What To Eat During My Quarantine? Had Omicron, Covid positive, what's my feelings and fears?

 

2 lines indicates Covid positive

5/3/22 Day 1.  Feel feverish, body ache, and a little occasional dry cough. Did my own Rapid Antigen Saliva Test and it shows 2 lines. "I am covid Positive". Ok, no surprise because my daughter got it 2 days earlier. I am very close to my daughter, sometimes sharing food, and eating at the same dinner table. I have been taking care of her too, cooking, and bringing the food to her room for her as she quarantines in her room. I dutifully updated in my MySejahtera application. and was given a Category 2A and my whole app turned it red color! MySejahtera app. is an application all Malaysians must install in their smartphones made compulsory by our government.

Temperature = 37.8 C. Oxygen level:95 

Symptoms: Night- sneezing, coughing and also sudden sneeze, running nose continuous flow, can't sleep. Body ache, headache, and ohh so it is like normal flu? 

Medication: I Took 4 LianHua Qingwen pills 3times a day, Paracetamol or panadol one at night only. Suck 2 cloves in my mouth to lessen the throat pain.

Effect: Can't sleep till 3am...argh..lots of sneezing, can't breathe through the nose have to breathe through the mouth as nose is stuck, tried to blow out! Ended with lots of tissue all over the bed. Suck two cloves inside my mouth, throat pain lessen.

Found a lot of used tissue paper on the bed in the morning

6/3/22 Day2. Category 2A *

My temperature went down to 37.0, don't feel feverish. But sore throat very bad and painful. 

Medication: 4 LianHua Qingwen pills 3times a day, drank lots of honey.

Suddenly received SMS from the government Ministry of Health (KKM) asking me to go to the nearest Covid Assessment Center. (CAC) Why? 

Panic attacks set in! Do I have to be admitted into a hospital immediately? Must I pack a bag of clothes and ask my girl to send me there? Which CAC do I have to go to? For my district, the CAC center is 35km away. Oh dear, oh my, it is 40 mins drive! I asked around and I phoned friends who got Covid + before. She said the one nearer that she went formerly was closed already. So, after searching the internet, I decided to go to the small KKM CAC near my house about 8 km away the next day. 

Effect: Night: Bad, can't really sleep but better than the night before, sneezing and coughing badly. Voice change. Running nose, sometimes yellow phlegm.

 "Ah, just like I am having a really bad flu", I said to myself. Body ache, backache almost everywhere ache. OMG, I tot my lungs are infected already? Am I going to be admitted into the hospital? 

Worry, Anxiety and felt sick and down.

 

Panic, Packed some clothes, just in case got admitted

7/3/22 Day 3.

Morning woke up, felt better. Sore throat was gone, but loss of appetite.  

Temperature down: 36.6.  Oximeter reading: 97/89.

Not much coughing in daytime, so I drive to the CAC. Wah, I saw many cars are  parked along the roadside on the main road and all the inner roads. It's the first time I was here. So I can't decide whether to drive straight into the compound or just park outside on the roadside. Lucky for me, a car just drove out along the road in front of me! Oh, thank God, thank the universe! I am very grateful to all gods. After parking, I walked into the compound and there were directions and big arrows. I find this sign very amusing: "Pease Alert! Dirty Area" in English and 'Kawasan Covid 19, Dilarang masuk!' in Bahasa Malaysia. So we the Covid 19 patients are dirty? Haha.... 

What to take during Covid? Reply from officer at KKM

I showed the SMS from my mobile to the officer in charge. He asked me to read a notice on the desk. there are two columns, one Cat.2A* and the next Cat.2B*. I read, then he asked which one are you? I pointed to Cat.2A. He then said ok, can go home. I asked aren't I suppose to come here to do PCR test? He said 'no, you can do that at any clinic' then I asked for the red wrist band, he said now no more wearing red wristband. Then I asked him about my body aches how? He said this are the symptoms, just take painkillers for body ache, panadol for fever headache, and flu medicine if you have flu. Unless it is chest pain, otherwise it's okay. So I went home. 

