First, I know that you are not my doctor and I know enough not to uncritically trust recommendations from you Internet randos. I’m just looking for ideas that I might not have thought of.
For the past 3 days I’ve been having symptoms of a respiratory infection. Today I tested positive for Covid. This is my first Covid infection. I have a low grade fever and a cough, but the worst symptom by far is the most severe sore throat I’ve ever had in my life. Probably 8 on the pain scale, with some fluctuations.
I’ve been doing the usual stuff: gargling with warm salt water, drinking hot tea, and using Cepacol cough drops. I’ve tried both ibuprofen and tylenol; they have perhaps helped a little but not a dramatic amount. What else would you recommend that I consider?
You know, strep throat is also going around. I didn’t know you could get it as an adult, but you can – I learned by getting it as an adult for the first (and mercifully only) time. The sore throat you describe is what I suffered when I had it.
You may have COVID, but you may also have strep. It would be worth getting tested by your PCP to find out. Antibiotics will knock it out if I’m right.
Vicks salve on the neck. Wrap in a warmed scarf or cloth.
It’s a just a symptom remedy. Might help a bit.
You need a diagnosis. If you go to the doctor describe the pain just like you did here. Maybe you luck out and get a good cough syrup. With opiate. Pain relief. Yay!
If, by tomorrow, you’re having trouble swallowing, see a doctor. Was your COVID test one of those at-home tests?
People can get strep throat at any age, whether they still have their tonsils or not.
While a strep test wouldn’t do you any harm, one of the features of the strain of covid that was going around here several months ago was a really painful sore throat. They talked about it on the news. If you tested positive for covid, it’s probably covid. I’d send my doctor a note saying both that i tested positive for covid and also that i had a really painful sore throat, but my doctor may be more responsive than most.
Mint is a mild anesthetic. Codeine cough syrup totally numbs the throat, but the effect only lasts for about 30 seconds, until you swallow some spit and rinse it down. Still, if you happen to have it in the house, you could let a teaspoon of it slooowly drizzle down your throat.
Oh, and i know you didn’t ask for any other medical advice, but if you haven’t talked with you doctor, you ought to. They might want to recommend paxlovid. (Although my doctor suggested it, and i declined, as my friends who had the most trouble getting over covid all took paxlovid. But if he’d said, “you really ought to take this, because…”, i would have.) Also, I don’t think it’s a common medical recommendation, but there are now a couple of good studies showing that metformin reduces the risk of long covid
Metformin is cheap and safe. I discussed the first study with my doctor, and he agreed to give me a script for metformin when i had covid.
(Ivermectin is less safe, and only works if you also have worms. Vitamin D is cheap and safe, and only works if you have a vitamin D deficiency. But vitamin D deficiencies are pretty common among people who mostly live indoors.)
Try to spend some time walking around upright, if you can. It helps you keep your lungs clear with any respiratory infection.
And finally, if you lose your sense of smell, and that freaks you out as much as it freaked me out, try flonase, an OTC nasal steroid. I spent a day researching it when this happened to me, and I found three tiny studies that all showed huge benefit to nasal steroids in restoring sense of smell.
I have a concierge doctor, so he’s usually very responsive. Unfortunately right now he’s on vacation for several weeks for his 30th wedding anniversary. But yesterday I talked to the doctor who’s covering for him, and he did indeed recommend that I take a course of paxlovid, which I’ll be starting today.
Do you have post-nasal drip? That always makes a sore throat worse. I take a decongestant for that to help stave off a sore throat. All of the remedies I use to soothe a sore throat have already been mentioned.
Sore throats are the worst, so sorry you’re going through that. I had strep 2x a year when I was a kid, absolutely miserable.
Fascinating–mostly the metformin thing. Because I routinely take metformin (for it’s controlling my blood sugar purposes), and like the idea that it helps protect me against long covid. I can’t imagine seeking it out otherwise.