Peter
Veteran Member
What to Do If You Get COVID – from an ER Doctor & Former Special Forces Medic
Disclaimer: This is not as a substitute for going to the hospital, especially if you’re in the highest risk category. These are firsthand tips on how to improve your situation at home if you get COVID-19.
Greetings GORUCK family,
My name is Dr. Richard Angel, an ER Doctor & Former Special Forces Medic, and I want to help as many people as possible get through having Coronavirus and keep them well enough to stay out of the hospital. I have Coronavirus and am recovering after 2 weeks of symptoms. Here is what I have done to stay relatively well and recommend these measures to you.
Dr. Angel’s Coronavirus Care:
1. Hydration: drink plenty of fluids, water, tea, warm beverages. Especially important for the elderly who are often dehydrated. This flushes the kidneys of toxins, keeps plenty of fluid in the body to keep secretions as liquid as possible- not allowing thick mucous to fill the lungs. An occasional toddy or hot herb tea with honey and lemon is great. (If unable to take much, sip small amounts of regular Gatorade or sports drinks and water. This will give you potassium, sodium and glucose, vital nutrients.)
2. Immune support: I like Zicam zinc throat lozenges 4 x a day, especially at night before going to bed to keep viral loads low. Also maybe Emergen-C, other supplements like Vitamin D 5000 U per day, perhaps some immune supporting mushrooms. Gargle and drink diluted apple cider vinegar may help, you may warm and add honey if needed.
3. Diet: Plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and quality proteins. Oranges daily are great! Lemons and honey for your tea. This is not a time for a minimal diet: you want to be well fed with nutritious foods to prepare your body for potential loss of appetite. If you get sick enough to require hospital respiratory support, your body needs to be fueled up to “run a marathon”.
4. Medications: Zicam lozenges for prevention and treatment of symptoms. Plenty of cough drops. Vicks Vaporub is excellent and a must have item to decrease cough, open and soothe bronchial passages. Delsym 12 hr dextromethorphan extended release (the flat bottle) is a great baseline cough suppressant. You may add day and night cold and cough medicines, Tylenol (acetaminophen) as needed. NyQuil is good to help sleep with Vaporub and warm tea. Afrin or neti pot may help clear your nose as will over the counter sinus medications. There is an excellent old cough syrup that you can generally take with other medications, it is like liquid menthol, called “Buckley’s Original Mixture”. I highly recommend having some available—can be found on Amazon.
5. Equipment: Vaporizer machine and Vaposteam. Get the old school one that heats up not cool mist. This is a lifesaver. I would also recommend a simple nebulizer machine ($50) and saline ampules (the pink ones). These are available on Amazon. You may need an albuterol ampule prescription as well. In addition to a thermometer, a fingertip pulse oximeter can be very useful. A general “cutoff” for being sick is about 94%—below this you may need to see a doctor. Shortness of breath and work of breathing are signs you are getting sicker and need to see a physician. (Or call in!)
6. Exercise: sunshine, light walking if you are ill is always great. If not symptomatic, keep workouts relatively light. Now is not a great time to suppress your immune system using energy recovering from a hardcore workout. However keeping fitness—especially cardiovascular at optimum levels which may pay big dividends if you get really sick.
7. Hot baths, hot tub soaks for 15 minutes twice a day may help with an “artificially induced fever” that makes you a less hospitable host for the virus among other benefits.
8. Hygiene: Shower/bath daily with clean clothes daily, brush teeth, etc. This cannot be underestimated—decreases the virus and the morale boost is very important.
In summary, the goal is to keep your body and immune system functioning at optimal levels, stay hydrated and make yourself unattractive to the virus!
So make some homemade chicken soup, do all the right things to avoid spread and we will get through this difficult time.
Wishing all of you good health and a speedy recovery. Thanks to Jason and the GORUCK Team for their support!
Rich Angel
About the Author: Lt Col (ret) Richard Angel is a former Special Forces Medic (18D), 7th SFG(A) Surgeon and currently practices Emergency Medicine in Texas.
by GORUCK
