I have a friend who got the exact same symptoms in the the same order/duration as well. They lose smell/taste right before Halloween and still don't have it back. It seems now, being my 6th day since fever and 8th since any symptom that I will get thru this fine at this point.
Well that would be bummer for me since I don't like peanut butter. haha. Can't imagine having only the tasting sense of something I don't like.
Hope you like peanut butter.
MAS, love how your humor is guiding you through this experience.
Plenty worse than peanut butter. Actually peanuts were one of my favorite foods but my wife has a peanut allergy so I gave anything peanuts up when we started dating. It was a blast from the past flavor for me
I am just catching up on this thread for the week.
OMG I am so sorry you are having to deal with this, but relieved you are able to maintain a sense of humor about it.
Now for my usual bossy advice stream of thought:
1. I see you are a smoker. I won't advise you to quit cold turkey while you're dealing with this, but would you consider switching to nicotine gum while you recover? This might give your lungs a little break.
2. Vitamin D3 - your dosage is still too low. For adults, especially with an illness, 10,000 units per day is better. You can always lower it to 5,000 units if you feel side effects, but I can tell you I have never suffered D3 toxicity and I have been taking 5000iu/day since 2007 and bump it up to 10k whenever I'm sick, including last winter when I had what I think but can't prove was COVID.
3. Add vitamin K2 - this helps the D3 get absorbed. ALSO - and this is something people forget, you absolutely have to take the D3 with a form of fat to get it to absorb. Any fat - animal or vegetable, your choice.
4. Zinc - yes - make sure it is zinc glycinate or chelated - again this is an absorption issue. Most of us here in the US have issues absorbing enough nutrients from our foods alone. Dosage is up to you, but 3 times a day will help.
5. Vitamin C - ok, BUT DO NOT TAKE IT AT THE SAME TIME AS THE ZINC! - They "cancel" each other out in your system - just stagger them. Zinc is best absorbed on an empty stomach (IF you can tolerate that - I get nauseous).
6. Avoid red meats for a bit if you can - this will give your liver a break while it is trying to aid the battle. In fact, keep your protein intake levels lower than normal.
7. Dandelion root tea with Manuka honey - both are very immune boosting, the dandelion root tea helps the kidneys too (important to clear any virus). Alternatively ginger tea is helpful too.
Hang in there, feel better and continue to keep us posted!
Great tips, thanks. Oh yeah, sadly my gut goes into spasms if I take zinc on an empty stomach and I retch violently, even if it's just from sucking on a zinc lozenge! I have to take it on a full stomach. On your point about dandelion tea, it is also good for detoxing the liver.
Best wishes to MAS for a quick and full recovery!
My mom has been worried about me and dishing out unsolicited advice has taken a backseat to the worry lately so thanks for stepping up to the plate there. Hahahaha. Joking aside, I appreciate that.
Since I had sepsis a few months ago, I have changed my diet and make sure my micronutrients levels are where they need to be constantly. I am very sensitive to zinc and D3 so I have limits to what I can take. I've been lucky and its been sunny here the last 2 weeks and I spend half my day outside in the sun, which keeps my levels naturally up. I havent had any significant lung issues but have cut off smoking lately too. Im also not a big red meat person so its been mostly chicken and fish for my protein for years.
@yofisofi and @isabelle thank you
US House of Rep Congressman -Elect Luke Letow (R) just died form Covid complications. He was 41 and from Louisiana. May his family find peace and many his memory be a blessing.
41 his really young.
Throughout this whole 2020 covid crash is the glaring truth that the U.S. health care system is a broken, even while it is the most expensive per capita health care in the world. Today Propublica published one of several reports I've read this year about the tragic, painful and unnecessary deaths of people who died alone and afraid from neglect in our nation's hospitals.
This report begins with a nurse in a Veteran's Administration hospital in the mid west who tells of the horror of people dying from neglect and poor care and scant equipment while nurses serve 12 hour shifts with dirty masks. This one man wasn't even hooked up to an alarm system so that when he began to cry for help, and his system began to fail, no one on the hall head or came. Meanwhile another patient lay in another bed in the same tiny room trembling under the covers. The nurse then had to put on a dirty, over used mask to enter the room.
This isn't just about covid, although for sure, the political handling of covid has been a failure. It is also about American health care.
It is a disgrace (to quote the Commander of Darkness), and it is preventable. I tremble with rage about this because I know people are getting rich off this system. It is "make America sicker again."
Trump was the worst case scenario of political leaders but the system has been crumbling from vulture capitalism for decades while health care top administrators, surgeons and other specialists, insurance excecutives and big fat ugly Pharma laugh all the way to the bank.
P.S. The system will turn around but anything that big is going to take time to turn around. And a system that still has republicans in power is going to take time to turn around.
I post this horror story lest anyone walks away from 2020 thinking that all those deaths were just about a bad pandemic. We've been heading for this for decades.
@jeanne-mayell@jeanne-mayell - when there is a profit motive in conflict with the Healthcare motive, profit will always triumph. There was a time in this country when hospitals were non-profit and the only motive was healthcare. We are overdue for a health system reform.
