My family and I all contracted COVID in December, and as much as I tried to care for my Mum at home, come the critical “Day 10” her oxygen levels had dropped and she was hospitalised a week before Christmas.
I will forever be grateful the hospital saved her life, and we got her home twelve days later having been treated for pneumonia. However, once the adrenaline and steroids wore off, my Mum seemed to worsen and has not made any improvement since. She is constantly breathless and wheezy, and has developed a soul shaking cough which is sometimes productive, but more often than not isn’t.
The Respiratory Consultant has said her CT scan shows fuzzy patches on her lungs, which I believe would be consistent with COVID scarring. He also said her tubes appear thickened, mentioning bronchitis. We are currently awaiting a course of steroids and a steroid inhaler, and I hope these will alleviate her symptoms.
However, I was just wondering if anyone else on here is recovering from COVID and how long it took them to show any improvement please?
Also, please let me know if you have any tips to help my Mum’s recovery, such as
- recommended breathing exercises
- cough soothers (tried manuka honey, peppermint tea, Bronchial Balsam, Vicks on feet, Fisherman’s Friend order is on the way)
- mucus relief (my Dad has a Revitive Aerosure Respiratory Device but worried she can’t use this having previously had a heart attack. Has anyone tried Air Physio?)
- supplements (Lignosus Respiratory Health supplement looks too good to be true?!)
Thank you in advance for any help/advice!
Written by
D0n49
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Pneumonia can take many months to recover from. In reality it is still early days in your mother's recovery. I had pneumonia Christmas 2016 and was July/August before I felt anywhere near normal. Rest a good diet and gentle exercise is important. I caught a number of infections after discharge and at time felt I was taking one step forward two steps back. The important thing is not to push recovery as improvement can be a slow process.
I'm sorry to hear of your mum's challenges; and your anxiety trying to find ways to alleviate her struggles.
I have never had COVID-19, but I do have respiratory failure. With only 14% lung function I become unwell easily; and have learned that MAINTENANCE is the key to staying relatively well.
SING!!! Not like a nightingale ... just sing. This helps your breathing muscles. What's more, it releases 2 happy hormones in your brain. Just the thing you need to fight off the sickness blues.
BREATHE!!! (properly ... it's amazing how many people don't know how). Breathe in through your nose, and slowly PURSE LIP breathe out of your mouth. It's important that your lips are pursed (like you're about to whistle) because this somehow shapes your airways to breathe at its best.
Using a flutter/acapella vibratory pep/bubble pep .... (whichever positive expiratory pressure use choose to use) is absolutely wonderful for easily removing build-up of phlegm (secretions) in your lungs and particularly when struggling to clear them.
If able to do so, taking Bisolvon, or N Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) will liquefy the secretions to help expel easier.
If you are looking for natural cough soothers honey/ pineapple are great. (I have family who blend ginger/lemon/lime and lemon grass. Put them in iceboxes... and I add one with warm water and honey when I want a soothing drink. They also blend fresh pineapple to make a juice I can drink.
Although I am a huge believer in natural remedies, I find that people don't understand that THEY, too, are potent; and care must be taken using them.
When your body is struggling anyway, giving it something that will encourage your body to fight even harder isn't kind or safe.
I use colloidal silver. I use lyposamal vitamin c ... but, there is NO way I could use them in an abundance - my body would be OVERWORKED. Perhaps that may be for your poor tired Mum, too?
Taking smaller, safer steps to be as comfortable as possible is the best solution.
Eucalyptus is great; but, too much is not good for breathing ... and, at the bottom of our feet where we have nerve ending would force our body to try to utilise too much too quickly when we are STRUGGLING. I feel a nice gentle massage would feel better.
Anyway, just a few thoughts I wanted to share with you. I could go on and on and .....
May your Mum, (and you, of course), have strength, courage, support, peaceful thoughts and a calm heart as she recovers.❤️
Hi Mrbojangles, the hospital had refused to release her until they could get her O2 levels above 94%. At home we check her daily and once we get her to breathe properly it’s usually around 98%, so I believe she is getting sufficient oxygen.
Mum has limited mobility (botched hip replacement, subsequent worn knee that requires replacement, and worn spine), but the severe breathlessness she experiences from just the short trip from her bed to the toilet has reduced her quality of life even more, so desperate to help in any way I can.
The Respiratory consultation was last Thursday and I followed up the next day leaving an answerphone message for the secretaries. They returned my call yesterday to say the prescription had just been issued, so still waiting for the medication.
Thank you for reaching g out, hope you are staying safe in these challenging times!
Thankfully your Mum has you looking out for her. Lungs take so long to settle down after being upset. Get that steroid inhaler and steroid tablets into her ASAP. She must be so anxious, maybe try an app like calm or headspace to help relax her? When you can’t breathe it’s all you can think about, it’s horrible. It could easily take months before she starts to feel better, try and stay positive and hopefully the steroids will give some relief x
Actually we just chased the hospital pharmacy now, so I am going to cover up and brave the outside world for the first time in months to collect the prescription 😊Thank you for your kind words x
Glad you are getting things organised to help your Mum you take care too when out and about.
