Dr Udai Prakash: My encounter with Covid 19
It had to happen I suppose, being on the frontline. I wasn’t dreading it but was hoping it would be a mild one!
I’ll enumerate my symptoms as they happened.
1. Day 1, Saturday 20th June: Felt a little unwell. Like I had less sleep. Worked all day. Felt exhausted by evening. No temperature of body aches. No sore throat or cough. It kinda dawned on me that this could be the dreaded virus.
2. Day 2 Sunday 21st June: Fever with body aches increasing throughout the day. The temperature reaches 101F. Stayed in bed all day. Drank lots of water and started the medication detailed below.
3. Day 3, Monday 22nd June: Fever comes down to 99F in the morning but goes up to 100F in the evening. No other symptoms apart from body aches and weakness. Again, no other symptoms of COVID like loss of taste and smell, sore throat or cough.
4. Day 4, Tuesday 23rd June: Fever 99F, not much in the way of body aches. Gradually started to feel better and by evening no fever with thermometer reading showing 98F
5. Day 5 onwards 24th – 30 June: Rapid improvement in symptoms. Some weakness remained but by day 10 I felt pretty much normal.
Management
I isolated myself in a bedroom with a bathroom. My food was left at the door. I would eat my food. Wash my dishes with dishwashing liquid and leave them at the door to be picked with gloved hands. The dishes would be washed again in a dishwasher. Water was poured into a separate copper bottle frequently. Ritu and I would communicate keeping a distance of at least 8 feet for 10 days.
Investigations – COVID 19 RT-PCR test on Monday 24th June. Got it done at home. Just a throat swab was done by the technician. I don’t think he knew how to do a nasal swab. Results came back as “positive for COVID 19” two days later.
On day 6, I went to the hospital for a high-resolution CT (HRCT) of the chest and blood tests (CBP, ESR, CRP, D-dimer, LDH, Ferritin). HRCT was essentially normal. Small areas of ground-glass nodules were reported suggesting viral pneumonitis. All blood tests were normal except ESR which was slightly raised. Results suggested that my disease was mild.
Pulse Oximetry – I managed to get a pulse oximeter from the hospital, which I used to measure my pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation. Normal saturation should be above 95% on air with normal breathing. Luckily my O2 saturation was 97 to 98% throughout the course of my infection.
Drugs :
- TAB AZITHROMYCIN 500mg once daily for 5 days.
- TAB PARACETAMOL 1g SOS for fever and body pains.
- TAB BECOSULES Z (Vit B complex, Vitamin C, and Zinc) once daily for 10 days.
- CAP VITAMIN D 60,000 units once only (Uprise D 60K).
- BETADINE gargle – twice daily.
- Lots of water and good nutritious food and fruits.
Most important is a positive attitude, rest and hydration. Yoga stretches daily for your aching muscles and circulation and deep breathing exercises – Kapal Bhati for example.
Clean all surfaces with sanitiser or detail wash. Wash clothes separately.
On the 14th day from the onset of my symptoms, I decided to test myself again for the sake of the nervous community around me. Fortunately, it came negative. However, there was a chance it could have been positive and I would have had to isolate myself the test is negative. Sometimes, the test can be positive after you have fully recovered, but that doesn’t mean you are infectious. It means you might still have some bits of the genetic material of the virus floating around.
Most people recover without having to visit the hospital. If you think you have it, just do what I did. If things get worse then, of course, you will have to visit your trusted hospital.
So please respect this enemy and follow all the WHO recommended guidelines for avoiding getting an infection. Certainly, avoid any gatherings! Fight it with a mega positive attitude if you are unfortunate enough to get it! Good luck and stay safe!
Guidelines
Current government guidelines for mild infections (2nd July 2020) from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare concludes that there is NO NEED FOR RE-TESTING after full recovery. “Patient under home isolation will stand discharged after 10 days of symptom onset and no fever for 3 days. Thereafter, the patient will be advised to isolate at home and self-monitor their health for a further 7 days. There is no need for testing after the home isolation period is over. The UK government seconds that too.
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/RevisedHomeIsolationGuidelines.pdf
