All the things I found helpful when dealing with my mild COVID case
As promised, here are things that my girlfriend and I found most helpful when dealing with our mild COVID cases, as well as some things I wish I’d known before getting sick and that I’d do differently if I could. (Note: I’m not a healthcare professional and you should not take the below as binding medical advice; this is a blog! Please talk to a healthcare provider about this stuff if you’re sick, and listen to what they tell you.)
Things that were quite helpful for us when we had COVID:
Giant water bottles with straws. I was really having trouble staying hydrated in the first few days of getting sick, in part because I didn’t have a good drinking vessel. I knew exactly what I needed: the kind of no-fuss water bottle with a bendy straw that you get when you stay in the hospital. Two days later, these bottles arrived and they genuinely helped so much. Here’s mine ($6.10) and my girlfriend’s ($16.99) — aside from cold meds and a thermometer, this is the main thing I would recommend buying now.
A neti pot and distilled water. I swear by a neti pot for allergy problems, and having a few neti pots helped so, so much throughout the week. There was a point early on when my sinus pressure was so awful, my bottom teeth hurt, and the neti pot was life-changing. Also be sure to get the distilled water for it in advance so you are ready to go/don’t get a brain amoeba from using tap water! :) There are a bunch of different types of neti pots out there; I prefer the plastic teapot style/think it’s easiest for beginners. Most come with the saline packets, but if you already have a neti pot that you use regularly, make sure you also have a decent supply of the saline ready to go.
Putting a temporary trash can next to the bed. Early on, when I was burning through tissues at an alarming rate, I took a tip I got from UFYH and put a brown paper bag next to my bedside for used tissues, DayQuil wrappers, etc. It was so nice to have this! Nightstand tops get filled up (and gross) quickly when you’re sick, and it was a small thing that helped me feel a little better and less disgusting.
A stick of men’s deodorant. From the very beginning of our COVID cases, we used a stick of L’Occitane deodorant to see how our sense of smell was doing; this ended up being helpful because it’s a strong and familiar-to-us scent. Also, because we were using it the entire time, we had a clear sense of how our sense of smell was waning day to day. I think a stick of Old Spice or any other men’s deodorant would work just as well, assuming you give it a few sniffs when you’re healthy.
The thing my girlfriend and I both found is that when your smell and taste starts to go, it can be really subtle at first, and you can quickly forget what anything used to smell and taste like. Suddenly it’s like, Is this just bland or am I unable to taste it? Did these ground coffee beans always smell this faint? So my advice is to opt for things that are really recognizable to you. (At one point, after I felt like I had no idea what ramen is supposed to taste like, my girlfriend had me bite into a fresh cut lemon slice to see if I could taste that. When I didn’t really wince at it — I could sense “sour” but not much beyond that — we knew my sense of taste was in trouble.)
Slowing down, literally. I’m a fast walker and often move around my apartment at a pretty quick pace. That is...not ideal when you’ve got COVID and need to take it easy. I was good about staying put in bed, but I also forced myself to just move slower whenever I did get up, and to move at a much much much slower speed than I normally would when I started doing chores again.
A daily vitamin cocktail. Every healthcare provider we talked to suggested that we take Vitamin D, Vitamin C, zinc, and magnesium. So did some friends, and my mom. It felt very, like, How did we not get this memo? So, that’s something I’d recommend buying today. (But please look to a healthcare provider for dosage info, drug interactions, etc.)
Orange juice. Our friend Doug left us some orange juice (along with a few other things, including flowers!) when he picked up Chuck, and it was great to have. Drinking OJ definitely helped me stay hydrated, especially as I waited for my giant water bottle to arrive; LaCroix was just not up to the task. (Orange juice was also the only thing I could really taste for a couple of days there, so I found it very comforting.)
Tea. Another thing several friends sent that was crucial to staying hydrated and feeling good; it was also good to have a mix of herbal tea (get peppermint, for nausea!) and caffeinated tea because we weren’t making coffee all week in the interest of taking it easy.
Advil Sinus Congestion & Pain. This was a One Medical provider rec, and I ended up really liking it for sinus symptoms. Also, it only involves taking one pill, and the packaging is much easier to deal with than DayQuil. It’s very similar to DayQuil but lacks a cough suppressant, so it’s what I’ve been taking on days when my sinus problems don’t include much coughing.
Capsule. I’ve been using Capsule for prescriptions for the past year and have been really happy with it — they have great customer service, quick turnaround times, and are just genuinely helpful. They also now deliver OTC meds, so we were able to get things like DayQuil and NyQuil. (I also noticed last week that they deliver Plan B, which is a good thing to know if you’re having the kind of sex that could lead to pregnancy!)
Opening a window. Ventilation is a great way to help keep housemates safe if you’re sick, but even if you don’t do it for that reason, know that fresh air can be a very welcome relief if you’re in bed sick coughing and sneezing. When we finally opened the windows after a few days in bed, it felt amazing. We also put a fluffy Brooklinen quilt on the bed for the duration of the time we were sick (like duvet o’clock, 24/7) and being bundled under that with the windows open was very nice — the cheap version of, IDK, being in a hot spring in Iceland.
