Traveled this weekend. On the flight home on Sunday, a woman near me at the gate was coughing up a lung. I couldn’t find my mask that I had worn through security. Somehow I dropped it.
Went to bed Tuesday night feeling fine, woke up at 1 am with a sore throat. Tested negative on Wednesday, but went and did a drive through PCR yesterday afternoon.
This morning still with mild sore throat/congestion/cough. Hint of a headache. Afebrile. Just tested positive with faint line.
So the question is: I don’t feel all that bad. Like a mild cold really, though I would say I’ve been more tired than with most colds. I’m vaxxed and double boosted.
Do I seek out Paxlovid? A couple of weeks ago, I went to my Doctor’s web site to get his phone number and learned he died of cancer that he had kept private from even the physicians’ practice. How would I go about getting it without a physician? And should I even bother? I’m sure Paxlovid also has potential side effects. I have controlled hypertension.
What would you do? I seem to remember @Oldfort considering this all carefully and deciding against it.
I’ve discussed this with my MD. He wants people to hold off on getting Paxlovid unless their symptoms are bad. BUT he also said that if I insisted, he would prescribe it. I also have controlled hypertension.
Last week I felt differently, but this week I am leaning towards getting it, even if I had mild symptoms.
I’ve read that pharmacists can/will be able to soon? prescribe Paxlovid instead of people having to get the RX from a doctor/NP/PA, etc. Not sure if that could be up to the individual states to decide, though.
Not specific to Paxlovid, but does your physician’s practice have other physicians who can substitute for your physician’s absence (a common occurrence due to vacations, etc.)? Of course, since the absence is now permanent, wouldn’t the practice encourage you to choose another physician, or assign you another one if you do not choose?
They probably would if I asked. As for permanent replacement, I’ll probably not limit myself to this practice. My guy was great-internal med doctor ALSO board certified cardiologist.
H got Paxlovid for his, but he had a fever, nasty cough causing his chest to hurt, and has uncontrolled HBC (stubbornness against meds for it - his words). His doctor suggested waiting, but he didn’t want to, so she prescribed it for him. The only side effect he noticed was a metallic taste in his mouth. He felt better very soon after taking it (a day?). Perhaps it was the med. Perhaps it was coincidence. His view was better safe than sorry. Consider too that we know a friend (as in, vacationed together friend), who died of Covid only two years older than him and fully vaxxed. Such a case is rare, but sticks with you when you know the person.
When H saw Biden had it and was put on Paxlovid it reinforced his thoughts that he was correct doing so to be on the safe side.
I never really even considered it for myself, but I didn’t have the fever, sore throat, or nasty cough - just fatigue and aching lymph nodes. I got Covid a couple days later than he did and improved quicker. He didn’t start Paxlovid until Day 4.
We both feel the person needs to make the decision themselves and should base it upon their symptoms and risk factors.
The day I was diagnosed, I woke up with wheezing and was sure I had bronchitis. Went to urgent care and and was surprised that I tested positive. In NY, the process is different and it’s not hard to get Paxlovid. I got it, took it, and felt much better and resumed working from home after three days. The only side effect I had was the taste, which I have heard described as a combination of grapefruit and soap. No rebound, and I tested completely negative a week after my positive test–had a faint line at day 5 and it got fainter and fainter.
I decided to wait a day before taking Paxlovid and I started feeling better. Each day I felt better without taking Paxlovid. My mother’s doctor also advised my mother not to take it if she had a mild case.
I had Covid a couple of weeks ago (double vaxxed, boosted once). I had a high fever (102.5), a cough, fatigue. My doctor gave me Paxlovid. She said I was a gray area, bc I have controlled high blood pressure, mitral valve prolapse (benign, doesn’t cause symptoms), and my high fever was a little worrying though it responded it meds. Im 47, not too old but she said she’d rather err on the side of it helping.
I started taking it on day 3 of symptoms, one day after positive test. My fever resolved in 24 hours. The cough improved a lot as well. I tested negative 6 days after my first positive test. I was still tired but felt increasingly better. I continue to have a mild, intermittent cough (like 8-10 times a day) two weeks later but no rebound.
I did experience the Paxlovid mouth everyone talks about. It’s foul. Nearly made me gag it was so bad. I sucked on mints obsessively to mask it.
I don’t know how much of my recovery would have happened without Paxlovid. But I don’t regret taking it. Mentally, it was reassuring to know I would not get so sick that I had to go to the hospital.
PS, one of my blood pressure meds interacts with Paxlovid (amlodipine) and requires you do reduce your dose of Amlodipine by half while you take the Paxlovid and for 3 days after. It’s super important that you review existing meds with your doctor so they can adjust or make the right call for you specifically. The reason Amlodipine needs to be reduced is that one of the pills in the Paxlovid pack slows your metabolism of certain drugs (including Amlodipine) and so you end up with more drug in your system for longer.
H and I ( double boosted) have not gotten covid yet. Both kids and partners have and their 2 kids in Feb 2022. We missed it by one week as SIL mother got it visiting in Feb. We visited in Jan.
We have tested negative (at home and with PCR) as we seem to get a cold every time we visit the GD’s. The last cold was fever, really intense cough with H, etc. Wonder if we tested daily if it would have come back positive.
We look like nut cases here wearing a mask in a department store or post office back home but not in Seattle. H has gotten used to it. We are the only ones wearing them. At least where we volunteer in the national park system they require masks of employees and volunteers and have a shield between us and the public.
So interesting news. One of my companions on our trip is reporting the same symptoms I am feeling. We didn’t travel home at the same time, so she was not exposed to the coughing lady I was around. Her symptoms began about 8 hours or so before mine. She is testing negative on home tests.
There’s really no telling for sure how I may have gotten this, or if my friend is having false negative results.
fwiw: elderly person I know tested positive Friday night, and the local urgent care recommended paxlovid. (Her primary care docs office was closed.) But the Pharmacy balked (CVS, I think), suggesting that paxlovid could possibly have a negative reaction with the blood pressure/heart medication that she was taking, and wanted her to confirm with her Cardiologist before using paxlovid.
My husband had covid and he still has a lingering cough 4 weeks later, the timing was such that by the time he tested positive it was too late to get paxlovid. It took awhile but when I tested positive I made an appointment and accepted the paxlovid.
Even if I didn’t “need” it and I have no way of knowing, having a metallic taste but very few symptoms is certainly better than the almost month of my husband not feeling well. So maybe I erred on the side of caution.
But since you have to start paxlovid within 5 days of symptoms, means that there is little time to ponder.
My husband felt good and tested negative for days before really feeling the effects of covid.
