My experience of tackling Covid-19

I hope you are all doing well. Coronavirus is badly spread in various parts of the world and I am sharing some firsthand experience from my larger family who had various Covid-19 cases recently. These inputs might help you or your friends/relatives in tackling Covid-19. I thought of sharing these inputs as there is lack of right information, lack of guidance, lack of doctors, lack of medicines leading to distress across the society in dealing with this issue. 

Here are some do’s and don'ts for Coronavirus. You should definitely consult doctors and take your decisions accordingly. These broad guidelines might help you act with agility. Some of these guidelines apply for a normal healthy and stress free living too. Please don't take any action without consulting your doctors/hospitals/physicians.

1. Covid-19 is a true test of human fitness. Fitness which is internal and not just about how you look externally. So those who are internally fit will be able to handle the disease better than others.
2. What to eat to reduce or prevent infection:

• Plant based foods, avoid meats. Covid-19 and any other disease prevail in acidic environments caused due to animal based diets. Try to cut down animal food/dairy intake to keep your body alkaline. This would reduce the impact of disease. 
• Some of these foods have proven to work well in building immunity against Covid-19 (before infection) with some research based evidence. These are mushrooms, olive oil without overheating, green tea, turmeric, garlic, ginger, giloy, ayurvedic Kadha, Pecan/walnuts, tomatoes, broccoli, pomegranate, berries, basil. These foods are good in regular life too. 
• Covid-19 leads to heavy inflammation in the body. Hence foods which help in reducing inflammation are good. 

3. What not to eat to prevent infection:

• Animal meat/animal proteins
• Cold/sweet/fried food/alcohol/sugary beverages

4. Practice this in the order below:

• Eat healthy plant based food
• Fitness (Yoga/Exercise) one hour daily. Very important to reduce chances of infection
• Sleep well at least 8 hours
• Work

These words are alphabetically in that order of priority too. 

5. Actions if you show symptoms of fever, body aches, breathlessness, throat pain or running nose. Note that most Covid-19 cases are due to known unknown spreads where you are not aware who got affected and how. 

• Isolate and quarantine yourself in the family so that you don't spread it further.
• Wear masks and ask other family members to wear masks (n95)
• Get Covid-19 tests. Many people hesitate to do it due to laziness/society/cost/hassles. Don’t ignore the tests. This can put you and family and many others in danger. A test too early may come negative. Hence, you might need more than one test if you have any of the above symptoms.
• Start Zincovit + Limcee + Gargles + Steam for the whole family (even if you all are negative. It ll help you reduce the impact of Covid-19 infection)
• Vitamin D deficiency leads to higher chances of getting the infection. So get the right amount of vitamin d supplements as per your blood reports.

6. Prescribed tests during Covid-19

• Covid19 test (RTPCR)
• Oxygen saturation levels (should not go below 94 for 12-24 hours. May require immediate admission to hospital or oxygen masks). Buy an oximeter and thermometer for at least 4-5 times a day. 
• If positive, get blood tests like CBC, ESR, D-dimer, CRP, LFT, KFT, IL6, Sugar, Blood group (for any plasma requirements later) every 3-4 days to see the counts and markers.
• Chest Xray and CT Scan is very important if you have cough/breathlessness. Covid-19 leads to acute pneumonia in many cases. 
• Key markers of the infection are high d-dimer, high TLC count, low lymphocytes, high CRP and oxygen saturation. Each marker has a specific line of treatment.
• Many covid-19 tests are false negatives. Means while you are infected, the test still says negative either due to lab errors or due to a very early stage of infection. Hence more than 1 test is required many times. 

7. If you or your family is covid positive, you can do the following in order as per doctor’s guidance. Corona treatment is little complex if you are having diabetes or cardiovascular issues:

• Start antibiotics Azithromycin 500 mg daily. This is important to reduce the impact early on. Note that, Covid-19 becomes more and more dangerous if not handled early on.  Take paracetamol/combiflam for fever. Add pantocid for gastro issues.
• You can take a Flabiflu course. Works early in covid infection. 
• Doxil antibiotics if Corona is not in control + Dexona steroid to reduce inflammation. For diabetes patients, this has to be handled carefully
• Ivermectin is advised in some cases
• Remedisvir (only available in hospitals) for lack of oxygen and if fever etc is not in control.
• For very high infections, antibiotics/steroids like Monocef, Tazact, Meropenem, Tocilizumab might be recommended by doctors. 
• Corona leads to blood clots, so you need to add an anticoagulant as per doctor’s advice. For BP patients, this has to be handled carefully.
• If you have sugar/BP history, constantly monitor these two for the right course of action on time. 

8. Proactive actions. Following are things you should proactively handle before it's too late. This is very important if you have elderly or anyone with weak immunity:

• Have the right doctor information with you for guidance. Otherwise you might end up taking wrong advice in last minute stress.
• If you think you or your family might need a hospital admission, arrange admissions a few days in advance. Due to high pressure on healthcare, there is a huge huge shortage of beds. 
• Some Covid-19 medicines are not available everywhere or are in short supply. Keep them handy in advance.
• Be fast and aggressive in treatment. Don’t delay testing, check-ups, medication, hospitalization or take it lightly.
• If you might need plasma, keep the options ready as getting plasma on time is also tricky. 

9. Post Covid-19 symptoms and actions

• Many patients show fever and various other symptoms post being corona negative. 
• It takes around 2-4 weeks to get to normal. Depends upon the age and fitness of the person.
• Many patients get secondary infections after Corona negative. This might be due to weak immunity post Covid-19 leading to secondary infections. Get timely treatments for that. 

10. Things to note all the time

• Don’t panic. While this is not a normal flu, the death rates are still not scary. 
• Act on time, act right. 
• Eat - > Fitness - > Sleep - > Work should be the mantra in life in that order. 
• Help yourself before helping others. If you are positive, then chances of you helping others are less due to quarantine.
• Hospitals, doctors, nurses and the healthcare system is doing an amazing job. They have been putting best efforts since March 2020 despite having high risks, high inflow of patients, numerous calls from patient families, lack of research/support on this disease. Trust them, support them and thank them for their great work to humanity. I have heard people at pharmacy/hospital/insurance billing counters saying that healthcare is making lots of money in Covid-19. Such comments should be avoided when the healthcare professionals are putting their best foot forward to save your lives. 

Hope this note is helpful. You can message me for any questions or advice. I am not a doctor or healthcare professional, but I ll try to assist whatever I can.