Patient.info. This UK-based website was a good resource, with articles that get to the point in the way that, say, the New York Times does not. A couple we found helpful: Coronavirus: what are asymptomatic and mild COVID-19? and Coronavirus: what are moderate, severe and critical COVID-19? It was really useful for us to be able to see exactly where our symptoms fell on this spectrum when we were feeling worried.
A natural way to drain sinuses. One night during Week #2, I was so, so congested — to the point that a neti pot wouldn’t even work on one side of my nose; I was just completely blocked, and my ears were starting to feel really terrible as a result. So I started poking around on YouTube for some kind of way to massage my face and ended up going with “Lymph Drainage for the Ears from Louisville Massage Therapist at MassageByHeather.com.” It worked wonders — like, within the first minute or two, I was already feeling relief.
5-4-3-2-1. This technique was a Sally recco for dealing with catastrophizing, and it helped a lot with the uncertainty and anxiety of having COVID.
Muting the term “COVID” on Twitter for a week. I did this after a tweet about a young healthy guy dying of COVID popped up in my feed, and I really recommend doing it after a positive test.
Finally, my best advice is that, if you can afford to, it’s a really good idea stock up on stuff while you are healthy. We had a lot of what we needed on hand because we bought it last fall, and I’m so glad we did; it made everything less stressful and less painful. We had DayQuil, NyQuil, Advil, Tylenol, Mucinex, tissues, saltines, a thermometer, and neti pots. We did not have distilled water, packaged ramen, popsicles, or any of the recommended vitamins, which meant we had to get them delivered — so add things like that to your cart now if possible.
Things that were...debatable:
Pulse oximeter. This is something we got mixed advice on from the different healthcare professionals we talked to; we ended up using the one we bought last summer (and apparently the city of New York will give you one as part of the care package they offer everyone who tests positive). This NYT article is a good background/explainer. Personally, I found it very stressful to use the pulse oximeter often, because the numbers do fluctuate a lot, and ours occasionally told me my heart rate and oxygen was so low I would have been fully dead...only to give me a completely normal reading 10 seconds later. (These devices can apparently be less effective on people with dark skin, so maybe that played a role — it’s hard to say.) Ultimately, I’d say listen to your doctor’s recommendations on this one, and maybe set limits for how often you’ll let yourself check this number.
“Deep yoga breaths.” This is another thing that a bunch of healthcare providers recommended, and I feel mixed about it. On the one hand, I don’t doubt that taking big breaths is good...but on the other hand, yoga breathing isn’t the easiest thing in the world, and not being able to comfortably do very many big deep yoga breaths in a row stressed me out (even though I think I was breathing pretty OK overall) which then gave me anxiety. So I guess I’d just say talk to a healthcare provider at length about how to best check to see if what you’re experiencing qualifies as “having trouble breathing” and about how many deep yoga breaths you should expect to be able to take comfortably.
Things our friends did that rocked:
Our friends were wonderful and supportive in so many different ways, one of which was sending food. This was great because we had like zero energy for doing anything beyond warming things up in the microwave. If you are sending food to a friend with COVID, I’d recommend choosing something that’ll keep for a couple of days because 1) their appetite might wax and wane quite a bit, and 2) if they get a lot of food from friends, it’ll be nice to have things for later in the week. We truly appreciated everything we got, but the bagels and cream cheese, matzoh ball soup, tea, ramen, and boxed mac and cheese were standouts. Also, consider sending sweets — we could taste those better in general, and they brought a bit of joy and delight during a really rough week! And I have to give a shoutout to Spoonful of Comfort, which Sally sent us; it’s delicious, and the packaging is so charming. Also, having a full meal of soup, rolls, and cookies after days of being sick felt extra special.
In terms of checking in on us, our friends did a mix of things; Sally did morning and evening vibe checks which made sense given how often we talk and how close we are. Other friends checked in every few days, which felt like a conscious choice to avoid bombarding us, and which we also appreciated. And others waited patiently to be updated (and I tried to make a point to update them regularly because I knew they wouldn’t want to bug us). But if you’re sick and struggling with lots of people asking you how you’re doing or giving you not-helpful advice, it’s really OK to set boundaries! And maybe think about using IG close friends or something to that effect to share info with multiple people at once, or appointing one or two people to update the rest of the family/friend group.
Also don’t be afraid to lean on friends to help you with research! It’s very hard to research basic things about COVID without also getting, like, terrifying info that’ll make you think you’re going to die within the hour. I definitely asked friends to look into things a couple of times for us, and they were happy to research and relay info to us.
Things I would do differently if I could:
View allergy and sinus symptoms as possible COVID symptoms. There are so many Venn diagrams on the internet that lay out the differences between allergies, sinus infections, a cold, the flu, and COVID…and reading them made us think we were probably fine. Two separate healthcare providers also thought we were fine! It ultimately didn’t matter because we chose to get tested, but I gotta say...do not sleep on sinus or allergy symptoms! (I’ve also been hearing from other people who had COVID that they also had sinus symptoms.)