As mentioned Pneumonia takes a long time to recover from (all as indicated by Badbessie).
Long Covid could have resulted but hopefully your Mum will recover ok from the pneumonia.
I’ve not had Covid but have to clear lungs of mucous daily. I was taught lung drainage techniques by the respiratory physio but I find the Air Physio easier to use. Worth a try.
Cant add anything to the advice given , but wanted to say I wish your mum well and hope that she finds some relief soon. Everybody says how long it takes to recover from pneumonia so be patient and look after yourself as well, something we forget when tending to others x
Hi DOn49. I had pneumonia and it took quite a few months to recover. The best bit of advice I had from the respiratory nurses was to keep doing gentle exercises and walking around at home every few hours, this helps to slowly strengthen the lungs and get them working better. Good luck to you and your mum. John
Thank you for that key advice! I think the temptation is to keep her safely tucked up in bed, but I will definitely pay heed and I actually read somewhere it’s not a bad thing for her to get breathless!
Hope you are fully recovered yourself now! Please take care and thanks again 😊
I'm sorry to hear you all had covid and that your mum is still poor. I've had pneumonia several times, I agree completely with Badbessie's reply, it took me about 6 months each time to get back to a semblance of normal. Great that youre getting the prescription, the steroids and inhaler will help a lot with tge inflammation - read the leaflets, steroids need to be taken as early in the morning with a little food, they can mess with sleep for some. The inhaler will hopefully come with a spacer to use with it - demonstrations on youtube for info are helpful.
The one thing I will add is that it knocks out your immune system so I'd advise you help her with that - and you all too - asap. It takes a while so start now. Very healthy diet, some supplemental vitamins & minerals (I have to say I have an arsenal in my cupboard which I take daily). Whilst the immune system is so low you can't fight off any little bug ensuring you deplete even more. At the very least I'd reccomend Vitamin D3 (usually tiny tablets) most of us patients on here take it. Also vitamin C boasts the immunity very well. I have effervescent vit c 1000mg on standby, easy to drink. Kiwi contains more C than oranges.
As above exercises is brilliant- all those trips to the loo help. I know its hard to exercise when you're feeling rubbish.
I am so sorry you have battled pneumonia several times! This is not my Mum’s first time of suffering with it either, but the additional complications of COVID has made me extra sensitive!
Thank you so very much for taking the time to share some great advice!!
We now have a two week course of Prednisolone and a fluticasone furoate/vilanterol inhaler which Mum will be starting first thing this morning - hoping these will help!
A bit apprehensive about the steroids, firstly lowering her immune system - but since we are not going out anywhere I hope this will keep her safe. Secondly, her sugar levels went very high whilst on steroids in hospital, so much so they ended up giving her insulin, but not sure if that was in conjunction with the COVID. Asked the Pharmacist about this and she said given its only for two weeks this should be ok!
Received a call from the hospital and Mum has a lung function test on Tuesday, hoping she can make some improvement before then 🤞🏻
Think we got ahead of ourselves 🥺 The steroids seemed to give her a much needed boost and she spent a couple of hours potting bulbs from her wheelchair on the patio yesterday.
Today she has woken up wheezy and breathless again. She also has a temperature which paracetamol doesn’t seem to be resolving, is this just because her immune system is low please?
It's tough to recover. I'm 50 years old, and contracted covid in late september. I was hospitalised for a month and developed pneumonia. As I was bedridden for 3 weeks of that, my muscles wasted too. I relapsed twice days after discharge, with severe breathlessness.
The first 6 weeks were tough. I could walk a few steps, and stairs were very very hard for me. In the end, I had to spend 3 weeks living with my parents as it was clear that for the first 6 weeks I was really struggling.
I'm now around 14 weeks since discharge, and can walk around 1km or for a bout 15 minutes. I can pretty much manahge around the house, do light housework and manage the stairs. I get a little breathless, but only when carrying a bag of shopping up the stairs.
I can now drive short distances too.
However I still need lots of sleep, and find I feel very tired in the afternoon on most days.
So, it does get easier, but the recovery is very slow.
I'm overdue my 12 week checkup, was meant to get an xray, but have not heard from the hospital.
The main issue for me now, is that I just run out of energy very quickly, I'm slowly building up my exercise, but its very very slow progress.
I start back at work in 2.5 weeks, just light duties, but its progress!
I had a cough that wouldn't go away last year. My daughter bought me a bottle of Covonia herbal mucus relief cough medicine. It has liquorice in it. It worked like a miracle for me and my cough eased immediately and was gone completely in about a week. The first dose I took brought up quite a lot of mucus which could have been causing the cough. I have Severe COPD and it worked for me but I understand it may not agree with everyone. Please check with your Pharmacist, doctor or Respiratory team first. I am not giving medical advice as not qualified for that.good luck xxSheila 👍
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