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Tinuade Ojumu is a beautiful London registered nurse with Advanced Clinical Skills. She works as an Advanced Nurse practitioner in London. She was recently hit by Covid-19 and below she shares her experiences with City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE. She reveals a lot about how she tackled the symptoms she experienced and how shes coping.
Let us get to meet you. Please introduce yourself?
My name is Tinuade Ojumu. I work as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, working in the Primary Care in the UK, as an Independent practitioner, seeing patients in the GP Surgeries, assessing, diagnosing and treating patients automonously. I also run a social media platform called teenu-impactress where I support and empower women, in females health, relationship and feminism.
How did you discover that you have COVID-19?
I discovered that I had COVID-19 because I started exhibiting the Symptoms, i.e. Sore Throat, Dry cough, continuous dry cough for 2 days. I decided to self-isolate myself by 2nd Day. Like I said, I work in the frontline of NHS.
I am a Practitioner and so I am very aware and conversant with the symptoms, therefore I decided I chose to start self isolation by the 2nd Day. I know that I am at risk of contacting the virus because of the nature of my job. My symptoms increases by day 3 with General body ache, severe headache and lethargy. I develop a fever on the 4th Day.
My temperature was above 38 degrees celcius and night sweats and shivering came thereafter. By Day 5, I lost my sense of Taste & Smell and I had no appetite. I knew definitely I had this virus.
So, I decided to follow the Government guideline and I contacted the NHS-ILL Service whereby I reported my Symptoms and I was advised that I am exhibiting COVID-19 Symptoms. I was also advised to continue to Self-Isolate myself until my symptom is over. To take regular paracetamol and fluid intake.
How did you start treating yourself?
The symptoms lasted for 10 days and it was a gradual remission up till the 15th… including the sense of taste and smell, all starting coming back gradually. I started treating myself from Day 1 with Home remedy and Paracetamol with increased fluid intake. I started with Garlic, Ginger and Lemon all boiled together and drinking at regular intervals. I also starting taking Vitamin C 2,000 grammes daily. By the 4th Day when the fever increased, I boiled the Pineapple Peel, (the bark of the Pineapple) with Ginger and Garlic, as advised by one of our family friends and I commenced drinking that 3 times a day.
Drinking all these regularly with the Pineapple Peel, with the Ginger, with the Garlic, with the Lemon, with a lot of fluid, with Vitamin C by the 6th day the fever reduces but the night sweat continued. I also bought the Dogonyaro Leaf (Neem Leaf) as it is called in Africa. I bought that from Amazon (the dry one) and I put this to boil.
This is supposed to have quinine sulphate in it and I started drinking that regularly as well up to 4 times a day. This really helps. It does help, to control the fever and the fatigue, with the shivering that comes with the symptoms. I ensured that I continued to get out of bed and exercise within my bedroom parameters and within the house because I know this will help a lot to improve the blood circulation.
How did you feel when you discovered that you had COVID-19?
I felt very anxious and worried when I discovered that I was exhibiting the COVID-19 symptoms. I was very, very worried, knowing that it is a deadly virus, and knowing that the outcome of this virus and the symptoms depend on my Immunity fighting this deadly virus.
And also, I thought about the fact that what if I die from this and what if my family also gets this virus, knowing that it is hightly contagious. All these create a lot of anxiety, and a lot of feeling of the fear of the unknown. Nobody ever knows how your body will react to this. This made me feel very, very anxious.
And also with my professional experience I know that this might affect my lungs, my heart, and things like that, but knowing what to look out for in some way, re-assured me that whatever I am doing is working. I was checking my Temperature regularly.
I was monitoring that. I was checking my pulse rate. I was checking my Oxygen level. I was seeing whether I was deteriorating or getting better. This in a way helps to keep me mentally strong, knowing that I need to deal with this and I need to continue to do what I am doing for survival.
Tell us more about Coronavirus?
Coronavirus is a virus that originated from China but has since then spread all over the world. The virus mainly affects the Upper respiratory tract system, which is the Ear, Nose & Throat (in mild cases) and it can spread to the lungs, causing a lot of damage to the respiratory tract, to the lungs and heart, in severe cases. This virus is mainly spread through cough and sneezes.
And people need to be aware that it is a very highly contagious and deadly and can lead to a lot of death. And it can be prevented by following, the government and the Department of Health of which ever country releases the guidelines. Usually, the guidelines is about Regular hand washing, meaning washing our hands at least 20 seconds at regular intervals whenever we are in contact with the outside of our home. Whenever there is no place for handwashing you can also use the alcohol gels, the hand sanitizer, on a regular intervals. Also maintain social distancing as in keeping enough gaps between us and other people, at least 2 metres between us and other people to stop the spreading of it.
There is also need for Self-isolation and Quarantine when there is confirmation, of suspected cases or confirmed. This is very crucial. This way, we can prevent other people from getting it. We can stop vulnerable people, especially people who have underlining medical condition, who if they get this, it can lead to death. So, it is very, very important with maintain Social distancing, maintain Self-Isolation or Quarantine where there is suspected or confirmed cases of the virus. All these will reduce the spread of the virus and save lives.
How come different people respond to the virus differently?
Yes, different people, respond to Covid-19 virus in different ways and symptoms because of our differences in our Immune System. Also, people with pre-existing medical conditions, for example Diabetes, Hypertension, Kidney, Cancer, those with Immunal-Compromised conditions might exhibit a severe aspect of the symptoms as well.
Living a healthy lifestyle, helps, to boost our Immunity and therefore play a significant role in fighting the virus. So, healthy lifestyle like good balanced diet, Exercise, maintaining our ideal weight, is all part of living a healthy lifestyle. All these will help it, incase we contract the virus. It will boost our Immunity and will help people to fight against it.
Also, effective management of pre-existing medical condition like Diabetes, Hypertension, Cancer and all this kind of long term conditions helps, managing it effectively, ensuring that we take our medication regularly, we see our doctors regularly to manage the condition will also help in fighting COVID-19 virus in case we contract it. And lastly, early recognition of the symptoms helps. Self-Isolating & Quanrantine ourselves helps and prevents the spread of this virus.
It is very very important that we are aware and conversant and we know what the symptoms are, so that the moment we recognise that we are exhibiting the symptoms, we Self-Isolate ourselves and prevent our family and general public from getting it.
Also, commencing on Treatment at the early onset is very very important, whether it is Home Ready or whatever the system that is available wherever we are is very important. This way, the virus can be fought by our body system. Go for whatever is available in the country where we live. You have to follow the Rules and Guidelines of the Dept of Health of which ever country we are. All these will prevent the spreading of the virus and also save lives.
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