My Covid Experience
Where to start!? 13 days of illness is a lot of ground to cover!
I’ve contemplated how to relay this info and know with the times we are in it can be hard to share info without getting your hand slapped and I wanted to be able to reach as many people as possible.
Lucas and my covid symptoms started on a Thursday morning. When I went to bed Wednesday night I felt a bit feverish, but Evelyn had a little runny nose and I had a bit of a sore throat the days prior so I didn’t think much of it. I had upped my Vitamin C, elderberry and biocidin throat spray for the couple days prior.
When I woke up Thursday morning I had full blown symptoms, fever (~101-102F), cough, chest congestion, sinus congestion, extreme fatigue, body aches, nausea, no appetite, and headache. Lucas had similar symptoms, but not nearly as bad. We started the Institute for Functional Medicine supplement protocol for covid along with magnesium chloride and hydrogen peroxide nebulizers. I homeschooled that morning and took a good nap in the afternoon. We stayed home from the gym and watched a movie that night. I was worried it was covid as I never get sick and can typically fight off most things the kids bring home.
Friday started my 3 day Environmental Institute for Functional Medicine program and as symptoms persisted I stayed on the couch listening to lectures for the next 3 days. It was rough. I tried to get outside to get fresh air, but that proved difficult as all I wanted to do was rest. Over the course of the 13 days I slept a lot. It seemed that any activity took a lot out of me.
I chose to not quarantine myself from the kids as with Lucas sick too there was really no way to stay away from them and Elliott is still breastfeeding so it just wasn’t going to work. On Saturday the kids all came down with mild symptoms of low grade temps, Elijah had a slight cough and lethargy, but other than that they flew through it with flying colors. They were back to their normal selves in a couple of days.
There was really no relief in symptoms for 13 days. On day 4 and 5 I lost taste and smell and thankfully mine came back pretty quick within a couple of days. Lucas hasn’t been quite as lucky and still is working on getting it back with steroid nasal sprays and I have alpha lipoic acid on it’s way to see if that will help it come back for him.
The nausea and my appetite was horrible and it was such a battle to eat. It seems there were pockets of time where I would be somewhat hungry so I made sure to eat in those moments. I made sure I was getting adequate fluids and electrolytes. I ended up losing 8 pounds over the course of 2 weeks.
At no point was I ever short of breath and was regularly checking my oxygen level to make sure it was ok and it never dipped below 97%.
After about 13 days I finally felt like myself. My energy came back, and my fevers were subsided. I still had a productive cough and sinus congestion, but it was much more manageable.
Now onto my thoughts regarding what I took and what I felt was really helpful through this illness. As I’ve mentioned in my illness and immune support blog (http://tkwellnessandbeauty.com/illness-and-immune-support-tips/) when we have the info and are empowered with our health it reduces so much anxiety and outcomes are so much better. When we feel helpless it makes it really difficult and detrimental for our health. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be prepared. Regardless of what you do up until this point you don’t want to be unprepared and it seems that a lot of allopathic recommendations for supplements are severely underdosing them.
I also think having a solid foundation for health is so important. You can’t out supplement a poor lifestyle.
Key pieces to health and strong immune system can be broken down into these things.
