7 Steps for Family's recovery From Covid

It was April 26th, around 9:30 PM when my father, who had recently moved in with us, was taken to the hospital. He had broken his hip bone and needed to be admitted. He needed to be tested for Covid as a protocol. And he tested positive

My father had no symptoms - no cough, no fever, no fatigue. He took an RT-PCR test a week before that, and it came negative. And so he came to stay with us, with all of us cooking together and mingling in like a regular family.

By the grace of God, he immediately got a bed and was injured in the covid ward. My father is a diabetic with kidney issues. He, however, got both the doses of vaccination. 

At this point, we knew what lay ahead for each one of us.

We are parents to 2 children - aged 14 and 10.

On 27th April, my 10 year old woke up to fever and cold. In our minds, we had all contracted the dreaded COVID. We immediately got in touch with a pediatrician who prescribed medicines for my child, and a general physician. Since we had no symptoms, we were told to have a protein rich diet along with the regular vitamins and lots of fluid.

For all of us, we had to take down our body temperatures, oxygen saturation levels and keep a close watch at even the most minute symptoms.

The next one hour went in calling up medical stores - to source these medicines. We reached out to our neighborhood friends, who had recovered or were recovering from COVID. Most of them had extra medicines for covid, and were willing to reserve them for us, lest we needed them!

By noon, we had planned a few things.

1) We had the fridge stocked, and individual boxes of medicines, thermometer, steamer. In our 3 bedroom house we isolated ourselves - with my 10 year old sharing the room with my husband.

2) We made a table chart for each of us, with the dates and names of each medicine, including water, milk, steam. It was pasted on our individual doors. We discussed with the children that the next 10 days, we had to monitor ourselves very closely. We were only and only responsible for our bodies.

3) A timetable was set - for waking up, having meals, exercising, consuming medicines and monitoring oxygen and temp. It was like we were working towards achieving a sales target.

4) Even a body temp of 99, was considered fever and a medicine had to be taken. A saturation of 96 was considered low, and proning had to be done.

5) We did not let any symptoms pass. It had to be and was actioned immediately. We had cut off from the outside world. No watching news, no newspapers. It was only us.

6) As a family, for the next 10 days, we met only thrice a day for 20 mins each - seated apart from each other. We checked the charts of our children to ensure everything was being done as planned.

We did have our share of stress and anxiety - but had to stay strong for our children.

7) We followed our doctors advice.

My 10 year old came out of the fever in the next 5 days, with her fever touching a maximum of 99.5 deg. The pediatrician was amazed with her chart. We did not let the body temp rise. Our child followed the instructions to the T.

2 days after my child recovered, I developed a mild cough. My husband had fatigue and a headache.

Our GP advised us to start with antibiotics, and to get a CT scan only for myself, in the next 2 days. My CT score was a mere 2 / 25. I have seen my own family members starting self medication - esp steroids and their condition worsening.

Through a friend, I reached out to a pulmonologist, who prescribed me nebulization and continued me on antibiotics.

Today is 12th May, we have all recovered from our symptoms - completed our doses of antibiotics. But we continue to be in isolation, we now meet more than 3 times a day. We still track our oxygen saturation and body temp, at least once a day.

My father is back from the hospital. Our parents and other family members are in different stages of recovery.

We are surrounded by family and friends, who check on us everyday! And that's what keeps us going.

We followed these steps and that helped us. Sticking to the plan in a disciplined way worked