My Experience with COVID-19

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

I’ve been receiving a lot of questions regarding my recent skirmish with COVID-19. I wanted to try and answer some of those questions here. I hope it’s helpful! The following are some of the most common questions I’ve received regarding my experience with COVID-19.

1) What were your symptoms?

Days 1-2: A couple of days before I became ill, my son and I both had severe nasal and sinus congestion. We assumed it was just a bad cold and didn’t think much of it. (By the way, this was the only symptom my son ever experienced alhamdulillah.)

Days 3-4: Very severe body aches and pains, especially in my joints, and headache. It felt as if my entire body was on fire! Still no fever or cough at this point.

Day 5-6: Fever and mild cough. The fever only lasted 2-3 days alhamdulillah and I don’t think it ever got above 38.5 C. The cough was dry.

Day 7: Very bad nausea and stomach cramps. I also completely lost my sense of taste and smell. I had to force myself to eat. The nausea and stomach pains lasted for about a week. As those symptoms eased, my sense of taste and smell slowly came back alhamdulillah!

Day 9:  I thought I was pretty much recovered at this point, when out of the blue I started having shortness of breath. It felt as if I was on top of Mount Everest and there wasn’t enough oxygen in the room. Or as if my brain kept forgetting to tell my lungs to breath. This was obviously the scariest of symptoms. The worst of it lasted for about 3 days.  

Day 12- Day 28 (today): Alhamdulillah most of my symptoms have resolved now. I’m still experiencing some cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, and hot flashes, especially when I’m feeling particularly emotional about something.  

2) How do you think you caught the virus?

This has remained a mystery to us. I had not left the house in the entire month preceding my illness. One person from our house went out to buy groceries about every 10 days, and this is the only time anyone left the house. When we brought anything into the house we would spray it with disinfectant. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps someone in the house acquired the infection while out grocery shopping, remained asymptomatic, and then passed the infection on to me. Or that I acquired the infection earlier and it somehow remained latent in my system.

Although the confusion is frustrating, it is comforting to know that we were very careful and did everything in our power to prevent this virus from entering our homes. We can plan, but Allah is the best of Planners! 

قدَّرَ اللهُ وما شاءَ فعلْ

3) Was your infection similar to a regular flu?

This infection was unlike any illness I’ve ever experienced. First of all, due to the long duration of symptoms (it’s been 4 weeks and I’m still having shortness of breath and fatigue). And second, because I never knew what to expect each day regarding symptoms. My symptoms would change on an almost hourly basis.

4) How/where did you go to get tested?

Getting tested was quite an ordeal! We first visited 2 hospitals (Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital and Aster Sanad Hospital) and were told they weren’t accepting Corona patients, although I called both hospitals beforehand and was told I could get tested there. I was finally able to get tested at KFMC. 

When my test came back positive, my entire family went to another hospital to get tested. This hospital initially told us that all the results were negative. Then about 5 days later the hospital called and said they had made a mistake, and that my son actually tested positive! This was after about 10 days of him interacting closely with everyone in the family. So we all decided to go and get tested again. We went to a small MOH clinic near our house, called “Fever Clinics” or Tetamman تطمن. We did not need an appointment to get tested at that clinic. 

The link for that app is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tetaman.home

Everyone else in my family tested negative alhamdulillah, but they seemed to have lost my test, as I have not yet received the results despite several complaints.

I had previously made an appointment to get tested through the Sehhaty website. (Link is https://sehhaty-mass.global.ssl.fastly.net/ ) I decided to keep this appointment and get tested for the third time, since my 2nd test seems to have been lost. I was amazed at how efficient this testing center was mashAllah. You drive up in your car, a nurse comes out to administer the test, and off you go. The entire process from the time I arrived until completion was only 10 minutes! Alhamdulillah this test came back negative and I was finally able to come out of isolation.

Of course all of this may have changed from the time I wrote this article, so always try to stay updated on current testing facilities. 

5) What did you use to help yourself recover from the virus?

