"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."I'm working, as carefully as I can, on being ready to handle all but the worst of the menacing illness at home. With the burden our hospitals, we are likely to need to do more to nurse one another and ourselves if this hits.
Here comes what I've got so far. I'm aiming for science-based approaches, but not settling for planning to have professionals show me how when it hits. Send more ideas if you've got them.
Medications in stock, plus a tool
Tylenol for fever (not ibuprofen because of starting worries about how it works in troubled lungs, with a plan to pay close attention to not letting the fever get very strong because I kind of believe Chris Cuomo that it saps the will to fight).
Guafenesin for loosening congestion It's the active ingredient in Mucinex, and I choose a version without a cough suppressant added.
Dextromethorphan for cough suppression (planning to take quite rarely because the cough is a path to getting stuff out of lungs)
Trioral rehydration salts: a powder to add to water that restores the big things your body loses, which are salts and sugars. It fits WHO recommendations and it aligns with a doctor friend's advice when one of you was unwell at her house. Gatorade works the same way, but this adds fewer other ingredients on top of the needed ingredients.
A thermometer for knowing your temperature yourself and alerting medical folks.
Health boosting steps now
The wretched virus is most dangerous if it gets a grip on our lungs. Here's what I'm going to become a harder target for the nasty invaders.
Walking more for improved endurance and practice with drawing in air. Beau goes out with podcasts, while I mostly stay inside with news or The West Wing.
Breathing exercises, following this video, up to the point where the doctor is unclear about how to do the lying prone (on your stomach) part. For me, these are a bit taxing, and I'm hoping that doing them now several times a day can change that a bit and get me a bit stronger. More confidently, I think if I understand them and am no longer puzzled about how to do them now, it will be easy to use them if I'm ill.
Nutritional supplements. I'm taking an ordinary multivitamin, plus a slow-release iron tablet because I'm prone to anemia and anemia is prone to leave me breathing heavily after small efforts, plus vitamin C to support metabolizing the iron. All young persons related to me: my mom also gets anemic, and this may run in the family, so I recommend at least a multivitamin with the iron. I've seen references to zinc but haven't gotten confident about trusting that advice, so I'm settling for "hey, my multivitamin has a modest amount of that."
Something old, something new
Steam. In case of a challenging cough, consider letting the shower turns the place into a steam room, and staying there for, say, half an hour. This is an idea from my mom, more aggressive than a humidifier in the room. (Humidifiers can be good, but I'm not good at maintaining them).
Postural drainage is the other approach I will apply if anyone here gets ill, starting from this description. I've seen multiple websites with versions of this, and I think it's way clearer than the video I shared above about the thing to do while prone. This is also about helping one's lungs clear by not spending all one's rest time in one position, and a bit about raising the lowest parts of your lungs higher than your wind pipe for a while.
Food in case
If the people in your house take turns being sick, you can take turns offering each other help getting food you can manage. If you go down together, that's tougher. To give us some lead time, I've stocked extra:
- Frozen juice
- Ginger ale
- Saltines
- Canned soup
- Chicken broth
I hear I should also add:
- Pedialyte popsicles
With many delivery services backed up, I recommend also thinking about which friends you could ask for help to restock if you need more.
Not alone
For ordinary colds, there's no reason to tell a neighbor, a friend who lives near by, a clergy member, or (ahem) a parent or child. You have a pretty good idea of the limits on how bad it gets.
Our current enemy is a different matter. Accounts from survivors and those who cared for those who didn't make it suggest the lung difficulties can kick in rather fast and decisions to pursue hospital care can turn urgent quite suddenly.
Accordingly, I plan to let a family circle, plus several neighbors, know pretty much at the first sniffle, and then check in daily. I recommend a similar plan for all and sundry. For certain persons who know who they are, "recommend" can be accurately replaced by something like "insist on". Having each other is one of our strengths, and we need to use that strength for this struggle
"We will get through this, and we will get through it together."
