This means: If you come to hospital, we give you oxygen. Initially through nasal prongs, then progressively through mask and then straight to intubation - ventilator.
If the lungs are completely unable to oxygenate, we will put you on ECMO which can work quite well whilst the lungs recover.... unfortunately not many of them.
We will also take bloods and give IV fluids. If your blood pressure crashes, you may be given inotropes/vasopressors but the case reports about people who make it this far are not good to date (frankly, anyone who needs an ICU bed even today has a 30% mortality rate so there’s always the baseline comparison)
Once ventilated, you will usually be in antibiotics to prevent opportunistic infections.
We have no other ways of helping those who are otherwise able to breathe on their own, besides symptom control (ie fever/aches and pains) however if I were to get this I would ride the fever out (heightened temperature activated immune system, trial in ICU of permissive hyperthermia shows survival benefit, although this is in sepsis patients)
If you have a productive cough (cough usually dry) then chest clearance, breathing exercises may be helpful, but should consider seeking antibiotics for secondary bacterial pneumonia
2. Watermelon is good kidney support. This is helpful if you are experiencing bloating.
3. Hot peppers are antimicrobial, antiviral, antifungal and open a cell channel that helps you dump fluids.
4. Tea is an astringent. Drinking it can help reduce fluid in the lungs.
5. Spicy foods are medicinal. Some stuff that helps combat infection include: onions, garlic, hot peppers, black pepper, cinnamon, olives. Oregano and oil of oregano are especially helpful for lung infections.
6. Alkalinity helps combat viral infections. Look up alkaline food lists.
7. Stay hydrated and get enough salt. Water and salt are critical components of mucus, an important lung thing.
8. Lysine helps combat viral infections.
9. Lung clearance is a standard means to treat serious lung conditions and keep airways open. A simple means to do this is stand in the shower with your feet about shoulder width apart, bend over as far as you can and cough hard.
10. Caffeine is a stimulant that works very similarly to an inhaler drug. So you can drink coffee or eat very dark chocolate to open up the airways as a drug substitute.
Most likely, this comment will be downvoted to hell and one or more people will promptly jump up to accuse me of nefarious behavior, delusions of grandeur, having no fucking clue what I'm talking about or similar. I get that a lot.
I have a very deadly medical condition that involves the lungs. I'm off all drugs. The above are some of the things I rely upon.
I'm not a doctor. I'm a former homemaker and formerly homeless person.
Do whatever the hell you want with that info.
Edit: if you have lung distress, avoid bacon.
Out of curiosity, what in onions is good for the lungs? I know a lot of people have been talking about red onions due to their quercetin content, which in vitro works similarly to chloroquine in terms of helping cells absorb zinc.
A popular article is "What Will You Do If You Start Coughing?" by James Hamblin [2], though this is heavier on public policy concerns than specific targeted advice.
If anyone can find a really well-communicated set of advice on this, I'll gladly add it to my resource list. The need for such things is urgent, and I'm extremely frustrated about the poor quality and distribution of resources, which is why I'm putting time and energy into curating my own resource list.
[1] https://www.who.int/publications-detail/home-care-for-patien...
[2] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/where-do-...
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/anti-inflammat...
At the same time on Twitter, and at much higher volume, is a torrent of bullshit, with apparently some seeding from active disinformation sources. I try to be very careful to filter this out, though it's not always easy (I find my curation much more effective on desktop web than mobile).
Public health sources are sometimes wrong. For example, Ohio's chief public health doctor put out an estimate of 100k cases on 3/12, propagated through official channels including a tweet from the Governor [1], and which #epi Twitter very quickly criticized. Work out for yourself which to trust; among other things, with the CFR we're seeing, if the public health official is right we'd be seeing approximately 1k excess deaths in OH, with a timeframe that would certainly have started emerging by now.
This particular thing (ibuprofen) is in the category of "emerging research which could be very important if and when it checks out."
So basically I'm trying to be very careful to vet the information I transmit. The pipeline from that to actionable advice can sometimes be infuriatingly slow, which no doubt explains why certain things (especially with an easy-to-understand narrative) jump the queue. I will definitely put this in my resource list as soon as I see trustworthy confirmation. And I am confident that if it actually was valid and important, at least one of the experts I follow would have mentioned it by now.
[1]: https://twitter.com/GovMikeDeWine/status/1238177953126604801
Respiratory illnesses are my achilles heel. One thing I always have on hand is Primatene. The guaifenesin loosens up mucus and the ephedrine opens up your respiratory tract so it's easier to breath--both improving nasal congestion, and also, AFAIU, helping with oxygen uptake in inflamed lungs. I have to be proactive because a simple cold can lead to bronchitis, and bronchitis can lead to pneumonia.
Any doctors, please opine, but I believe that if you have pneumonia (obvious infection, shortness of breath, etc) and are unable to get medical treatment, having some ephedrine on hand might be worthwhile. A quick search through the medical literature shows that ephedrine is apparently used precisely to improve oxygenation for acute respiratory distress (not just for asthmatics, obviously, but sometimes in surgery and in other cases).
The critical question would be counter-indications. The doctors I've run my cold treatment by always remind me that Guaifenesin and ephedrine both increase blood pressure, so that's something to keep in mind. (Fortunately, I don't have high-blood pressure.) But how that would figure into an acute distress situation, I dunno. I'm sure that in any particular context doctors probably know of many other counter-indications.
Primatene, Bronkaid, and similar generics are the only way to get ephedrine OTC, and they always include guaifenesin, so be mindful of dosages for both drugs. I just picked up a box of Primatene just in case as I forgot how much I had left at home. They're usually on the front shelves behind the pharmacist; don't bother hunting for one of the placards in the store aisle.