I may have info that can help with Long Covid

[argentus]

Alright.  Right up front, most of this is anecdotal information, however there is some measurable data within.   I am posting this thread because there is a possibility that I've discovered something important.   I don't know how to quantify this information, so I'm just going to blab it out.  Here goes:

Around the end of December 2019, I caught the flu.   It was probably the sickest I've ever been in my adult life.   As per our family protocols, I segregated myself from my wife and my mother.   I am the cook of the house, so it was a difficult time.   My normal M.O. for dealing with flu tracks back to my youth, where sweat lodges were frequently used, so I usually bundle up with blankets and such to assist my body to burn out the infection.   Your body raises the temperature for this reason.   I monitor my temperature to make sure I don't elevate it to a dangerous level, and usually, in the wee hours, I soak the blankets with sweat, and the fever breaks.   Prior to that I am semi-delerious and moan and mumble.   

So, I did this at the end of December 2019, and had a difficult time getting the fever to break and it went into the second day, but finally broke.   Shortly after that I fully recovered as usual, except I was left with a phlegmy cough.   This mucous cough continued for a couple of years.   I had a few blood tests and such as my doctors looked for the reason for the phlegmy cough.   Various scary things were ruled out.   It was expensive testing.   One of my doctors suggested the possibility of Long Covid.   Apparently there were three nurses at the hospital who had contracted the same flu, and two of them were left with ongoing symptoms.  This was well before the antigen tests were available for Covid and at least three months before we even HEARD of Covid.   

Fast forward to earlier this month.   For the last six years, I go to bed with paper towels nearby, so I can spit the mucous into them.   I know, I know.   Icky.   Bear with me.   I cough up stuff a LOT in the night and less during the day.   

So, I get this flu recently.   It was bad, but I've had worse.   I segregated myself as usual.  I got sick on the 2nd of February.   I took vitamin C and Zinc and Elderberry and Oregano Oil and drank lots of hot fluids.   On the evening of the 4th, I bundled up.   I had a fever of 101.5.    I sweated a lot, and my fever rose to 103.  Around 5:00 a.m., my fever broke, and was down to 100 fairly quickly and 99 in another couple hours.   I felt immediately better.   The next day, I started barking and coughing and instead of the clear mucous that I usually coughed, this was brownish.   I quit smoking in 2016, so this was concerning.   I coughed up a LOT of crud the next day.   

Here's the thing:   Since that day to this, I haven't coughed up ANY mucous either day or night.   It has been 16 days.  I mean, not even once.   I am, apparently, cured, but of what? 

I have an armchair theory.    I think it is possible that whatever virus my immune system rose to oppose, also kicked the ass of what had been lurking in my lungs.   

I don't post this for attention.   I can't help thinking there is possibly important information in there somewhere regarding curing a person of Long Covid.   Certainly I'm not suggesting that a person with LC go and get sick with the flu.   There is no quantifiable test for Long Covid, but just a correlation of symptoms.  

Anyway, if you've read this far, good on you.   You are very patient.   I post this in hope that it helps someone.   

cheers

[Maxmars]

I've heard the theory that sometimes a secondary infection overwhelms the first, or affects the body in such a way as to make it beat the crap out of anything in its way...

But... that kind of metabolic burst has a cost... keep hydrated...
phlegm is necessary for many things in our personal "biome"...
and it takes a boatload of water to make.

It's great your better... but do take care...

[argentus]

I've heard the theory that sometimes a secondary infection overwhelms the first, or affects the body in such a way as to make it beat the crap out of anything in its way...

But... that kind of metabolic burst has a cost... keep hydrated...
phlegm is necessary for many things in our personal "biome"...
and it takes a boatload of water to make.

It's great your better... but do take care...

Thank you!   Yes, my ankles were swelling a bit, so I upped my water intake and now everything is back to normal.   Very good point, thank you Max.  

A wonderful side effect is that I am breathing so much more deeply, and my snoring is much less.   Getting sick has been a real boon.

[Caligurl]

I worked with a R.N. who told me that smoking will clear up in your lungs in 7 years. You said that you quit 2016.  Could it be the left over irritants that were in your lungs that have finally dislodged? Maybe its the vitamin C that has kicked in and is now giving your body a  boost in white blood cells? Well anyways, glad you are feeling better!

[Maxmars]

Quitting smoking might be a big factor as well...

Our lungs turn to leather over time in smokers...
when they finally heal, even a little, it will be a very good thing.

Takes time... and coincidentally requires staying hydrated... ironic.

Smoking also interrupts healing processes in the lungs, let alone O2 absorption....

Let your body work without getting in its way...
stay quit.

[EXETER]

Alright.  Right up front, most of this is anecdotal information, however there is some measurable data within.   I am posting this thread because there is a possibility that I've discovered something important.   I don't know how to quantify this information, so I'm just going to blab it out.  Here goes:

Around the end of December 2019, I caught the flu.   It was probably the sickest I've ever been in my adult life.   As per our family protocols, I segregated myself from my wife and my mother.   I am the cook of the house, so it was a difficult time.   My normal M.O. for dealing with flu tracks back to my youth, where sweat lodges were frequently used, so I usually bundle up with blankets and such to assist my body to burn out the infection.   Your body raises the temperature for this reason.   I monitor my temperature to make sure I don't elevate it to a dangerous level, and usually, in the wee hours, I soak the blankets with sweat, and the fever breaks.   Prior to that I am semi-delerious and moan and mumble.   

