Surviving COVID-19 Pneumonia At Home: COVID Case #1906
subject: temperature, sinusitis, bronchitis
description: Dear Editor, I was exposed to a COVID-19 positive cardiologist last March 1. I had ENT clinics until March 11, treating mostly patients with complaints of cough and fever (sinusitis and bronchitis). I felt that my facial mask, hooded magnifier lens, and gloves gave me enough protection. I was wrong. They were not sufficient. I had a temperature of 38°C on March 13 and went home immediately to self-isolate. By March 15, I was coughing unremittingly and persistently as if a feather was stuck in my throat. I had no phlegm. I had no running nose, nor respiratory difficulty. But my rib muscles ached continuously - an intense, miserable pain not relieved by any position. I felt a severe point tenderness over both lower back ribs that even soft pillows could not diminish. I lacked sleep. I felt weaker as days went by. My taste was flat as I swallowed soups and arroz caldo but I still had my sense of smell. On March 16, I took Clarithromycin 500 mg and N-Acetylcysteine 600 mg, both twice daily to treat what I diagnosed as acute pharyngitis. Two more days of severe coughing, fever and sore throat made me worry about COVID-19. How come I was not getting better? In fact, I was getting BITTER over this uncertainty of COVID-19 and the treatment I had prescribed myself. I had been religiously taking probiotics to imbue me with immunity for infections like these.1 I believed that lactobacillus acidophilus, the friendly gut bacteria, stimulates the Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue (GALT) to produce antibodies against virus and bacteria shedding into small intestines and against bacteria abnormally multiplying in the large intestine.2 I was assured by the research of Russian Dr. Elie Metchnikoff on the potent lactobacillus in yogurt (which comprised almost 50% of the Bulgarian diet and made them strong and healthy). Dr. Metchnikoff (who had won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine) honored Bulgaria by naming his friendly bacteria lactobacillus bulgaricus.3,4 Dr. Metchnikoff…
creator: Jaime Flor
source: Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery
publisher: Philippine Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Inc.
date: 2020
identifier: DOI: 10.32412/pjohns.v35i1.1259
coverage: Otorhinolaryngology