How to treat yourself at home if you get coronavirus

KHOU

HOUSTON — About 80-percent of people who get coronavirus will have relatively mild symptoms and won’t need to seek medical care.

Olga Kagan, an RN in New York, offers these tips for treating yourself at home:

What you need

• Acetaminophen (Tylenol) in 325 mg tablets
• Ibuprofen (Advil) in 200 mg tablets (From KHOU: Double check with your doctor before taking Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs; there are reports they can aggravate coronavirus; our Verify team is working on this.)
• Mucinex, Robitussin or DayQuil/NyQuil, whatever your cough medicine of choice is
• Tissues
• Humidifier: If you don’t have a humidifier, you can also just turn the shower on hot and sit in the bathroom breathing in the steam.).
• If you have a history of asthma and you have a prescription inhaler, make sure the one you have isn’t expired and refill it/get a new one if it is.

How to treat symptoms

• For a fever over 101, alternate Tylenol and Advil so you’re taking a dose of one or the other every 3 hours. (Again, check with your doctor before taking Advil.)
• Use both cough suppressants and expectorants (most cough meds have both).
• Drink a ton, hydrate hydrate.
• Rest lots.

If you’re sick

If you’re sick, you should not be leaving your house except to go to the doctor. (From KHOU: Many doctors and insurance companies offer online options for treatment. This is a good thing to check on in advance) The federal government is recommending TeleHealth)

You DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE ER unless you are having trouble breathing or your fever is very high and un-managed with meds.  We don’t want to clog the ERs unless you’re actually in distress. The hospital beds will be used for people who need oxygen/breathing treatments/IV fluids.

If you have a pre-existing lung condition (COPD, emphysema, lung cancer) or are on immunosuppressants, now is a great time to talk to your PCP or specialist about what they would like you to do if you get sick. They might have plans to get you admitted and bypass the ER entirely.

For parents

One major relief to you parents is that kids do VERY well with coronavirus— they usually bounce back in a few days, no one under 18 has died, and almost no kids have required hospitalization (unless they have a lung disease like CF).

Just use pediatric dosing of the same meds mentioned above.

Additional advice

If someone in your family has coronavirus, they should: Stay in a separate room, use a separate bathroom, if possible; use paper plates and plastic utensils or different dishes and flatware then everyone else.

https://www.khou.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/how-to-treat-yourself-at-home-if-you-get-coronavirus/285-94046315-920d-4421-b0c9-f7682b4dd9f5