@barbarmar22. I hear you that healthcare reform is in order and has been for decades. As for the non profit status, much of the health care is non profit, so that's not the problem. For example, 62%* of the hospitals are non profit in the U.S. and it doesn't reduce the absurd salaries. Only 18 percent are for profit. In fact, it's worse because they don't have to pay property taxes because they are non profit. The Administrators make millions in salary and surgeons too.
We are going to have to move to a more socialist democracy (like many European countries) to reign in the costs, not just healthcare, but education too. But healthcare is the most severe problem.
Dawn Wells,Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island. has died from Covid at 82.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/30/entertainment/dawn-wells-obit/index.html
@jeanne-mayell Insurance companies are a huge part of the problem.
Absolutely. And they lobbied heavily to prevent National Health Insurance.
Regarding health care, Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles is a well renowned hospital. They just sent out a "Crisis Alert" to many former patients about Covid. It is worth a read.
It is such a shame that hospitals need to send send this out due to failed leadership from our top Government leaders.
Dear Patient:
The COVID-19 pandemic is reaching crisis levels at hospitals across California, and things are no different at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital. We are seeing the rapidly growing numbers of COVID-19 patients, along with record-breaking numbers of hospitalizations. Our physicians, nurses and other essential workers remain focused on providing the very best care. But the pandemic is testing us in ways we never imagine and is creating a dramatic strain on our resources.
We need your help: Please do not go out this New Year's Eve and do not congregate with anyone outside your household.
We know these recommendations are challenging, but it's important to remember the actions you take in the next few days can help protect you, your family and your loved ones-and those fighting for their lives in our hospital beds right now. Compliance is crucial if we want to prevent what is already a public health emergency from becoming even worse.
The following guidelines are essential-we ask you to please follow them:
- Do not travel or gather with others who live outside your household. The crisis we are currently experiencing is a result of Thanksgiving gatherings and travel. Holiday travel and family get-togethers will likely create a new wave of infections. More travel or gatherings this New Year's Eve would cause our hospitals and our medical staff to reach a breaking point.
- Get tested if you have been exposed to COVID-19, but NOT as a way to attend gatherings or parties. If you know or suspect that you have been exposed to COVID-19, do get tested as soon as possible. You can read the full considerations and information on COVID-19 testing from the CDC here.
- Continue to wear a mask, practice physical distancing and wash your hands. It's more important than ever to protect yourself and others by wearing a mask, avoiding close contact (less than 6 feet) with others who are not a part of your household and washing or sanitizing your hands often.
COVID-19 TESTING UPDATE
Per CDC guidelines, repeat testing is not necessary for patients with COVID-19 within 90 days of their diagnosis, unless reinfection is suspected. Our Cedars-Sinai urgent care locations are reaching scheduling capacity. Please only visit our urgent care locations for testing if you know or suspect that you have been exposed to COVID-19. We cannot accommodate repeat COVID-19 testing for patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 within 90 days or testing outside of the CDC guidelines.We are grateful to serve our community during this crisis. Thank you for keeping you and your community safe and for trusting us to always provide you with exceptional care. And above all, thank you for your support of our frontline healthcare heroes.
Wishing you a healthy and safe new year,
Jeffrey A. Smith, MD, JD, MMM
Executive Vice President of Hospital Operations and Chief Operating Officer
Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterJohn E. Jenrette, MD
Executive Vice President
@jeannemayell - Doctors and nurses across the country support a national health care program. It is the administrators at top level who are making the enormous salaries; millions. With a national healthcare system a pandemic would be addressed more efficiently because everyone could "afford" healthcare.
@barbarmar22. U.S. doctors as a group have opposed single payor health care. The dominant physician trade organization, The American Medical Association (AMA), voted against single payor in 2019. The membership (i.e., the doctors) were divided, but the majority were opposed.
The reason is kind of obvious: American doctors make by far more money than their counterparts in countries that provide free health care for all, and there is no cap in how much doctors can make in the U.S.
The only proposals physicians would support would be those that would not lower their incomes and the government has to cut physician incomes to afford free health care for all. So at the end of the day, American physicians have opposed single payor health care (aka national Health Insurance, aka Medicare for all.)
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders could not get traction with their Medicare for All proposals because they weren't going to cut physician salaries and thus the total tax bill was going to be too high. Even then, the physicians groups opposed the proposals. At the AMA it was mainly medical students that supported single payor.
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/physicians/ama-maintains-its-opposition-single-payer-systems
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.22.3.89
@jeanne-mayell- Maybe it will be the next generation to make it happen. I looked at these websites:
www.pnhp.org. Physicians for National Health Program.
We might also address the cost of a medical degree so that Healthcare professionals are not having to pay back loans for decades.
This thread was started in January, 2020.
My year ago self would be shocked to know we are still dealing with Covid 19 a year later. More shocked to learn of the how desperation hospitals face.
LA is asking for The Mercy Navy hospital ship to be redeployed to the Los Angeles Area. Hospitals are turning gift shops in to hospital rooms. In the City Of Angeles, someone is dying of Covid 19 every 10 minutes and in the county, ambulances are being told not to transport people who have little chance for survival.
My January, 2020 self is having a difficult time comprehending where we stand in January 2021.
My January, 2021 self understands how we got here, but is dismayed that it has come to this horrible point.
It did not need to happen.
I am hopeful my January, 2022 self will be able to look at the Covid pandemic as what once was and not what is.