Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.
I stole this from a post by a respiratory therapist. I would
agree with this advice for just about any respiratory condition. These are
simply guidelines for you to determine if your own situation can be contained
by homecare, or necessitate further treatment by professionals. Do these things first, when appropriate, and
if they fail to help, see the doctor.
"I'm going share some common sense wisdom with those
that have the virus and are trying to stay out of the hospital. If this advice
is followed as given you will improve your chances of not ending up in the
hospital on a ventilator. This applies to the otherwise generally healthy
population, so use discretion.
1. Only high temperatures kill a virus, so let your fever
run high. Tylenol, Advil. Motrin, Ibuprofen etc. will bring your fever down
allowing the virus to live longer. They are saying that NSAIDS like ibuprophen,
advil, etc, will actually exacerbate the virus symptoms. Use common sense and
don't let fever go over 104/105, if you handle that. If it gets higher than
that take tylenol, but not ibuprophen or advil to keep it regulated. It helps
to keep the house warm and cover up with blankets so body does not have to work
so hard to generate the heat. It usually takes about 3 days of this to break
the fever.
2. The body is going to dehydrate with the elevated
temperature so you must rehydrate yourself regularly, whether you like it or
not. Gatorade with real sugar, or pedialyte with real sugar for kids, works
well. Why the sugar? Sugar will give your body back the energy it is using up
to create the fever. The electrolytes and fluid you are losing will also be
replenished by the Gatorade. If you don't do this and end up in the hospital,
they will start an IV and give you D5W (sugar water) and Normal Saline to
replenish electrolytes. Gatorade is much cheaper, pain free, and comes in an
assortment of flavors.
3. You must keep your lungs moist. This is best done by
taking long steamy showers on a regular basis, if your wheezing or congested
use a real minty toothpaste and brush your teeth while taking the steamy shower
and deep breath through your mouth or use peppermint oil orally. This will
provide some bronchial dilation and help loosen the phlegm. Force yourself to
cough into a wet wash cloth pressed firmly over your mouth and nose, which will
cause greater pressure in your lungs forcing them to expand more and break
loose more of the congestion. [You can also use a nebulizer with pure 3%
hydrogen peroxide as the medication, multiple times per day. This is extremely
effective at hydration and contagion disruption.]
4. Eat healthy and regularly. Keeping your strength up is
essential.
5. Once the fever breaks, start moving around to get the
body back in shape and blood circulating.
6. Deep breathe on a regular basis, even when it hurts. If
you don't, it becomes easy to develop pneumonia. Pursed lip breathing really
helps. That's breathing in deep and slow then exhaling through tight lips as if
you're blowing out a candle, blow until you have completely emptied your lungs
and you will be able to breath in an even deeper breath. This helps keep lungs
expanded as well as increase your oxygen level.
7. Remember that every medication you take is merely
relieving the symptoms, not making you well.
8. If you’re still struggling to breathe… go to ER."
In this time of a fairly serious illness enveloping us,
remember, it won’t be the last time this happens, so find the things you need
to stay healthy before you need them next time.
Prepare for your own health and well-being. As you can look around and
see, others(government) aren’t looking out for your best interest, only theirs.