We all have been seeing, hearing and fearing the dreaded Covid 19. During the 1st wave from end of Mar'2020 to 1st week of June' 2020 , my husband and I were in Mumbai, trying to find a way to come back home. After more than 2 months in Mumbai, we went home to my parent's place in Hyderabad and then from there to Belgaum.
We travelled in trains, flights and cars but both of us did not contract the infection - at least not that we are aware of. There was a concern of being a carrier and infecting our parents who were old and had co-morbid conditions, but that was a chance we decided to take after weighing the pros and cons.
During the second wave, end of April 2021, my father had fever. After 3 days of regular paracetemol and doxy tabs prescribed by the doctor, he was tested for covid. He had cough only for 1 day and after taking an expectorant, he was alright the next day. His fever did not subside and on the 5th day, his result came as positive.
My elder sister in Hyderabad, went home on the day he started having fever and started monitoring my father. His fever, saturation, sugars etc were regularly monitored. My mother was strictly told to restrict herself to another room and the kitchen. She did not have any symptoms.
My father did not have any other symptoms but being a very active person, he had to be kept under control to rest himself and not do his regular work. The one thing we did not restrict him was to come and have his food on the dining table. His sense of smell and taste were more or less good and so he continued to have his regular diet.
I kept doing video calls with him twice every day and kept telling him to maintain a positive mindset.
Tried to get him to do affirmations and deep breathing. All along I knew that this was more of a mental game. Fear and anxiety was more dangerous than the infection itself.
I also believed that my father being on a whole food plant based lifestyle for almost 3 yrs and maintaining good blood sugars - progressively reducing his insulin from 51units to 10units over a period of 3yrs would hold him in good stead.
By the 7th day, he had a lot of weakness and although he had been given specific instructions to not go to the toilet on his own, but to call for help, by force of habit, he went to the bathroom and fell due to weakness. Fortunately he did not have any broken bones, but the pain was pretty bad and he could not sleep.
We had him being monitored by a team at Vigo - an AI based monitoring system from the time he tested positive. Also, supportng us were our family doctor and a couple of my friends who are Lifestyle medicine practitioners.
Around the 8th day, my dad had a little problem of comprehension. On the video call, I realised that he was not understanding immediately my conversation and was also replying vaguely.
I then decided to go to Hyderabad and be there in case of an emergency. I stayed at my sister's place as I could not go home, but would visit every evening and speak to him from a distance.
The fever was not going away although it never went beyond 101, but due to the fall and proabably the fear, his saturation went down to 92%. Till then, all along it was hovering around 94%.
We started contemplating if we should admit him and started looking for oxygen concentrators or cylinders while looking out for hospital beds. My sister and I reached out to all contacts without much luck. We finally decided to deal with the worst and not get him admitted as we knew that once he was in the hospital things would be out of our control.
On the 10th day, we managed to get a concentrator, but thankfully never used it.
The fever broke on the 9th day and his saturation levels started going up gradually. By the 14th day, his levels went up to 94% -96% and stayed around that range.
Although he was weak and had pain in the ribs due to the fall, he recovered remarkably well for his age and started going for short walks on the terrace from the 16th day.
Due to the infection, his sugars went high and we had to increase his insulin from 10units to 14units, but within a couple of weeks, he had to reduce it down to 9units. Sugars have been stable since then and he is currently only on 9units of insulin. A far cry from 51units about 3yrs back.
He has never had BP issues but post covid he had low BP which has now normalised after more than a month.
Throughout this entire period, although he had lost his appetite a little due to the infection, his diet never changed. He was still having his green smoothie and fruits and salad apart from cooked food.
More than 2 months now, many people infected with Covid are still experiencing fatigue and other side effects of the infection.
My father is completely fine, with no problems whatsoever and I credit this to his commitment to the whole food plant based lifestyle over the past 3 yrs and the discipline that he has in his day to day routine.
