A husband's advice. Covid advances. Paying attention to our diet.
20220114
Each of us inhabits a different world. It has been no secret within the family that I believe ivermectin is a good prophylaxis against Covid 19. I didn't think the kids needed to take it because they are, after all, kids have a sort of natural immunity. I advised Oksana three or four times that I thought it would be a good idea if she took it. She raised objections every time, questioning whether it was consistent with breast-feeding and one thing and another. I did my best to satisfy her, but she never accepted the advice.
Now we offer the anecdotal evidence of one family that she has Covid. I have not had a fever in the couple of years since Covid started. I may have antibodies; if so, I don't know when or how I got them.
After having had a fever for a week, she decided to do something. I happen to have a pack of medicine specifically for covid, including vitamin D, ivermectin, and doxycycline.
I once again explained why those three. Vitamin D strengthens your immune system. Ivermectin helps get zinc into your cells to keep that virus from replicating. The antibiotic is because the way the virus works. The experts have concluded that it is not the virus that kills you. The virus weakens you and provides a pathway for other diseases, such as pneumonia that are the ones that do you in.
I went over all of that, once again, though I'm sure I've repeated it about five times before with regard to my own regimen. Oksana once again satisfied herself that doxycycline is compatible with breast-feeding. And she started to take this course last night. We will see if it works. I think that the way Covid works, after a week, the time she's had it, you either get better or you get sick, she was probably on her way to getting well in the first place. But on the outside chance that she was headed for pneumonia, I hope that the doxycycline helps.
Funny how people make these decisions. I bought two of these packs last spring. Eddie's music teacher. Maria got sick with Covid sometime in late summer. I offered her a pack and she took it. Anna brought it to her in the hospital and she took it and she got well. Profuse thanks.
By my reckoning she should have natural immunity, having had Covid. However, she got the clot shot and has had a bad reaction. She's home with a fever. She certainly didn't ask me for an opinion on it. We don't have any special bond except that Eddie is one of her better students and she likes to talk French with me because she refuses to speak Russian. Anyhow, she took the jab and she's now feeling lousy. It may have been mandated – who knows?
Speaking of different people having different takes, one of you sent links with advice from CNN experts on what you do if you have Covid in the family. Lots of talk about isolation and quarantine, and the differences between the two, but no talk whatsoever about ivermectin. Gosh, what a shock. Anyhow, the cited Dr. Leana Wen is a bête noire among the alt-right blogosphere. It was interesting to read her advice.
Bottom line we are just muddling through. We don't have a consensus among ourselves, but I can say what everybody's doing. Anna, the babysitter, has had Covid and is leery of medicines in general, she's trusting that she won't get it. Her daughter Sophia is home with a bit of a fever. Eddie has not complained of fever, but he is back in bed again this morning. I think there's something going on. I'm continuing to take my prophylaxis, and Oksana is holed up in her room getting better. Zoriana and Marianna are fine. Zoriana insisted on playing dominoes this morning. Like any four-year-old, she gets more and more hyper as she gets into the excitement of the game. She was finally so silly I had to call it quits after she had won 3 to my 2. I expect we'll do it again this afternoon.
Now Oksana says that her mother is feeling lousy. I have told Nadia many times that I think it would be a good idea at her age to take a prophylaxis. I gave her hydroxychloroquine last year, when that was the recommended defense. She would have made the decision for herself and Sasha. I had made the recommendation again when they came the middle of last month. They didn't do it.
I have a raspy throat. It feels like the same crud I've had all winter, probably because I got back on the exercise bike too quickly. I continue to take the Betadine to irrigate my nose. As was the case in December, the sore throat seems to come and go and I have no other symptoms. Anna and I have to stay somewhat healthy – we are the ones keeping things going for the moment. She is downstairs ordering food from the supermarket so we don't have to go out. That despite the fact that the temperature has risen dramatically, up to freezing, and it might even do me good to get out and breathe fresh air.
The medical advice that you get from your wife is quirky. She was very concerned that I measure the proportions right. It should be 19, not 17 or 21, of water to 1 of Betadine. I have to confess that the proportions I gave you yesterday, 1/2 teaspoon of Betadine to 1/4 cup of water do not come out to even. Just an approximation. Lessee. 3 tsp = 1 tbsp. 4 tbsp = ¼ cup. So, 2 x 3 x 4 = 24. 24 to 1. My bad. But I think I'll survive.
One of the things that surprises me is how much of that stuff stays when you breathe it in. Basically this quarter cup mixture is good for about three irrigations. It stays up your nose – doesn't all drip back out. I assume that's good.
Amid the continual flood of medical advice that spills from my Internet is the notion that fasting is good for your body. This is more from Joseph Mercola than other quarters. The easiest way to effect fasting is to confine your eating to a 6 to 10 hour window per day.
I know that I eat too much, especially too many sweets. It doesn't take a genius to realize that that's not terribly healthy. Dr. Mercola is also death on vegetable oils, such as Ukraine's major export, sunflower seed oil. I should probably cut down on that as well. Therefore, starting today, I'm going to skip breakfast and have a healthy lunch of animal proteins and beans and a healthy dinner. The beans are soaking and I will use olive oil in the dressing.
Oksana got us off to a good start last night. She asked me to make a vinaigrette for dinner. A vinaigrette is what we call a Russian salad – chopped beets, carrots, potatoes and green peas. And of course chopped dill – the universal Ukrainian herb. But without – vinegar! They do it with mayonnaise. I served it with my father's vinegar salad dressing – two parts olive oil, one part vinegar, salt and garlic – and it went over very well.
Oksana's objective is that I live to 100. At this point I don't know of any chronic disease that will keep me from getting there. The actuaries would give a man my age about a 5% chance. Anyhow, I will let you know whether this diet makes a difference, and is tolerable. That's the medical news for today. The best thing I can say about medical news is that you get different opinions from so many different people, you have the chance to evaluate each on its own merits and recognize that different things work for different people. Advisors have to have humility in the process. So I'm just telling you what we're doing.
Just as I write this, Oksana tells me that starting in April pharmacies in Ukraine will require a prescription to buy drugs. My guess is that enforcement will be spotty – that's how Ukraine works. To the benefit of all.
Why are they doing it? Too many people stay healthy with ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine! My guess is that I have a lifetime supply – omicron is going to tear through the population quickly enough that we reach herd immunity. The NIH crowd will have to shovel some more money toward Wuhan for another crisis or they will be out of business. A look at WorldOMeter shows 10,000 new Covid cases yesterday, first time this month. However, the death graph keeps going down. This tracks Western Europe with the predictable lag.
That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the strong men and the good looking women alike are just muddling along for now, and the children are not feeling quite so above average.