Medication: Took 2 Panadol (Paracetamol) 2 times a day, 4 LianHua Qingwen pills 3 times a day,  and one antihistamine before sleep. A spoonful of honey without water. Suck 2 cloves at night to ease pain in throat.

Cloves, good for relief of pain in throat

Effect:  Night: Still having occasional cough and sneezing at night: Less sneezing. Throat very sore and painful, can't sleep. Nose stuck can't breathe sometimes, need to get up drink water, get up bite one cloves but still throat very painful and sore. Get up and took a spoonful of honey, without water. This helps for a while, my throat less pain can rest and doze off a bit. The pain can back again, get up put two cloves into my mouth, suck, bit, .... After 5 minutes the pain goes off, can feel a little spiciness from these cloves. Finally slept until 8am. Thank God!

Feeling down

Saw this sign at the entrance of CAC: 

Amused at the signage at the clinic, I compose this poem and put it on my Facebook profile: 

"Omicron Oh Omicron

Why you love me so much

My life has become dirty

Omicron Oh Omicron

Why you chase me so much

My life now is nitty gritty

    -Please give me space

    -Please give me grace

    -Please give me strength

            To carry on............."

8/3/22- Day 4. 

Temp. normal 36.6, oxygen level 97, heart rate 94, BP 131/67.

Throat very painful, sore, itchy, and coughing almost nonstop. No running nose, just have to blow nose occasionally for the whole day.  But I had itchy and sore throat, had to continue to drink more warm water. I boiled a herbal concoction of pear with red dates because I heard that its for diffusing the phlegm. Feeling down... Hope tonight I can sleep. Oh my god, I was hearing all the banging, thumping and drilling because my neighbor was renovating his house, knocking the whole house down!! 

Night: Can't sleep. I was coughing, coughing, chewed cloves,  honey.....sleep at 1am, woke up at 4am, and then woke up at 8aam... hope that I will be Ok by day 7.

Medication: Took 2 panadol 3 times a day, Lian Hua 4 pills 3 times a day

Boiled Pear with Red Dates

 9/3/22 Day 5. 

Still had sore voice, but no sore throat. In the morning, I woke up with itchy dry throat and felt I had phlegm, so I tried to cough out the phlegm until my whole throat and chest pain. Like forced vomit. So, I forced it out but it's not the phlegm, just some white diluted sneeze, and watery. Cough until chest pain. It's a continuous cough because of some phlegm stuck in throat. 

So I updated in MySejahtera app I had chest pain, and cough the rest was all normal. I thought it will just change to category 2B. But, suddenly, my whole page changed to red. "Amaran, Kes Positive! Warning!" Then I received a SMS asking me to go to CAC "Anda kes amaran, sila ke CAC, atau tel jika ada masalah." At 3.30pm, I received a call. It was from KKM, an automated call, saying I was in warning case and told me to go to CAC! Kudos to KKM for such an efficient action! Thank you. But I didn't go because I knew I had this chest pain only once in the morning. Cooked the pears with brown sugar and drank them for the 2nd time. 

  

Temperature: normal 36.5, oxygen level 96, heart rate 94, BP 130/65.

Medication: Took 2 panadol 3 times a day, 4 LianHua Qingwen pills pills 3 times a day vitamin B one pill

Night: I drank honey soaked in lemon and ate the lemon skin. This makes my throat even more itchy, coughed so badly had feeling of the phlegm wanted to come out, but it can't.  Took Chesty Strepsils whenever I cough in the middle of night. 

Searched youtube for breathing exercises, and I did some of them.  I could finally sleep at 12.45am. Tried to sleep sitting, no cough, but if I lie down, got cough...felt uncomfortable.

Wake up at 8am, coughing badly, took warm lemon drink, sleep back until 10am and awoken by a call from my sister.

