SEEKING CARE: You can reduce your stress if you HAVE a PLAN in place should you or members of your household contract COVID. Be proactive.
Expect that at some point you or a member of your household will get Covid.
There is no cure for COVID - only treatments to manage symptoms. If you feel unwell early treatment support is key - ESPECIALLY for persons with
co-morbidities.
Get tested immediately - Rapid antigen tests are useful as soon as you start experiencing symptoms or test by the 5th day after known exposure to someone with Covid.
You can also go to a quick testing site and ask for PCR testing. Early PCR tests can provide false negatives. If you are not getting better and it is day 5 -7 since the start of symptoms get another PCR test.
Call your primary care physician/nurse, or city telehealth resource. Tell them you tested positive….and tell them of any existing chronic illnesses/comorbidities. Once your health care professional knows that you have any chronic illnesses, they should order one of the early treatment medications for you. If you don’t tell them, although they should, don't expect that they will ask you. We have seen too many cases where people, especially people of color, were simply told to go home and isolate themselves as opposed to being asked if the covid+ person had comorbidities and then prescribed early treatment medications.
Purchase and have on hand a pulse oximeter and a contactless body thermometer. Monitor oxygen levels with a pulse oximeter and monitor your temperature every 4 hours. If the oxygen saturation level goes under 89 call the doctor.
Have on hand whatever over-the-counter meds you might typically use to treat your flu when you have had it in the past.
Stay hydrated. Use whatever is best for you that will keep your electrolytes up.
Prepare chicken soup/broth if the sick person is having a hard time keeping down food or loss of appetite. There is zinc in the bones, connective, and muscle tissue of stewed chicken along with collagen which is an immune booster! Chicken soup is comfort food and has medicinal properties.
Consider increasing doses of zinc to 220 mg daily and Vitamin C 200o mg immediately
Keep the rest of the household safe. Designate a caregiver to interact with the sick patient. The designated caregiver should wear protective clothing upon entering the sick room and disinfect upon exiting. HOCL would work well for body misting from head to toe. Antiviral scrubs from Livinguard are also an option.
Consider how you will isolate the sick person so that there is a bedroom and bathroom for their use. Consider having on-hand air purifiers for the isolation room and if possible other areas of the home that share air exchanges with the room where the sick person is isolated. We have seen situations where having a room air purifier and wearing masks even in a shared bedroom kept the other (non-sick) person from contracting covid. If the covid+ person has to share a bathroom with other family members then each person should be masked upon entering the bathroom and will have to be prepared to disinfect surfaces on their way into and out of the bathroom. Out of an abundance of caution, it is also a good idea to fog mist the home and the sick room with HOCL periodically during the isolation period. Everyone in the home would benefit from wearing a mask or ionizer while the covid positive person is isolated, especially if there is no central air purification system or air purifiers throughout the home.
Plan ahead of time for what will happen to your kids if one or both parents contract covid.
Designate someone to be your health advocate if you need to go to the hospital, especially if you live alone. Your health advocate should be prepared to get information on your temperature and Oxygen saturation levels and temperature. If you have a family member or friend who is a doctor, enlist their support so that can help ensure that you or your loved one is getting the best care possible.
Most people will be able to manage their symptoms at home. Remember most people survive COVID and do so without any lingering after-effects. So far roughly 97% of the people who contract COVID don't need hospitalization. We hope you are part of the 97%.
If we practice great biosafety protocols (mask, Ionizer and Skinguard when you leave your home) we can help mitigate getting sick in the first place.
Dr. Patricia Jones Blessman
"Thrive, Not Just Survive"