My COVID Experience

You’ve heard the saying “the fear of the unknown.”

I would not consider myself a fearFULL or pessimistic person however when COVID became the reality of the world, I had fear creeping in on a regular basis.

There was not a ton of information on the internet regarding COVID-19 and spinal muscular atrophy. My hope is to share my experience with you so that you can hear real-life stories of people who have had COVID-19 while living with SMA.

I did find a few friends on the Internet who experienced COVID that I was able to ask questions but it still didn’t bring much peace internally.

Sharing my personal experience

This is simply my personal experience. I would still recommend talking to your doctor and doing what best fits you and your body.

I want to break this down into three parts: pre-COVID, COVID, and post-COVID.

I believe a lot of COVID-related issues are out of our control, however, I wanted to do my due diligence in protecting myself as much as possible.

Pre-COVID precautions

Yes, there are things like vaccinations, wearing masks, social distancing, etc., but I was trying to balance my life while still being cautious. I found that taking the daily recommended vitamins and getting my body at its optimal health would give it its best fighting chance if I were to contract COVID-19.

I met with my homeopathic doctor and asked what his recommendations were for taking prophylactic measures as well as what treatment would look like if I were to get COVID.

Daily, I took vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc, magnesium, and quercetin. Weekly I took a low dose of ivermectin. I did not have any side effects from taking ivermectin especially as I began to take it more frequently. I found that taking my vitamins daily not only brought my vitamin levels up to where they should be, but I felt overall better.

I surprisingly made it through all of 2020 AND 2021 without getting COVID. I even had an experience where my husband and family members in my home had COVID but I was not affected by it. I believe this was due to mask-wearing, handwashing, and social distancing once we knew they were positive for COVID-19.

Exposure and beginning to feel sick

In January 2022, I began to feel unwell. I had a feeling that it was COVID due to my exposure of two people that tested positive.

Like I mentioned before, this is simply my experience. I do not minimize this virus. I have had family members pass away from COVID-19, but I do hope to bring a bit of peace by sharing my experience.

I had two days of fever with body aches and headaches. Those days I mainly wanted to rest but did force myself to get up in my chair and made sure I ate, drank lots of fluids (including liquid IVs), and took high doses of vitamins C.

My doctor suggested I increase my dose of ivermectin since I was infected. After the two days with a fever, I can honestly say I was feeling so much better. A little bit of fatigue and a sore throat but not much more.

There was one day that I felt a little bit of tightness in my chest. This is when I was diligent about doing chest compressions and making sure nothing was settling in there and again keeping up on my liquid intake and vitamins.

After a week of feeling more tired than usual, I truly began to feel better. I did lose my taste and smell around day eight.

I believe that taking my higher dose of ivermectin during the beginning stages of my infection helped shorten the length of feeling sick as well as minimized the symptoms.

My advice for coping with this virus

I am a few weeks past COVID and I can say that I truly feel back to my normal self. I continue to take my vitamins seeing that it is possible to contract a variant of the virus more than once.

I would say my biggest advice is to have a plan with your doctor if you are to get COVID, take your vitamins, and drink lots of fluids. If you do end up testing positive, stay calm, get in your chair as much as possible, and get lots of rest.