Ask Lemmy

I found all I needed to do was isolate, really. I was one of the lucky ones. Just a cough and a tiny headache.

Just kinda let my body do its thing. I had only 2 shots of the vaccine. I luckily didn't have it as bad as others did. I just lost my sense of taste and smell, and had a runny nose.

My friend had it rough, and it kicked his ass for a couple weeks.

I just slept a lot. It just felt like a really bad cold, or a typical flu. I got the shivers for a day or two, had zero appetite, and my body felt sore all over, but thankfully I didn't have any really bad symptoms. I just stayed in bed for a few days, took whatever cold medicine I had for the pain relievers and to knock me out to sleep. Oh and I kept a water bottle by my bed.

I suffered thru it the first time and did the same thing the second time. Only took some painkillers to cut down on the fever a bit.

Maybe this is part of Dutch culture, but both me and most people I know aren't to big on taking any medication unless necessary. Doctors will also generally advice to just take some rest an dget better, unless there's medicine that is really necessary.

So idk, both times I just laid in bed feeling very tired and fucked up for a week, maybe took some paracetamol every now and then, and just waited for it to blow over. The second time I got it, which was during omicron, things did get a bit spooky. At some point I started struggling a bit with breathing. I noticed that I was getting tired just from breathing, so I told myself that of this stayed for too long or got worse I'd call a doctor. But luckily that didn't happen, and it all got better again after a few days.

For me the main focus was getting good rest and energy. Using (good) nose spray to make sure I could breathe well when sleeping, using paracetamol when sleeping, and eating and drinking enough even if I really didn't want to. I also slept around 10-14 hours per day at the peak, just because I was super duper tired

What I did was keep an eye on my temperature and cranked my space heater in my bedroom to 80°F(~27C), wore sweats and a hoodie, drank lots of water (with some liquid IV here and there), and slept as much as I could.

Having a fever is your body adjusting its thermostat to help your immune system work better and being in a warmer environment lets it use less energy to keep up that temperature. Monitoring your temperature will let you know if it gets too high. Water and electrolytes replaces what you sweated/peed out. The increased sleep will help your body to use up even less energy, leaving it all to help your body recover faster.

I may have only had lighter symptoms which lasted about a week, but this method has helped me get completely over every other cold/flu I've gotten within a couple days.

I haven't contracted it but my wife did. As soon as she said her sense of taste was gone, I masked in the house. Thankfully we were all vaccinated so the symptoms didn't stick around long.

By not getting it a second time.

had it twice now:

December 2019 - everyone in my neighborhood had it and we didnt know covid was a thing. everyone was sick and felt like absolute dogshit for weeks. I used my patented method of fighting any illness - maintaining high hydration with a lot of sports drinks and soups with high concentrations of fresh vegetables, and several bottles of hotsauce (1 tbsp per hour, every hour, every day you are sick) - Iguana brand Habanero Pepper and Melindas brand Ghost Pepper usually. hotsauce makes your nose run like mad and having a lot of fluids in your body makes you not dehydrated when you're blowing your nose 24x7.

January 2024 - I was told that the symptoms were covid. I thought it was just a flu. used my patented method and I was sick for ~4 or 5 days, and not 100% again until a week or two later.

I’ve officially had it a few times (I.e. confirmed via testing) and it’s been wildly different each time in terms of symptoms.

Worst was joint pain and fatigue, which kept me in bed for a day and a half.

I just treated it like any other illness I catch working with children, panadol if need be, water, and sleep.

A multi pronged approach to deal with symptoms is completely justified here. When I had COVID I would take acetaminophen, wait 2 hours, take ibuprofen, wait 2 hours, then I could take acetaminophen again. Follow the instructions on the bottle and make sure you don’t OD, obviously.

I also took generic mucinex as often as I could, and hydrated like crazy. I know a lot of press came out recently about phenylephrine not actually being effective as a decongestant, but I swear to god it worked better than anything else. YMMV, I may be some kind of genetic freak.

People have already mentioned rest, but seriously, rest so much more and so much longer than you think you need to. Overexertion during illness and in the immediate post recovery period has been correlated with future long COVID symptoms.

If you don’t already have an albuterol inhaler, ask your doctor if they’ll prescribe you one. Pretty normal for any respiratory problem and it’ll help open your airways up a lot.

I caught it very early, before the vaccine, and the only symptom I didn't get was having such a hard time breathing as to require a hospital.

I sat alone, at home, in my lazy boy, and suffered. Like others have said, lots of fluid and lots of sleep were the only things that helped. I can't think of another time in my life I slept that much.

Two of my brothers who had it both failed to recognize or acknowledge they had it, and both had bad falls, one breaking his arm, and the other requiring stitches in his scalp. Be very aware when walking around for signs of fatigue or light headedness.

The exhaustion, headaches, and shortness of breath are terrible! Even a walk to the bathroom left me winded and heart racing. When you're feeling a little better, try to walk a lap or two around your house/apartment every couple of hours. I wasn't as diligent about that as i should have been and it took me two weeks to get back to not feeling fatigued on the stairs at work.

Pineapple helps with the horrendous taste.

Covid wrecked me even with vaccination and boosters. Water, and sleep is what helped. I didn't even eat for a couple days. I could barely get out of bed, let alone stand and cook. Just slept and drank what I could

I stayed away from everyone and completely isolated, except for one unfortunate soul who I regretfully cannot say is around anymore.

I was tired and the fucking headaches man. The headache was horrible. Felt like a tension headache that would. not. stop. I slammed water and took pain and congestion meds. I also watched Stargate SG1 lol.

Paxlovid.

I had a dog when I caught it that first July, so I kept walking her. I obv kept wide of people but still walked my dog and got plenty of sunlight. I don't know what's real and what isn't as far as what's going to help with reducing the intensity of this things but im glad I kept getting exercise and vitamin D, and I'm also glad Paxlovid is out there for people who catch it now. Rest, fluids, the med, and still getting a little sunlight and low intensity exercise would be my 100% non medical professional recommendation.

I had it pretty easy and before there was a vaccine. I had large joint pain(knees especially), light body aches(more muscle soreness), some fatigue, and it was slightly harder to breathe. I had never had a cold or flu before, so it was very foreign to me.

I did bed rest, Motrin, and the thing that helped the most to provide comfort was Epsom salt baths. I soaked in the tub like 3-4 times a day for the 3 days I was symptomatic and it helped me feel so much better.

Lots of rest, drink lots of fluids, and take the occasional tylenol when fever comes up.

I've gotten it twice now, despite being fully vaxxed/boosted, cuz I work in a hospital in the middle of Redneckistan, and a vaccine can only do so much against the plume of concentrated idiot I work in... Anyway, my symptoms weren't the usual MO- 99% was just nonstop sneezing. Like, both nostrils bleeding, feel like I got punched in the face cuz my sinuses were so torn up, but still sneezing. Wasn't a great time.

Tried a few antihistamines and some acetaminophen and none of that touched it. Otherwise just lots of rest.

I recall the long covid symptoms having a correlation with people who try to just "push through" the symptoms and do normal activity despite needing rest, so... don't do that. Legit just chill until you feel better.

Paxlovid is the way. I was similar to you. I had one day of fevers and then felt like I had a bad cold for a few days. Vaccines are fucking awesome. Drink lots of water.

Sleep. Just a ton of sleep. It sucks, but it'll pass.

I drink a ton of ginger tea with honey when I got any throat thing, too. Idk if that really does much, but it feels nice and is tasty.

That, and a big batch of matzo ball soup. Even better if you don't have to make it.