I used the following:

• Vitamin D/K2
• Vitamin C
• Zinc
• Black seed mixed with raw honey and chamomile 
• Cod liver oil
• Reishi Mushroom
• Qist Al Hindi and licorice root tea, both of which you can find at local herbal shops, such as Bin Menqash. Read more about the benefits of Qist here. 
• I drank lots of ginger tea with honey and lemon. 
• I ate 2-3 Brazil nuts daily. Brazil nuts are high in selenium, which is a key nutrient for immune function. It’s also an antioxidant that helps boosts the body’s defenses against bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells.
• I tried to eat lots of onion, garlic, turmeric, ginger, and bone broth in my foods.
• When I had difficulty breathing, I used an onion poultice on my chest, which seemed to help.
• To help with breathing, I also diffused essential oils- a blend of Peppermint, Rosemary, Lemon, and Eucalyptus.
• I have read that Senna is effective against COVID-19, although I didn’t use it. You can also find it at local herbal shops. 
• This chart from the Institute of Functional Medicine lists other Nutraceutical and Botanical Recommendations for COVID-19 Patients, based on emerging research. 
• Check out this article for 10 Ways to Treat a Fever Naturally.
• And of course, last but not least, lots and lots of du’a!

**Always remember to consult your healthcare provider before trying any new medications or supplements. 

6) How would you recommend someone to prepare for possible infection?

• First of all, decide what types of supplements and foods you would like to use to boost your immune system and fight off the infection (see question #5 for the things I used). Try to have as many of these available in your home as possible. You don’t want to be running around searching for remedies while you or someone in your home is ill. 
• Then, discuss with your family members the logistics of what you would do if someone, God forbid, gets sick. Where would this person quarantine in your home? Would they have access to their own bathroom? Who would take care of household responsibilities while this person is in quarantine? If an adult gets sick, who will take care of the kids, do the cooking, laundry, household cleaning, etc?
• Also try to figure out where you’ll get tested if required, so you don’t end up visiting 3 hospitals and spending 5 hours trying to get tested like we did!
• Instead of thinking, “this won’t happen to me”, think of how you can be prepared, if and when it happens. Cook some extra food and nourishing soups and keep them in the freezer (this was a life saver for us) because if you need to be quarantined away from your family, you probably won’t be able to get into the kitchen. Or if someone else in the family gets sick, you’ll be busy taking care of them. 
• Being in quarantine away from loved ones is psychologically and emotionally demanding. Prepare yourself with good books and things to keep yourself busy and productive.

7) What can I do to help prevent infection?

A (mostly) healthy diet and lifestyle obviously didn’t prevent me from getting sick, but it did help me to recover quickly alhamdulillah. So try from now to take care of yourself!

• Eat a healthy, nourishing diet filled with lots of veggies. Try to eat the rainbow every day! Minimize your intake of sugar, refined carbs (white bread and white rice), artificial ingredients and caffeine. Include fermented vegetables or other probiotic-containing foods in your diet.
• Get lots of good quality sleep.
• Try to manage your stress levels in a healthy way. Take time for yourself each day to do something you love, even if it’s for only 10 minutes! Studies show that people who report higher levels of stress or negative moods had more severe illness when exposed to a respiratory virus (source).
• Take vitamin D or get frequent sun exposure. 
• Spend quality time with loved ones.
• Get enough movement in your day. Regular physical activity helps to boost your immune system by raising levels of white blood cells and antibodies, improving circulation, and decreasing stress hormones.

8) What important lessons have you learned from this experience?

Number 1 is learning to appreciate my blessings alhamdulillah! When I was finally able to come out of isolation after 3 weeks, it never felt so good to hug and kiss my family members! When I went outside, just the singing of the birds and the smell of fresh air was enough to bring tears to my eyes. SubanAllah we really don’t fully appreciate our blessings until Allah takes them away from us!

To be honest, I was pretty nonchalant about this virus before becoming infected. “I’m young, I’m healthy, inshAllah if I get sick it’ll just be like getting the flu and won’t disrupt my life in any way.” I couldn’t be more wrong!

My experience with COVID-19 significantly affected not just myself, but everyone in my household. Obviously my husband had to take on a huge responsibility by not only nursing me back to health, but also looking after our 3 children while working full-time (from home).  My 14 year old daughter also had to greatly increase her workload by helping to cook, do laundry, and other household chores. When we all needed to be isolated from each other while waiting for test results, it was quite difficult trying to keep an 8 year old busy when he can’t come out of his room and I can’t go into his room!

Do you have any personal experience with COVID-19? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

May Allah protect us and our loved ones, and always keep us healthy and safe!