Health: When Covid 19 Comes to Visit

The Jones family started the new year with Covid 19. My husband and eldest son started showing symptoms on Boxing Day and mine followed suit 9 days later. Thankfully, none of us had such a severe dose that we required any more than home care. However, I was really grateful that I had done a bit of preparation and had a small stock of indispensable items, which I thought I would share.

Because I am classed as clinically extremely vulnerable, we took the precautions of isolating the two who had it first in separate bedrooms as much as was practically possible, with me sleeping on the sofa and having an hour full on room ventilation if it was going to be re-used. Despite all this, and the additional cleaning, wearing masks, gloves etc, I still managed to contract it. My Mum (who spent Christmas Day with us as part of her bubble) and my youngest son thankfully did not get it. 

Medications

• Cold and flu tablets/paracetamol: you are restricted to only buying 2 boxes with a supermarket delivery and you will quickly diminish these if more than one of you needs them.
• Prescription meds: think about how you will access these in the event of the whole family isolating. At the moment, some pharmacies will deliver during lockdown if you have a shielding letter, in others there are voluntary delivery drivers. It is also worth thinking about how your prescription meds might be impacted if you do get Covid. For example, I had to more than quadruple my steroid dose due to Covid for quite a long period of time.
• Imodium/toilet roll: this wasn’t a symptom for us but I have heard that diarrhoea is for many, so useful to be prepared.
• Tissues
• Ricola throat/cough sweets: to soothe that tickly cough.
• Rehydration salts such as dioralyte.

Cleaning

• Antibacterial wipes
• Gloves
• Alcohol gel

Food

• Old school “nursery” teas like tinned ravioli, rice pudding, jelly, ice cream went down really well with the boys.
• Lucozade
• Fruit: apples, oranges and grapes mainly. Fresh fruit was one of the only things that didn't taste weird through the altered taste of Covid, I found.
• Biscuits: I munched my way through a lot of shortbread dipped in tea.
• Soup: it really is a cure all, and we have been eating it all from fresh chicken soup, to tinned mushroom soup via homemade veg soup (always good to have a stock of random soup in the freezer).

Although the symptoms have not been too bad for us (I honestly think that the worst has been the exhaustion), the most debilitating thing has been the self isolation. I know people face a lot worse problems, but the day before my self-isolation was up (and mine was a full three weeks when I had to include the household illness and my own), I was in such a bad state mentally that I had to shut myself in the bedroom for the sake of my family. I cannot begin to tell you how good it is just to take a 15 minute short walk (about my limit at the moment) around my housing estate in the fresh air!

Here's to a healthier second half of January!

Love Mrs Jones x