COVID 19 HOME MANAGEMENT
I am writing this with a very heavy heart as it is quite easy to deal with a patient you don’t know as you don’t get that much attachment with them but when its about your family members or someone very close to your heart their pain is your pain.
At first my mother(known diabetic for last 10 years) started showing symptoms which were low grade fever(which subsided by taking Tab Panadol), bodyache, mild cough and sinusitis. We had our suspicion of Covid 19 as we had a travelling history to Lahore beacuse of some family reasons. And we got tested positive for Covid 19.
On 6th day my mother developed high grade fever, her cough increased, flu, loss of taste and smell, nausea, lethargy and shortness of breath. Her X ray showed mild covid changes and despite giving her medication her condition was deteriorating(SpO2 dropping to 91-92%) but me and my brother being doctors didn’t wanted to take her to the hopital and started her treatment at home while consulting our seniors.
So with a heavy heart we started isolation with in our home as to decrease viral load. I wore mask all the time whenever i was with her.
Alhamdulillah she started improving later on and now has almost recovered except some weakness.
Things that i feel everyone needs in there home at the time of this pandemic :
1)Thermometer
2)Bp Apparatus
3)Pulseoximeter (a must have)
4)Tab Panadol and cough syp
5)Glucometer(if you have diabetic family members)
6)Masks, gloves, disinfectant (i used dettol + bleech+water to spray all over my home and dettol surface cleaner for floor mopping)
Things that we did for my mother are:
1)Antipyretics
2)Steam inhalation with chest physiotherapy(3-4 times daily)
3)Vitals charting (2 hrly)
4)Started antibiotics and some other medicines after consulting with our seniors.
5)Gave her CaC, vit c, vit D(she has a history of vit D def) and Surbex Z to boost her immune system.
6)Arranged the oxygen cylinder (but we were reluctant to its use and Alhamdulillah didn’t find the need to use it)
7)Did all of her baseline investigations along with D-dimers(for coagulopathy), LDH, ferritin and Crp(for inflammation), PCT(to check sepsis)
8)Washed ALL of our clothes using 5cc dettol antiseptic liquid.
Now for her diet i tried my level best to give her food as per her macro count but as she was reluctant to eat and had lost her sense of taste so gave her food in small quantities with short intervals of time. Things that i gave her daily were
1)Fresh fruits (water melon, cherries, mangoes , plum in short whatever there was available as long as she was eating)
2)Yakhni/soup of country chicken/mutton and omega 3 eggs.
3)Nuts and dry fruits(almond, pistachio, cashew, dates etc)
4)Milkshake/fresh juice (without sugar) or just a glass of milk
5)Few seeds of kalonji daily(as its sunnah)
6)Kehwa with honey as to ease her throat (2-3 times) and No i didn’t give Sana makki as she was using it before and she still got infected plus its a laxative.
7)Hydration is very necessary give 3 – 4L daily(i gave her lemon water as she likes it very much and was able to drink it)
There were days where we felt like loosing hope but Allah was there with us. So anyone having a Covid patient should
1)Perform Namaz and pray to Allah all the time
2) Find some dua’s online and pray
3)Give sadqa(trust me it works)
4)Don’t loose hope as Allaah is always with us.
Now after more than 2 weeks all of us have recovered and are asymptomatic.
From Karachi