Get tested earlier and/or go to a testing site that offered rapid results. This wasn’t the biggest deal in the world because we weren’t going out and doing things or going to work in person, but getting tested earlier definitely would have saved us some stress on Tuesday and Wednesday. (Like, I don’t think I would have felt the need to obsessively check for my results on Saturday or Sunday because I wasn’t very sick at that time.) We also were sicker by Tuesday, meaning trekking to get tested and standing outside waiting was more unpleasant. And we *just* managed to beat a big snow on Tuesday; had we waited any longer, getting tested would have been considerably more difficult. You just never know what the next few days might bring, and I don’t think putting off a test is a good idea if you have the time/means/transportation/ability/etc.
Also, I thought that all of the H+H sites in NYC did rapid testing, but that wasn’t actually the case, and the website was a little confusing to navigate, especially on mobile. In hindsight, I wish I would have looked into finding the closest site to me that offered rapid testing while I was healthy so that I knew exactly where to go when the time came. So that’s something to look into now! (Also, I’d seen so many New Yorkers recommending the city sites over private testing at places like One Medical because the city sites were said to be considerably faster. So even though we didn’t get same-day results, I am still glad we did H+H. In any case, this is all the kind of stuff to pay attention to right now!)
Better document my symptoms during the first week. I was ultimately able to remember everything that happened the first few days, before I tested positive, because I was paying such close attention...but then I kind fell off for a few days right after we got our results. Those middle days in bed just really blended into each other! It wasn’t a huge deal to not have that documentation, but it was also easy enough to make notes in my Day One journal app each day after that, and to note what meds I had taken and when so I could stay on top of everything. Honestly, I think it’s worth it to start making notes from the get-go; it doesn’t take much effort, and it’s really helpful to be able to communicate this stuff to a doctor, especially in an emergency situation.
Never take zinc on an empty stomach. Doing so made me *instantly* feel like I was going to be very sick, and actually made my girlfriend throw up at one point.
Sleep more. Even though I wasn’t getting up as early as I normally would, I was still setting an alarm every morning for...no good reason, in hindsight! A friend of ours who likely had COVID last spring said he slept for 12–14 hours a day, but because I’m not much of a napper, I think it would have been wise for me to sleep more at night.
Expect to be sicker longer. In talking to other people who have had COVID, it sounds like it’s not unlikely to take 3–6 weeks to recover...and I can say that it’s definitely taking longer than two weeks to feel better! During the third week, I was still waking up with sinusy symptoms every morning that were bad enough to necessitate meds, and I still felt very low-energy. In hindsight, I would have just planned that I’d need two full weeks off of work to rest and recover, and would maybe even have taken a couple days of the third week off.
The Wednesday of the third week, after putting in a normal workday with lots of editing, I did a few chores and was fucking wiped. This very soothing and validating article (which I read while fucking wiped) encourages folks recovering to not do too many “thinking activities,” like emails and planning things. I ended up taking that Friday off to extend the long weekend and rest more, and I think that helped a lot. It’s only right now, just past the four week point, that I’m feeling somewhat normal again, and I'm still taking it easy and trying not to over-extend myself.
If you get COVID and are fortunate enough to be able to take PTO, I’d recommend taking a little more than you think you’ll need, and think about padding your time off with another day or two to be able to do any chores/tasks that piled up while you were sick (knowing that you shouldn’t expect to do a full day of chores on, like, Day 11; see also: move slowly). It’s also good to have a little time to simply process what it means to be sick with COVID, because it’s fairly overwhelming, and that has been a delayed feeling in our case.
If you can’t take time off work, or can’t take much, or have to go back to a job where you’re going to be on your feet all day, I still think it’s good to know that it’ll likely be a while before you’re at 100%. Clear your calendar outside of work to the extent that you can, ask for help to the extent that you can, and just be as gentle with yourself as possible.
Also! Being sick longer means you’ll likely need more meds than you might expect, so keep that in mind when stocking up, and make sure you have enough if multiple people in your household are sick.
Don’t put things off that you can do now. Look, if you’re worried you’re going to die, you might not care about whether your bedroom is tidy...but if you’re anything like me, you’re capable of vacillating between thinking you’re going to die and wishing your bedroom was tidy!!! The thing is, having some household chores done really does make it easier to recover and function, and you definitely shouldn’t be doing chores while sick.
All this to say: do what you can to avoid waiting to refill necessities (from prescription meds to dog food to trash bags to toilet paper) until the last possible minute, try to always have clean socks and underwear in your drawer, keep your gas tank relatively full, make a pot of soup and freeze it, etc. Have a plan for what you’ll do if you get sick (including figuring out where you’ll get tested and what doctor you’ll call for a follow-up appointment). Figure out who might be able to take care of your pet if you’re sick/can’t leave your apartment, and put together a doc with instructions for the pet’s care while you’re healthy and able. We didn’t have everything we needed when the time came, but I can’t overstate how relieved I was to have the things we did have. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. ✨