Early last month (March, 2020) I found myself lying awake, miserably coughing without any relief for hours. Dry, DRY constant coughing for days. The second night of this was when the googling started. “How do I get tested for coronavirus?”

“Coronavirus drive-throughs Atlanta”

“Coronavirus testing Georgia”

“Where can I get tested for coronavirus?”

Do you know what results I got? Nothing helpful. Nothing telling me where to go or what to do. Just a bunch of articles telling me that if I’m sick to “see your doctor” and that testing is being mostly reserved for people who are severely sick and in hospitals (they did not add “and celebrities and politicians” but I knew that was a criterion as well.)

Being someone who hasn’t been to a doctor for acute illness in over 12 years, I didn’t plan on going in unless I was absolutely getting worse. The mainstream media pretty much hammered in that there was nothing that could be done about COVID-19 anyways since they were reserving testing for the sickest of the sick. (Thankfully now – over 5 weeks later, testing is much more available!)

Coronavirus at Disney World

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, then you saw that we went to Disney for my daughter’s birthday Leap Day weekend. It was NUTS there. I’m pretty sure the entire state of Louisiana was there due to their Mardi Gras break.

We knew of all of the coronavirus talk (back before they started calling it “COVID-19”), but this was before anyone was nervous. This is where I believe we picked this crazy bug up.

My newly 5-year-old daughter was the first to come down with the dry cough and fever. It lasted 2 days and she was healed. My other three saw extremely mild symptoms that lasted a day. A little cough, a good night’s sleep and it was done. That is how illnesses usually last around here, so I thought nothing of it.

My symptoms first started about ten days after Disney and a few days after my girls had recovered. What I went through primarily consisted of a severe DRY cough and rapidly flooding chest congestion, fatigue and aches + mild fever, then severe sinus congestion and complete loss of taste and smell for about 10 days (in that order.) Here are the details.

Recovered from Coronavirus? or “Corona-Like Illness?”

I’m calling what I had, “Corona-like-illness” after its sister phrase “flu-like-illness” that lumps people with influenza symptoms in with the flu statistics each year (without testing.)

I will preface this by saying that, just like the flu, using intentional natural remedies helped. But nothing replaces good rest, sunshine, and letting the illness run its course without getting in the way. That means avoiding fever reducers (especially ibuprofen apparently) unless the fever gets dangerously high or uncomfortable to the point that you feel like you are greatly suffering and can’t handle pain. Even then, I would use a homeopathic fever reducer like Belladonna first.

Days 1-2:

Achy bones, feelings of being rundown and fatigued. I began taking high dose Vitamin C in the form of sodium ascorbate at 5,000mg twice daily (this is my daily bowel tolerance.) I had already been taking my immune modulator Beta-1, 3D Glucan as I do year-round and also 10,000iu Vitamin D3/K2 as I take daily in the winter months.

Days 3-5:

Almost immediate severe cough that was the DRYEST I have ever had. My chest felt flooded with mucous and it was hard to breathe deeply without going into a coughing fit, but I couldn’t expectorate which was frustrating. These 3 nights were difficult to sleep, but around 4am every single night my cough would subside like magic. It was definitely worst from 12am-4am. I found that the homeopathic  Spongia Tosta 30c improves the cough greatly, almost like magic! I also spent these days feely achy but doing life as normal, homeschooling, preparing meals, etc. as normal while my husband worked to save his small business from the quarantine orders. I tried to keep up with the above Vitamin C and added in colloidal silver 5 times daily. I also start taking high dose ACF, 2 Tbsp x 5 times daily. I also used an essential oils chest rub to help with my cough. I mixed 1 Tbsp of fractionated coconut oil with 5 drops each of eucalyptus, rosemary, frankincense and peppermint. Note: I am not an aromatherapist or oils guru, so do your research on this. It was fine for me!

