I’ve just finally contracted it for the first time. I’m vaxxed and multiple-times-boosted, so it’s not that bad…
But it’s still pretty fucking miserable. Ugh. The paxlovid seems to be helping some, but in return it’s giving me the most horrendous taste in my mouth. Like a battery fucked a lemon in there.
What worked for you when you caught it, lemmings?
Edit: Holy cats, you guys came through! Thank you all for your various recommendations. The gist of it seems to be:
- Definitely stay on the paxlovid (and use pineapple to deal with the awful taste in my mouth that’s a side-effect).
- Rest. Fucking REST! Do not, under any circumstances, stop resting until it’s run its course. (Fortunately already doing that, since I’ve been feeling half-past dead.)
- Ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and mucinex are my dear, sweet friends. (I’m already a big fan of mucinex, so I have some already.)
- Drink a lot of water. (I have a comically oversized cup I’ve been using for that.)
And I gotta say… Now, as the end of the day approaches, I think I might, just maybe, be feeling a tad better. Thank you all!
Sleep. Just a ton of sleep. It sucks, but it’ll pass.
I drink a ton of ginger tea with honey when I got any throat thing, too. Idk if that really does much, but it feels nice and is tasty.
That, and a big batch of matzo ball soup. Even better if you don’t have to make it.
Yes, proper rest for your body is very important
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Especially when it’s made with a whole za’atar roasted chicken in the same pot before the soup. Ooh and extra schmaltz or even better… duck fat!!
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I was tired and the fucking headaches man. The headache was horrible. Felt like a tension headache that would. not. stop. I slammed water and took pain and congestion meds. I also watched Stargate SG1 lol.
I also watched SG1 when I had COVID and survived without hospitalization, so we’ve got two data points showing that it helps.
Slightly related, I watched SG1 when I was in a working a terrible job, I am now working a great job. The common denominator is SG1, not only does it help woth Covid, there is some evidence that it helps with getting a better job.
Shit I’m about to watch SG1 and see what other things improve - should I watch the movie first? The the show? I have the movie on VHS and series in my Plex library, but admittedly I have never watched either
Watching Stargate SG-1 is a good idea when you’re healthy as well.
I’ve gotten it twice now, despite being fully vaxxed/boosted, cuz I work in a hospital in the middle of Redneckistan, and a vaccine can only do so much against the plume of concentrated idiot I work in… Anyway, my symptoms weren’t the usual MO- 99% was just nonstop sneezing. Like, both nostrils bleeding, feel like I got punched in the face cuz my sinuses were so torn up, but still sneezing. Wasn’t a great time.
Tried a few antihistamines and some acetaminophen and none of that touched it. Otherwise just lots of rest.
I recall the long covid symptoms having a correlation with people who try to just “push through” the symptoms and do normal activity despite needing rest, so… don’t do that. Legit just chill until you feel better.
Oh, you better fucking believe I’m resting. As much as I humanly can. I’ve spent just about the entire day in my bedroom, switching between bed (when I can breathe through the mucus) and supremely comfy chair (when I can’t). There will be no “push” in this house.
When I had it, my only symptoms were in my nose, too. Not nearly as bad as you, but I constantly felt like I had a bunch of water up my nose… The same feeling you get when you swim on your back underwater. It was a really weird sensation.
Paxlovid is the way. I was similar to you. I had one day of fevers and then felt like I had a bad cold for a few days. Vaccines are fucking awesome. Drink lots of water.
I have what can only be described as a “flagon” of water next to my bed. I’ve emptied it like five times today.
Yeah, paxlovid is the only real answer. Makes you taste metal, but it’s a miracle drug for knocking out covid symptoms. Depending on where you live, you can ‘test to treat’ where if you test positive they give you a prescription for free (or cheap).
It also probably reduces chances of long covid.
I got mine free with a disclaimer that it appears to help but that hasn’t been proven. I don’t know that I’d label it a miracle drug, but I was definitely glad to have it. Vaccines are what I attribute to really helping me but even that is foggy.
Fear of long-covid was my primary motivator for getting the paxlovid. And holy shit did it taste awful. But I’d take it again if / when necessary.
