rest of the family (to my knowledge), but I would be lying if I did not say that I was happy my oldest brother and his wife did because he is a severe asthmatic and if he had caught this, I would have been very concerned.
Keep your Vitamin D levels up and have the pony paste on hand to begin pre-treatment should you need to. Get your health in order NOW.