My COVID story!

My COVID fight back!

Like many others the word COVID has become a deadly one since last 1 year. I couldn’t avoid travel much during the pandemic but taking utmost precautions had become a part of life. Sanitizing, double masking, social distancing were things I followed very carefully. But then it struck and how!

My parents were due for the second covid vaccine and I had been in Haridwar with my wife and kid for a month. I knew the importance of this and hence had to travel to Mumbai on 29th April. Also with universal vaccination starting from 1st May, I thought it’s a good chance to self vaccinate as well.

I had to test before coming to Mumbai and struggled a lot to get tested in Haridwar at home. Finally had to go to a lab to test. The report were of course negative. However this requirement of testing is a farce as none of the people at any airport ask for negative reports, Mumbai or Dehradun. Also this increases the load on labs who are supposed to test and trace actual patients. This rule is not helping and needs to be revoked. Plus I know of people who are faking these certificates and travelling. This laboratory was the first place I felt I got exposed and why not. They handle thousands of covid positive people every day!

The flight I took was the second level of exposure. I asked the air hostess what level of sanitisation is being done in Dehradun. She said such facilities are there mostly in Mumbai. The sanitization in Dehradun is minimal. So there is a risk of infection if traveling from tier two cities. So I suggest if travelling then make sure don’t eat, drink or use public toilet in the flight. There is an extreme risk of infection in a flight where you are travelling with possibly infected, crocin popping covid patients. Yes I personally know of people who travelled in the flight knowing they are covid positive. It reeks of ignorance and shame but that’s how we are!

Coming to the covid story, I got vaccinated successfully on 3rd May. The process was really smooth and I was the only person in my booth to get a jab of covishield. The process is really well managed by BMC in Mumbai. I returned home and within 5-6 hours got low grade fever that changed to 102 at night. The fever and body pain continued for another day and I started feeling better. However I noticed that the food my mother was making wasn’t tasting good. And she is an excellent cook so I was a bit surprised myself. On 6th May, I thought of treating myself to a pizza and that tasted nothing at all. Then the reality struck me and I started smelling sanitizer, vicks, perfume and there was no smell in any of them. I immediately isolated myself and called for a home testing. The test was done the same day and result was positive the next day on 7th May. I have to say with all the media reporting and personal losses in last 1 year I was a bit scared myself. However I isolated myself and immediately consulted a pulmonologist friend, Ankit Deswal. He has been treating and consulting with covid patients for a year.

He knew the protocol and immediately started me on Fabiflu, Zinc, anti coagulants, congestion meds, Vit C and Vit D. Suddenly there were so many medicines and a strict protocol. With so many meds and covid came the drowsiness. I started sleeping almost 2.5-3 hours more than usual. However other than that I had no tiredness or fatigue and was working all through the disease. Needless to say keep monitoring temperature and oxygen levels every 3 hours. Even if not needed practice proning, as oxygen is the best medicine in covid. Anything that improves that absorption in organs is a good thing.

It is very important to keep repeating blood tests every 3-4 days as the covid causes the parameters to be very dynamic. The things to measure is DDimer (blood clots), CRP (inflammation), CBC (WBC, platelets) and LDL (impact on liver). These markers help you understand if a HRCT is needed or not. A high CRP >25 is an indication that HRCT will be needed and its better to get one immediately. DDimer is a key factor in people with high haemoglobin and a value higher than 2500ng calls for immediate action to save the organs from clotting.

Another thing which was off the record was my blood sugar. I am diabetic and I saw my post prandial sugar hitting 370-380 which was almost 200 units more than normal. The surprising thing was that I had no visible signs of such high sugar. I had no muscle pain, nor higher frequency of urination and not any dry mouth. I read a few articles and I got to know that covid silently impacts the insulin production in the body and this happens to everyone. My cousin who fought a tough covid wasn’t diabetic and saw his fasting sugar shoot to 250+. A high blood sugar gives and ideal environment to covid to cause rampage in your body. So its very important to be aware of this factor and take corrective action. My diabetologist started insulin at the highest dose possible and still my blood sugar is not back to normal. I am told it will take 2 more weeks before it stabilizes. So while I am not infecting anyone, the covid hasn’t left the system yet.

PS: I was suggested to take steam and gargle. This is a wrong practice as it spreads the virus further and longer in your room and enhances the risk of infection for family members. I didn’t do it after day 2 or day 3.

So in a nutshell:

1)     Any symptom is covid (fever, throat pain, loss of smell, dry cough)

2)     Start medications early. A covid medication is mostly vitamins

3)     Do blood tests every 3-4 days to check dynamics of the disease

4)     Monitor blood sugar even if you are not diabetic

5)     Covid doesn’t leave your body in 14 days. It will when CRP and blood sugar normalize

6)     Hospitalize if fever doesn’t go away in 3 days

7)     Keep monitoring oxygen and temperature every 3 hours

8)     As far as possible use disposables and self isolate. Avoid washing clothes and risking others

9)     Emotional support is important. Make sure you have friends and family a call away

10)  Avoid watching too many sitcoms, episodes on Netflix. Sleep as much as you can instead

Gagan Gupta