Covid wrecked me even with vaccination and boosters. Water, and sleep is what helped. I didn’t even eat for a couple days. I could barely get out of bed, let alone stand and cook. Just slept and drank what I could
Maybe this is part of Dutch culture, but both me and most people I know aren’t to big on taking any medication unless necessary. Doctors will also generally advice to just take some rest an dget better, unless there’s medicine that is really necessary.
So idk, both times I just laid in bed feeling very tired and fucked up for a week, maybe took some paracetamol every now and then, and just waited for it to blow over. The second time I got it, which was during omicron, things did get a bit spooky. At some point I started struggling a bit with breathing. I noticed that I was getting tired just from breathing, so I told myself that of this stayed for too long or got worse I’d call a doctor. But luckily that didn’t happen, and it all got better again after a few days.
For me the main focus was getting good rest and energy. Using (good) nose spray to make sure I could breathe well when sleeping, using paracetamol when sleeping, and eating and drinking enough even if I really didn’t want to. I also slept around 10-14 hours per day at the peak, just because I was super duper tired
Same in Sweden, it’s understood that it’s going to suck and you’ll be uncomfortable but that it’ll pass. It’s a given for a lot of people here that it won’t be a problem to stop working while sick. Just rest and small comfort measures (for me, nose spray, ibuprofen if needed, sleeping and whining to myself).
The exhaustion, headaches, and shortness of breath are terrible! Even a walk to the bathroom left me winded and heart racing. When you’re feeling a little better, try to walk a lap or two around your house/apartment every couple of hours. I wasn’t as diligent about that as i should have been and it took me two weeks to get back to not feeling fatigued on the stairs at work.
Pineapple helps with the horrendous taste.
I’ll try it!
Lots of rest, drink lots of fluids, and take the occasional tylenol when fever comes up.
I just slept a lot. It just felt like a really bad cold, or a typical flu. I got the shivers for a day or two, had zero appetite, and my body felt sore all over, but thankfully I didn’t have any really bad symptoms. I just stayed in bed for a few days, took whatever cold medicine I had for the pain relievers and to knock me out to sleep. Oh and I kept a water bottle by my bed.
I suffered thru it the first time and did the same thing the second time. Only took some painkillers to cut down on the fever a bit.
Just kinda let my body do its thing. I had only 2 shots of the vaccine. I luckily didn’t have it as bad as others did. I just lost my sense of taste and smell, and had a runny nose.
My friend had it rough, and it kicked his ass for a couple weeks.
What I did was keep an eye on my temperature and cranked my space heater in my bedroom to 80°F(~27C), wore sweats and a hoodie, drank lots of water (with some liquid IV here and there), and slept as much as I could.
Having a fever is your body adjusting its thermostat to help your immune system work better and being in a warmer environment lets it use less energy to keep up that temperature. Monitoring your temperature will let you know if it gets too high. Water and electrolytes replaces what you sweated/peed out. The increased sleep will help your body to use up even less energy, leaving it all to help your body recover faster.
I may have only had lighter symptoms which lasted about a week, but this method has helped me get completely over every other cold/flu I’ve gotten within a couple days.
I had it pretty easy and before there was a vaccine. I had large joint pain(knees especially), light body aches(more muscle soreness), some fatigue, and it was slightly harder to breathe. I had never had a cold or flu before, so it was very foreign to me.
I did bed rest, Motrin, and the thing that helped the most to provide comfort was Epsom salt baths. I soaked in the tub like 3-4 times a day for the 3 days I was symptomatic and it helped me feel so much better.
A multi pronged approach to deal with symptoms is completely justified here. When I had COVID I would take acetaminophen, wait 2 hours, take ibuprofen, wait 2 hours, then I could take acetaminophen again. Follow the instructions on the bottle and make sure you don’t OD, obviously.
I also took generic mucinex as often as I could, and hydrated like crazy. I know a lot of press came out recently about phenylephrine not actually being effective as a decongestant, but I swear to god it worked better than anything else. YMMV, I may be some kind of genetic freak.
People have already mentioned rest, but seriously, rest so much more and so much longer than you think you need to. Overexertion during illness and in the immediate post recovery period has been correlated with future long COVID symptoms.
If you don’t already have an albuterol inhaler, ask your doctor if they’ll prescribe you one. Pretty normal for any respiratory problem and it’ll help open your airways up a lot.
