Treatment - Taking Control

This is my third blog post describing my symptoms of whatever bug I have had for the last ten days. In my previous post, I left things on Thursday, around midday, so here's how I have been since then:

I tried to take it easy on Thursday. I didn't do much after I added the blog post titled “My Symptoms - Flu or Covid-19. I just lay in bed and read a little, watched a couple episodes of White Collar on DVD, and went out to take short walks in the woods with the dogs. I checked my temperature: no fever.

My breathing was uncomfortable Thursday night, but I was able to take short breaths. It wasn't like the other two times when I would try to inhale, but air wouldn't go in my lungs. I still had all the symptoms of the virus except for the fever and the blue lips. The chills got bad, so I add a couple of blankets even though the weather wasn't cold.

I woke up Friday morning the same way with a sore throat, headache, chest pain, nausea, and sore muscles. I had my smoothie, then my lentil soup with vegetables and lots of garlic. My chest pain and sore muscles became a lot worse as the day went by, and by late afternoon, I was coughing and wheezing and could hardly breathe.

I was supposed to have a tutoring session on Skype, but my student's mother told me she wanted to postpone class until Saturday, providing my student got better, and that both her children, teenagers, had a bad cough and had been to the doctor who had given them medicine for bronchitis. I usually sit in my car and drive a bit down the road to where the internet signal gets stronger for my Skype sessions. I was already in my car down the road when I had this conversation, but given my own condition, I didn't mind the cancellation at all.

I decided to just sit there in the sun and let the sun warm my chest and throat, hoping I would cough less as a result. I called my local pharmacy and asked them if they had inhalers, but they had none left. I spent a couple hours on Twitter, sitting in my car and waiting for the sun to do its magic. And it did. The chest pain was still there, but the coughing diminished and so did the wheezing. I finally went home, boiled some water, and drank it after it had cooled a bit. I also had an apple and a few slices of cheese to go with it before bed time. I read a few hours before I fell asleep with three pillows under my head and shoulders.

Saturday morning, my chest was tight and breathing was difficult, so I had to do something. I tried to find an inhaler online, but nothing was available. Everything was sold out. Still unable to get help from the hospital, I decided to focus on the part of this unknown disease that both bothered me and scared me the most: my breathing. I started looking online for ways to help my lungs. After a while, I decided that since there were no doctors available around me except those in the hospital, I had to take matters into my own hands and treat this as if it were bronchitis.

I googled “homeopathic” and “bronchitis” and came up with several results, the first of which had fifteen different ways to address the issue – Fifteen Practical Bronchitis Home Remedies. I read the whole thing and noticed I was already doing a few of these and I had almost everything I needed to do all the other things on the list. I didn't have chicken for the chicken soup, but I was already having lentil soup every day. My cabin doesn't have a bathtub for the recommended warm baths, but I could take hot showers instead, which I was already doing. I started going through all the steps, one by one.

I washed a lemon really well and cut it into small pieces with its skin. I ate half of the pieces and soaked the other half in some boiled water that had cooled down. I took a spoon of honey with a few sips of my lemon water. I put even more garlic in the soup I was preparing. I applied some vapo on my chest and throat. A short time later, I boiled some water and added a few drops of eucalyptus oil in it. Then I placed a towel over my head and inhaled the steam for a few minutes. I had a bowl of soup.

I had the tutoring appointment from the previous day, so I took care of that and had some more soup when I got back. My coughs were not as frequent as they had been, and that motivated me to continue following the steps. I made some ginger tea, took a hot shower, drank my tea, and went to bed to read. I fell asleep reading. About an hour later, right around midnight, I woke up shaking. I got up and took my temperature: 98.5°F - no fever. The chills got bad, and I ended up falling asleep with four blankets on top of me even though the temperature inside my cabin was already comfortable.

This morning, I woke up feeling less pain in my chest, but I'm still coughing a lot and wheezing. I still have a sore throat, too, but it's not as sore as it was. No nausea or sore muscles right now. I'll go through that whole ritual of home remedies for bronchitis again. I've already done the menthol rub, gargled salt water, and eaten half a lemon with its skin. I'm also drinking a glass of water every hour. Let's see if I can beat this thing.

I'll keep documenting everything and will give another update in two or three days. Please stay safe: don't get close to anyone, wash your hands very frequently, drink lots of water, and, if possible, add garlic, honey, and ginger to your diet.