1. Nutrition (an extremely important piece for reducing inflammation https://www.ifm.org/news-insights/lifestyle-practices-for-strengthening-host-defense/)
2. Fresh Air
3. Stress management
4. Adequate sleep
5. Positive mindset
6. Exercise
With covid and any illness part of the response is Inflammation and certain immune responses. While inflammation is required in the initial stages of an immune reaction to infection, prolonged release of inflammatory mediators (e.g., interleukins, prostaglandins, tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-alpha]) may cause system-wide issues and this is where people get into trouble. With this is mind a lot of the supplements used during this illness are to support the immune system so it can do it’s job, but not too well and also to keep inflammation at a reasonable level. (https://www.ifm.org/news-insights/lifestyle-practices-for-strengthening-host-defense/)
Also, one of the initial aspects in viral infection is what is referred to as a “cytokine storm,” or an abundance of oxidative stress, which can produce damaging free radical compounds such as reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS). In addition a lot of the immune system is originated in the gut so a healthy gut is crucial during and after illness. (https://www.ifm.org/news-insights/lifestyle-practices-for-strengthening-host-defense/)
One of the concerning features of covid is its ability to stimulate a part of the innate immune response called the inflammasome, which can cause uncontrolled release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, leading to cytokine storm and severe, sometimes irreversible, damage to respiratory epithelium. The SARS-CoV-2 virus has been shown to activate the NLRP3 inflammasome. https://www.ifm.org/news-insights/the-functional-medicine-approach-to-covid-19-virus-specific-nutraceutical-and-botanical-agents/
Using the IFM protocol helps to prevent activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, to decrease NF-kB activation, and to potentially inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication.
The below protocols are all very similar. We primarily followed the IFM protocol with a few additions. Keep in mind none of these are FDA approved and this is all for informational purposes. Please consult with your medical provider.
Find the IFM protocol here.
Find the FLCCC protocol here.
Most of my supplements came from Fullscript, which is an excellent source for high quality supplements. I also relied heavily on homeopathy for support and if you need a great resource for that I cannot recommend Jennie Hoglund enough. She was a lifesaver through this. If you aren’t familiar with homeopathy I cover it here. http://tkwellnessandbeauty.com/blog/homeopathy/
I also used glutathione which wasn’t a part of the IFM protocol.
Other key factors to my arsenal were nebulizing with magnesium chloride to relax my airways and hydrogen peroxide for viral coverage. I know that not everyone will feel comfortable with this, but we’ve been nebulizing for a couple of years and have had amazing success with it. You always need to do what is right for you. I truly believe this was key to helping prevent my lungs from getting worse. See my Illness and Immune Support blog for links and further discussion on nebulizing.
For sinus congestion I loved having and using my Neti nasal rinse, it was a lifesaver! I also relied heavily on advil to help with symptoms. While there is benefit to allowing a fever to run it’s course, there is no way I would have been able to not treat my fever for how poor I felt. My typical natural remedies for fever (homeopathy, peppermint oil, epsom soaks) didn’t work this time. As for nutrition I knew I should be eating things to optimize healing, but without an appetite I leaned on things that I was actually able to eat like crackers, fruit, some protein shakes and smoothies.
Now that we are recovered I am continuing with my supplements to help me fully heal, help my adrenals and to keep inflammation at bay. I still have a slight cough and nasal congestion so I will continue to see this all the way through. Right now my biggest hitters are Turmeric, Quercetin, Beef Liver pills, Minerals, Oyster Zinc, Magnesium, Cod Liver Oil, Vitamin C, protandim to reduce oxidative stress, and probiotics to rebuild a healthy gut microbiome. The after care is so incredibly important.
The bottom line is my best advice is to be prepared with supplements and other tools. The worst is to get caught off guard and it can take awhile to get the things you need. Knowing I had all of this on hand provided such a piece of mind.
2 month update
For the following 2-4 weeks after I developed a significant sinus infection. I continued my nasal rinsing and thought it was getting better only for it to take a nasty turn. I started adding 5 drops of colloidal silver to my nasal rinses and it worked like magic! No antibiotics were needed.
Two months post COVID we are all doing great. I kept the supplements I mentioned above going for about 4 weeks and added in a few to help reduce any post COVID hair loss. Those items were Mane Magic from Organic Olivia, Mushroom capsules from Earthley and Master Tonic from Earthley. These products are geared to support hormones and reduce stress on the body. I also wanted to make sure I did everything I could for the kids to help reduce their risk of MIS-C post COVID. I really focused on reducing inflammation and supporting their bodies with their daily supplements (mentioned in this blog post) and healthy habits (nutrition and sleep).
Bottom line is always do what is right for your family. Empower yourself in your health and do what you can to have a strong foundation.