re COVID-19 @ home recovery.
For your own sanity, try to recover at home if you can. If your oxygenation consistently goes under 88 and your pulse is consistently high (over 100 and staying there) and you feel chest tightness or you’re gasping, you probably need oxygen and you may need to be intubated. Intubation keeps people alive but it’s not free of risks or various kinds of cross contamination. The good thing about it is that by the time you need it you’re in no fucking shape to argue about it, so stay salty.
I’d advise you to read trip reports of people your age who’ve survived it. Read up on advice not to use ibuprofen or corticosteroids. Perform deep chest coughs – instructions earlier this week on this blog. Rest prone as much as you can (From the wikipedia article on ARDS, which along with organ failure is what’s killing people). Drink zero alcohol. Don’t drink too much water <– this is counterintuitive but is supported by science see that same article) Don’t move except for hygiene and to turn in bed. Symptomatically relieve cough. Thump your back to bring up sputum and get rid of it, don’t swallow it.
Even a mild case will knock you on your ass for two weeks & people who’ve recovered say there’s often a marked rise in how well you feel at around the 7 day mark, during which you will overdo it, and then collapse back down with worse breathing than previously. You need to relax & release your inner sloth and do everything you can to help yourself breathe and not move. Even if you’re feeling better, don’t, you can cough yourself into a situation where your fragile lungs scar worse. So don’t move except the moving you have to do to prevent bedsores and clots and to pee.
TAKE YOUR SWEET ASS TIME RECOVERING. The recovering will need sanatoriums that help people get as much of their lung health back as possible. Post viral conditions will be real and will be spread across all age groups. If you get sick, rest and recuperate a LONG while; don’t make plans to do anything until at least two weeks after the last day you run a temperature and longer if you’re still testing positive.