So, I did this at the end of December 2019, and had a difficult time getting the fever to break and it went into the second day, but finally broke.   Shortly after that I fully recovered as usual, except I was left with a phlegmy cough.   This mucous cough continued for a couple of years.   I had a few blood tests and such as my doctors looked for the reason for the phlegmy cough.   Various scary things were ruled out.   It was expensive testing.   One of my doctors suggested the possibility of Long Covid.   Apparently there were three nurses at the hospital who had contracted the same flu, and two of them were left with ongoing symptoms.  This was well before the antigen tests were available for Covid and at least three months before we even HEARD of Covid.   

Fast forward to earlier this month.   For the last six years, I go to bed with paper towels nearby, so I can spit the mucous into them.   I know, I know.   Icky.   Bear with me.   I cough up stuff a LOT in the night and less during the day.   

So, I get this flu recently.   It was bad, but I've had worse.   I segregated myself as usual.  I got sick on the 2nd of February.   I took vitamin C and Zinc and Elderberry and Oregano Oil and drank lots of hot fluids.   On the evening of the 4th, I bundled up.   I had a fever of 101.5.    I sweated a lot, and my fever rose to 103.  Around 5:00 a.m., my fever broke, and was down to 100 fairly quickly and 99 in another couple hours.   I felt immediately better.   The next day, I started barking and coughing and instead of the clear mucous that I usually coughed, this was brownish.   I quit smoking in 2016, so this was concerning.   I coughed up a LOT of crud the next day.   

Here's the thing:   Since that day to this, I haven't coughed up ANY mucous either day or night.   It has been 16 days.  I mean, not even once.   I am, apparently, cured, but of what? 

I have an armchair theory.    I think it is possible that whatever virus my immune system rose to oppose, also kicked the ass of what had been lurking in my lungs.   

I don't post this for attention.   I can't help thinking there is possibly important information in there somewhere regarding curing a person of Long Covid.   Certainly I'm not suggesting that a person with LC go and get sick with the flu.   There is no quantifiable test for Long Covid, but just a correlation of symptoms.  

Anyway, if you've read this far, good on you.   You are very patient.   I post this in hope that it helps someone.   

cheers

I don’t think you should just automatically assume that your recent infection was a virus.  It actually sounds more like bacterial to me.

[argentus]

I don’t think you should just automatically assume that your recent infection was a virus.  It actually sounds more like bacterial to me.

It was a virus that has been going around.   Hospital staff have tested folks that went in and found no Covid.   The nature of my work puts me around elderly often, so it is routine for me to use LFT tests.   I did so at this point and it was negative.   Bacterial infections generally manifest differently, particularly pulmonary infections.   This came on suddenly with the classic viral symptoms, and cured by my own autoimmune system and my procedures..  A severe bacterial infection would continue without antibiotics, only rarely solving themselves without medical intervention.

[argentus]

Quitting smoking might be a big factor as well...

Our lungs turn to leather over time in smokers...
when they finally heal, even a little, it will be a very good thing.

Takes time... and coincidentally requires staying hydrated... ironic.

Smoking also interrupts healing processes in the lungs, let alone O2 absorption....

Let your body work without getting in its way...
stay quit.

It has been ten years since I've had even a puff.   I still miss it on rare occasion, but I will never smoke again.

[Solvedit]

I got sick on the 2nd of February.   I took vitamin C and Zinc and Elderberry and Oregano Oil and drank lots of hot fluids.   On the evening of the 4th, I bundled up.   I had a fever of 101.5.    I sweated a lot, and my fever rose to 103.  Around 5:00 a.m., my fever broke, and was down to 100 fairly quickly and 99 in another couple hours.   I felt immediately better.   The next day, I started barking and coughing and instead of the clear mucous that I usually coughed, this was brownish.   I quit smoking in 2016, so this was concerning.   I coughed up a LOT of crud the next day.   

Here's the thing:   Since that day to this, I haven't coughed up ANY mucous either day or night.   It has been 16 days.  I mean, not even once.   I am, apparently, cured, but of what? 

I am not a doctor or an herbalist but have recently heard on a Youtube short that anti-mold medication is supposed to be able to revolutionize some peoples' health.  Mold can live in the lungs. 

Oregano oil has antifungal and anti-mold policies.  Perhaps a person could have a low-level, longstanding chronic infection of mold in the lungs which would be healed by the oregano oil.

[argentus]

I am not a doctor or an herbalist but have recently heard on a Youtube short that anti-mold medication is supposed to be able to revolutionize some peoples' health.  Mold can live in the lungs. 

Oregano oil has antifungal and anti-mold policies.  Perhaps a person could have a low-level, longstanding chronic infection of mold in the lungs which would be healed by the oregano oil.

Good information, thank you!   Mold mitigation used to be one of my many talents decades ago.   There are also a new class of antivirals available that are fairly recent.   Prior to 2016, Hep C was not curable.   Medicine is wonderful when it's not abused by the authorities.  <------- that was off-topic, but still true, according to my personal research.