Days 5-6:

Mild fever that peaked at 99.9 starts up and this is when I felt the worst. I began to feel a little bit scared not knowing which direction I was moving with my illness. The news and all of the quarantine measures coming down the pipe at this point didn’t help. On day 6 my chest congestion cleared to about 90% and the congestion felt like it literally moved itself up to my sinuses. I blew large amounts of blood-tinged snot for about 5 days after this until my sinuses finally cleared up. I was so grateful to have the congestion clearing from my chest and my cough weakening because it meant my breathing was improving. My husband suggests I should take a nap outside in the sun when baby naps. I do this for two days and felt like I made great progress just from resting and not trying to live life as usual. I also kept telling myself Corona (the sun) heals corona!

I also developed a horrible sinus related headache for several days that I relieved with a peppermint oil headache blend + the headache hat!

Day 7:

This is the day when I began to wonder if I could really be dealing with COVID-19. When I got up that morning to change my 1-year old, she had one of those diapers that every parent cringes at. BUT I COULDN’T SMELL A THING. I had lost my appetite a few days before because I COULDN’T TASTE A THING. That evening a friend of mine posted about loss of taste and smell being a sign of COVID and I really began to wonder. My chest congestion also seemed to relapse a bit on this day as well as my body aches and fatigue. No fever. My hubs headed over to Whole Foods and purchases ClearLungs and Hosts Defense Mushroom Extract.

Day 8-10:

Sinuses are clear but I still continued to blow bloody mucous. I think I had irritated my sinuses due to aggressive nasal irrigation with my Neti-Pot and too-strong homemade saline. I still felt fatigued during this time but was grateful to be able to sleep at night. Fever is gone. Still can’t smell or taste anything. The best way I can describe it is that I felt like I had a completely sterile nose. Feeling better slowly but surely. I continue to stay with my protocol mentioned above.

Days 10-12:

A bit of a dry cough lingers, but I am feeling mostly normal up until 5pm when I hit a wall. My husband recommends I force myself to nap still and although I hate it and feel it’s impossible with schooling the kids and managing baby. I nap while my oldest watches the others. Resting is definitely the best medicine for me. After Day 12 I feel back to normal except my loss of smell which gradually comes back over the next week.

COVID-19 Antibody Testing

Since testing was incredibly scarce when I had the active infection, the only way I’ll truly know my immunity status for COVID-19 is through accurate antibody testing.

Currently, antibody testing is not widely available in the U.S. and most testing is still reserved for clinical study or has not been approved.

Per the CDC:

Currently, CDC’s serologic test is designed and validated for broad-based surveillance and research that will give us information needed to guide the response to the pandemic and protect the public’s health. The test is not currently designed to test individuals who want to know if they have been previously infected with COVID-19.”

There are various types of antibody testing techniques and methods being developed to monitor COVID-19 immunity internationally as well as here in the States. Some involve blood and others saliva. You can read all of the fully mind-boggling science behind antibody testing development HERE.

University of Washington is claiming it has an antibody test produced here in the U.S. measuring 99% accuracy that they are working on getting more readily available.

Abbot Laboratory’s test is looking like it will be the most widely available, possibly this month. I will update this post as I learn more about its approval for use and accuracy.

It is important to note that we really still aren’t sure how effective or accurate antibody testing is as far as immunity is concerned.

In regards to commercially available testing, it’s looking like that will be into May, but I will probably wait to be tested until reports come in about increased accuracy:

CDC is evaluating commercially manufactured serologic tests in collaboration with the Biomedical Research and Development Authority, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This evaluation is expected to be completed in late April.”

 

Final Thoughts

If you all are still wondering – no, my husband never got it. Maybe it’s because he was at work 14 hour days working to shift his film production company’s business model to adapt to the shut-down? Or maybe it’s because he slept in the guest room while I hacked all night? Or maybe he has stronger resistance to 5G exposure? OK, I kid- but I know there’s one of you reading this that is at least thinking “Amen sister!!!”

Either way, I’m grateful we are done with whatever that bug was and am definitely curious to see if I have any antibody response, as long as it doesn’t compromise my DNA or personal information. We’ll keep waiting. I do not claim to be an expert on any of this, so I would love to know your thoughts and any pertinent research. Chime in in the comments!

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