My husband (64), my son (25) and I (60) all tested positive for Covid-19 on 14 April 21. At the time all three of us had a slight fever, body ache and tiredness.

I spoke to Dr Nandita Shah soon after for advice, on how we should manage the disease in home isolation, which we adhered to closely. This helped us come out of the illness gradually, without panic and without medications.
She told us to avoid taking medication for the fever as it would not only suppress it, but would also interfere with the body’s own process of fighting the disease.

My son fortunately had only a back ache and slight fever for 2 days and was well after that.

My fever ranged between 100.7 to 103.4 oF and my husband’s between 99.6 and 102.6. The days when the fever was higher were quite difficult. We were able to message Dr Shah each day and she encouraged us to be patient, and assured us that the fever will come down.

We were checking oxygen levels regularly. Through the days when we had fever, our oxygen levels varied between 92 and 95, dropping to 87-88 just before the fever broke and then climbing up to 96-97 over the next few days.

Since all other indicators were improving, and we felt no breathlessness Dr Shah suggested we wait – most likely the oxygen levels would be better in a few days.

We had green smoothies at room temperature and a lot of herbal tea throughout the day and fruits when we felt like it. As the fever began to drop, the appetite returned and we started having light food like idlis and khichdi.

We both developed a deep cough in the chest, with mucus, which would create considerable discomfort. Slowly the mucus loosened up and the intensity of the cough diminished over a few days.

We kept up simple deep breathing and Pranayam exercises throughout the illness. We also did 2 types of proning which made a marked difference to breaking the cough. These were all also instrumental in helping to improve O2 levels when they had dipped.

Dr Shah emphasized that rest is extremely important during and following the illness. We did find that we felt very weak. We ended the quarantine exactly 3 weeks after we had tested positive. However, for 2 weeks after that we continued a very relaxed routine, sleeping during the day, going to bed early and so on.

Dr Nandita Shah’s reassurances throughout gave us confidence and kept us out of hospitals, and kept us safe. It would have been very difficult otherwise, especially when the oxygen levels were dropping. Through this process we learnt to respect and rely on the body’s own mechanisms of healing – Rashmi Korjan, May 2021