Just recently I had a bronchial cold. To quote my little granddaughter "and I'm not very happy about that". What I am really not happy about is the fact that I had Covid mid-June and then in September sick again. Up to this point I hadn't been ill for years. I pride myself on my iron clad immune system or so I thought. I actually attribute having good immunity to spending most of my life working with sick people and having a BCG. I got a BCG when I was a baby because Dad had TB. This vaccine is still identified as the best vaccine against respiratory infections. I have copied an article at the end about the effectiveness of a BCG and Covid (it had a share icon which makes copying ok). At the beginning of covid they were finding that nurses with BCG were less likely to get covid. When my Granddaughter was born in Yellowknife, she was given a BCG and hepatitis within the first 24 hours of her birth. All newborn babies in the north receive these injections.
Mid-June, four days after I got back, from a trip to Comox, a massive sneeze woke me at 5 am. It was accompanied by a sore throat and a hacky cough. And so began the denial, denying being ill is how I roll. As the day progressed so did the symptoms and so later that day, I thought I might as well take a rapid test. I had never tested before because I had decided I was not going to test unless I had symptoms. I had never even opened the stack of rapid tests boxes that I had. I thought I might have a couple of covid symptoms and why not test. It would be negative anyway and would confirm I didn't have covid. Testing was a real process for me, and I felt like a 15-year-old waiting on the results of a pregnancy test. So, even when both lines lit up like a Christmas tree in a nano second, I felt I was reading it wrong. Two lines meant positive in the instructions, but I must have done something wrong. I even sent a photo of my stick to a friend who had never had a positive test to make sure my result was similar to hers. She said no it was different, she had never had both lines light up. Clearly something was wrong with the test and so I retested and surprisingly I got the same result. Yep, the test was fine, the person doing it was not, I had covid. Dang, right from the start the thing I found most shocking was the velocity of my sneeze. I know if I had stepped outside and sneezed, I would have infected the entire condo community. I had not heard people speak of sneezing in covid. The cough wasn't anything other than dry hacky cough. I wasn't exhausted like others describe although I think I looked really bad. So, I had accepted that I had covid, I designated four days to recovery and that would be good. I re-read provincial restrictions and felt extremely isolated and very contagious. Even though I could go out in five days according to restrictions, I never went anywhere until I tested negative on the ninth day. I didn't really feel like it and why would I. In hindsight I knew I had covid that morning. It was different than anything I have ever had and similar to a cold but different. On the ninth day with my get out of jail free card I became social again. Although, I felt like I was right back to the beginning of covid and kept my distance. I still have a nagging dry cough which I call my "Covid cough" but feel lucky that is all.
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| This is a negative test |
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| This is a positive test. Mine was glowing red in seconds |
That brings me to sickness #2 of 2022. On a Monday I was having a real attack of my covid cough, even made my throat sore. I had coughed for about three hours and thought it through. I was due to go to Johnny Reid with two elderlies on Friday. Fortunately, I had access to Amoxicillin which I took right away. I realize there is something written about taking other people's prescription but that is for people that maybe don't understand like I do. And I also knew 24 hours of being on antibiotics meant you aren't contagious. Time was of the essence. And so it began, the war was on: Me vs Sickness. When I am sick I do it all. Onions to my feet was suggested to me, done, I wore them in socks at night. I put Vicks on my chest and cupped my bronchial area. I sip cough medication. God, I hate the taste of it but a sip to me is more effective than a full dose. I ate oranges like they were chocolate and drank orange juice and water in huge volumes. I went to bed and let my body rest to fight whatever I had. I gargled with warm salt water every hour or whenever my throat was sore. I do take Tylenol on a regular basis just to manage symptoms. By day two I was improving, and that improvement just continued. The nagging covid cough raised its ugly head only was harsh now because of the bronchial involvement. So, what I am trying to say is hit a cold hard. Usually, if I think I am getting something I take Neo Citron nighttime, and I wake with nothing. This got away on me. I feel now that I am retired that I am not going to take cold medication anymore. I am going to let my body take it on. Now, as you have just read, I helped with natural things. I never did get a sinus involvement and that was just fine with me. My body is very naive to antibiotics, I feel that is why I responded so well. I have never gotten past the "cillins", and my preference is still good ole ampicillin. For those of you that remember Dr. Hobbs, he told me that if he ever got sick, he would take a handful of antibiotics at once. That for the rest of us is called an overdose.
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| Cupping the Bronchial area has amazing results |
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| Sick Bay |
I realize that designating a whole blog to being ill and describing every detail could border on whining. The purpose is to make you realize all the wonderful things out there to heal you. We have always known that boy sick and girl sick are two different things. Although, I have had very little sickness in my life I perhaps don't have enough knowledge to speak to the difference between the gender sickness. We all know that women are the stronger gender. But women are also more willing to try things. Do you know any man that says "I think I am coming down with something, so I am going to bed, I will put Vicks on my chest and onions on my feet. I'll eat lots of oranges, make sure I take my medication on time and just rest". Women know they can't be down long, so they do as I do "attack" sickness.
I am sure everyone has their own little routine when you are sick. I believe strongly in getting the flu shot and when I turned 65, I got the pneumovax for pneumonia protection. Being ill just robs us of precious time, so just stay well.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed over 400 000 people globally. Ecological evidence indicates that countries with national universal BCG vaccination programs for tuberculosis (TB) prevention have a much lower incidence of severe COVID-19 and mortality compared with those that do not have such programs. BCG is a century old vaccine used for TB prevention via infant/childhood vaccination in low to middle-income countries with high infection prevalence rate and is known to reduce all-cause neonatal mortality. BCG remains the standard immunotherapy treatment for patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer globally for more than 44 years. Several trials are, therefore, investigating BCG as a prophylactic against COVID-19 in healthcare workers and the elderly.
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