LAHORE : Prof Tanvir us Salam is a leading Pulmonologist based in Lahore, who treated thousands of Covid patients since the first wave:
The following are his valuable advices to stay safe from corona and (God forbid) if got infected how to manage things to beat out the disease.
Read it out carefully.
Look out for day 8,9,10,11. These are the most important days to look out for when patient’s condition can deteriorate
– The first day of your fever is counted as the 3rd day of covid, as your body already had infection by the time the fever manifested
– People get their HRCT scans done on 1st day of fever which is useless. It’s needed when shortness of breath develops and oxygen level on Oximeter drops below 96, a few days after the fever develops. It will be clear if you get it done before and miss out on when it can actually be detected
Symptoms upon which HRCT is very important:
-fever
– on taking deep breath , you cough
– if oxygen saturation is 95 (At 95, only 40% of your lungs working). Don’t wait for it to drop to 92. A lot of damage will be done by then
– shortness of breath
-Also check heart rate on oximeter. The heart rate jumps up a day before the oxygen saturation goes down e.g. if it is 110. It is a day ahead of developing covid pneumonia and an indicator that your lungs are about to be compromised
4 important Blood tests to be done:
1) CRP (this will increase first if you have severe disease). People stop getting injections once this drop halfway and eventually cause it to increase once again. Don’t stop injections when Crp drops. No halfway treatment. 5-8 injections needed depended on severity. Complete the dose
2) Ferritin (this will increase next)
3) LDH (this will increase after the 1st two)
4) d dimer (to see blood clotting)
– blood thinner Loprin is a must as covid causes blood clotting. Start loprin as soon as you test positive.
If disease is detected in CT scan, start below treatment without waiting for symptoms to get worse. The more you wait, the more aggressive treatment will be needed later on and more doses of injections will be needed:
1) steroid injections for inflammation before things get bad
2) antiviral injection : remesdevir
If you don’t get CT scan at 95%, oxygen will drop hourly after that. Early treatment for covid is the best treatment.
– Actrema injection only works when timely given. Don’t get it without doctors advice
– corona infected patients should not use masks with the filter valve. It expels air. Use Non- Filtered mask
– take deep breaths even if you cough, keep taking deep breaths. lungs will keep getting blocked if u take small breaths
– proning : more disease at back side on qamar. 18 hours out of 24 hours proning needed, while someone Pats your back. This way the phlegm will come out
– sajda position is best for expelling and phlegm too. If you get tired of proning, so long sajdas
– we don’t know yet how many antibodies are adequate after vaccination. Some people get mild covid and similarly develop less antibodies after vaccination too. Others would have had severe covid if they had it and similarly develop more antibodies after vaccination. Covid and vaccines work the same way in this regard
– A covid patient requires Quarantine of 10 days, if there are no symptoms in the last 4 days of those 10 days. Even if covid test is positive after that, it’s just because of dead pieces of virus. You are no longer infectious after 10 days (of no symptoms in last 4 days)
– to remove dead virus: mix half glass luke warm water with 1/2 spoon salt.. do gargles and flush out nose like you do during wazu
– Get any vaccine you can get, the best vaccine for you is which is easily available. Beggars are not choosers
-immunity develops 1 month after 2nd dose. If you still don’t have antibodies after 1 month, go for another vaccine (e.g if you got sinopharm and didn’t develop antibodies , go for phizer or Sputnik next)
-Don’t let your guard down even if you’ve had your vaccination. I have two doses of Pfizer and I still never leave my mask.
-Vaccination does not stop spread of virus. It only protects you from severe disease, doesn’t protect others around you. Wear a mask for the sake of others