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.