I’ve just finally contracted it for the first time. I’m vaxxed and multiple-times-boosted, so it’s not that bad…

But it’s still pretty fucking miserable. Ugh. The paxlovid seems to be helping some, but in return it’s giving me the most horrendous taste in my mouth. Like a battery fucked a lemon in there.

What worked for you when you caught it, lemmings?

Edit: Holy cats, you guys came through! Thank you all for your various recommendations. The gist of it seems to be:

  • Definitely stay on the paxlovid (and use pineapple to deal with the awful taste in my mouth that’s a side-effect).
  • Rest. Fucking REST! Do not, under any circumstances, stop resting until it’s run its course. (Fortunately already doing that, since I’ve been feeling half-past dead.)
  • Ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and mucinex are my dear, sweet friends. (I’m already a big fan of mucinex, so I have some already.)
  • Drink a lot of water. (I have a comically oversized cup I’ve been using for that.)

And I gotta say… Now, as the end of the day approaches, I think I might, just maybe, be feeling a tad better. Thank you all!

  • @Catoblepas
    1•3 months ago

    A multi pronged approach to deal with symptoms is completely justified here. When I had COVID I would take acetaminophen, wait 2 hours, take ibuprofen, wait 2 hours, then I could take acetaminophen again. Follow the instructions on the bottle and make sure you don’t OD, obviously.

    I also took generic mucinex as often as I could, and hydrated like crazy. I know a lot of press came out recently about phenylephrine not actually being effective as a decongestant, but I swear to god it worked better than anything else. YMMV, I may be some kind of genetic freak.

    People have already mentioned rest, but seriously, rest so much more and so much longer than you think you need to. Overexertion during illness and in the immediate post recovery period has been correlated with future long COVID symptoms.

    If you don’t already have an albuterol inhaler, ask your doctor if they’ll prescribe you one. Pretty normal for any respiratory problem and it’ll help open your airways up a lot.

      • @Catoblepas
        1•3 months ago

        I know they’re different drugs, I’m talking about taking them both because they don’t interact with each other. I’ve had phenylephrine deal with congestion that Mucinex alone didn’t touch. If it doesn’t work for you then for sure don’t take it.

          • @Catoblepas
            1•3 months ago

            I wasn’t using it for allergy relief, I was using it for congestion associated with COVID. There may well be some unknown mechanism that makes it completely ineffective for allergies (as I said in my first comment I’m aware of the FDA statement that came out about it), or it may be that it’s ineffective unless combined with other meds. For whatever reason with congestion from COVID literally nothing else touched it for me. There isn’t a combination of words you can use to make me forget the entire week I spent trying everything else (I’m including using a baby nasal aspirator on myself in that) while being in blinding pain, how it gave me relief in less than 30 min, and how the congestion would come back towards the end of the dose period. If that’s the placebo effect, I don’t care, it worked and it’s low risk.

            As I said, if it doesn’t work for you don’t use it.