Covid Breakthrough Infection...Personal Experiences
On December 15th I received a positive covid test result. I thought I'd write about my experience with mild covid. I've been in isolation since the evening of the 15th, so today I am on day 6 of that. I have a few more days to go. My symptoms started on that Monday, the 13th.
First, thank the gods I’m vaccinated. Second, thank goodness I’m an herbalist. Plant medicine rules!
Get a good mask, a KN95 works well and wear it everywhere. Get vaxxed if you're not and get your booster if you've only had 2 doses of the vax. Stay away from other people.
Here are some super fun covid-y experiences I’ve had…
Based on the symptoms I had at the outset (runny nose, headache, sore/scratchy throat, cough, horrible congestion, fatigue, appetite loss, muscle soreness) I probably have omicron. I may have had a fever on days 2 and 3 but it was a low grade one. The cough was gone pretty quickly...like after days 3 or 4. It took a week for the headache to go away. Ibuprofen minimized the symptoms but didn’t take them completely away. Keep in mind, I’ve had incredibly mild symptoms.
Testing took forever. It took 36 hours to get my test result. That sucked.
Don’t count on getting that fancy antibody treatment. So many people are sick right now that most sites are full. I couldn’t get a treatment. By the time something opened up I was outside the treatment window.
I get tired really easily.
“Mild” covid means you don’t require hospitalization. That’s what it means.
Appetite? What appetite? Totally gone.
The fatigue is REAL. Holy f*ck am I tired.
Sometimes my brain does not work. It’s weird. I keep reversing letters when I write; can’t spell and sometimes my hand just goes whacky.
Dehydration and fluid retention. I had a few days where I could not drink enough. I didn’t have a fever so I wasn’t sweating out or anything, but I felt really dehydrated. I also got kinda puffy. Yuck.
I was so tired that one day I just stopped eating because chewing was exhausting.
I had the WORST sinus pain ever. My face and sinuses hurt so bad! Ibuprofen helped but never took it completely away.
My nasal mucosa burned. The burning would suddenly stop. Then start again 20 minutes later. Fun! Oh the fun!
My lungs feel raw (still). It’s feels like when I used to race bikes and we’d do hill repeats. My lungs would feel like they were on FIRE. That’s how it feels. It’s been like this for DAYS. It hurts worse when I talk.
My hair fell out in clumps for two days (!). That was really f*cking freaky.
Man, am I tired. Did I mention that?
Recovery, even from “mild” covid, can take months. Yay.
I’ll test positive for months.
With multiple vaccinations and having had Covid, I’ll have the BEST immunity possible. Good, I guess?
Things I used (your mileage may vary as they say):
At the outset, ELDERFLOWER, not elderberry. I made an infusion with about a cup of dried elderflowers to a little over a quart of boiling water. I put that all in a pan with a lid and kept it on the warming burner on my stove. I added about a half a cup of yarrow to some of the batches. I drank that for days 2 – 5.
When my lungs started hurting I switched to marshmallow leaf tea with a bit of licorice root (boosts everything), rosehips (taste and for redness. It's an energetic thing) and cinnamon chips (for warming). I have elecampane tincture, too, that I wanted to mix with some thyme-infused honey but I’ve been too tired to work with all that. Maybe tomorrow? I will admit, I used the herbs I could most readily find with the minimum of work due to the fatigue I’m experiencing. Mullein might be helpful here, too. Just mind those hairs and strain through a coffee filter. Elecampane decoction would be great as well. Again, I'm too tired to go digging for it right now.
Shower steams with eucalyptus EO and about 10 drops of eucalyptus EO in a little jar of salt to sniff to ease the congestion. A shower steam is easy. Run a hot shower and while you're in there, drop 5 - 10 drops of EO onto the shower floor. Eucalyptus works well. My favorite is black spruce but I am currently out of that. If you have it, try it! Thyme EO would do as well. A dried thyme steam over a big bowl would work here but I'm isolating in the bedroom and that's hard to do.
I’m drinking at least a quart of tea along with several big (24 ounce) cups of water per day.
Vitamin D and zinc. These two are old standbys for coronavirus colds and other colds as well as influenza. Both vitamin D and zinc help mobilize the immune system in the upper respiratory tract. This means they’re preventative! Take them NOW. Don’t wait until you get sick. This is a good article for both background and dosage:
If OTC meds make you feel better, use them! They can be so helpful in preventing things like secondary sinus infections and things like that. Heating pads can really help with chills and muscle or back aches. If it makes you feel more comfortable, use it!
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