10/3/22  Day 6

In the morning woke up , I took bread with cheese and meat floss for breakfast. Lunch- a little fish porridge. For dinner, I decided to fry my own recipe of ginger, garlic, and egg. I ate this with porridge. But this time I didn't slice the garlic, just smashed it therefore I can't eat the whole garlic as it was too spicy. I should have cut it into strips thinly. Ended up, just eating garlic and eggs with porridge. 

Drank hot tea, Jade Dragon Tea from TWG for the whole day 

Temperature = 36.3 C. Oxygen level:97 

 Medication: 3 LianHua Qingwen pills 3 times a day, 2 panadol pills 3 times a day. 

Still felt sick and down because of the very loud banging and drilling from the renovation at the neighbor's house. Today, I updated in MySejahtera today all no, no... Later in the day, it changed to Cat. 1, oh..what a relief!

Night: At 9.30pm, seems there's no more cough. Oh, the cough will only come when I lie down. This is normal for me right? Since I have acid reflux. God, please let me be better tomorrow. 

11/3/22  Day 7 . 

Supposed to finish quarantine today, yeah!

Morning breakfast, I took a slice of bread with kaya. Drank coconut water the whole day. Rest the whole day, lunch bought soup mee, at 8.30pm dinner salmon fish cooked by my daughter. I wanted to rest the whole day today for my body to fully recuperate. I drank TWG tea, ate grapes and blueberries.  

Temperature: 36.5, Oximeter: 98 

Medication: LianHua Qingwen pills, 4 pills 3 times a day. Lower my dose of panadol to one and a half pills, twice a day.  

At 10.30am, I updated the MySejahtera app. and it still showed that I had Cat.1. I filled in again with a tick of ok in all the boxes at 3.38pm. Hmm.... still at Cat.1. Okay.

 

Today was very much better. No stuck nose, mucus, or running nose. Just feel a bit of sore throat about 2-3 times only. I took Strepsils whenever my throat itched. 

Took  2 Panadols tonight around 11 pm. Pray that tomorrow is better.

Oh yes, did breathing exercises, 4-5 times today. I tried all 5 types from the youtube videos. Hehe, these breathing exercises really help to clear the mucus and phlegm.

Single line, I am negative! No more Covid positive, yea!

12/3/22- Day 8

My page on MySejahtera automatically changed back to its normal blue color. I still had occasional itchy throat and cough, about 2-3 times a day. I still cannot eat food that is too spicy as it irritated my throat and makes me want to cough. My body and brain felt a bit lazy and slow.....

For more information on Covid 19 on the Malaysian government portal, please refer to 

Covid 19 Malaysia 

 *Notes: MOH classified the covid positive cases into 5 different categories (Clinical stage)

 Clinical stage 1 :Asymptomatic 

Clinical stage 2: Symptomatic, No Pneumonia

Clinical stage 3: Symptomatic, Pneumonia

Clinical stage 4: Symptomatic, Pneumonia, Requiring supplemental oxygen 

Clinical stage 5 : Critically ill with multi-organ involvement

The website here for more details: Clinical management of Covid 19 cases in adult and pediatric.  

Advice: (Personal viewpoint)

 1. Must take Paracetamol or Panadol 2 pills 3-4 times a day in the beginning as this will help to relieve body ache and fever. I didn't follow this in the first few days that's why I had lots of aches....

2. Drink lots of warm water, gargle with salt water or Listerine at night 

3. Chew 2 cloves at night or whenever you have a sore throat as cloves can relieve throat pain effectively. 

4. Take the LianHua Qingwen pills (Own choice of medication, Lianhua Qingwen capsules are a traditional Chinese medicine product manufactured in China, a strong belief by local Chinese here)

4. Take plenty of rest and enough sleep....

Conclusion: I would like to commend the elaborate steps taken by Ministry of Health (MOH) of Malaysia and thank MOH for taking care of its citizens and managing Covid well.