Tips for dealing with COVID and Paxlovid

Paxlovid tastes bad.

The more you know prior, the less surprises you have to manage.

Paxlovid tasted like vomit to me. Like, I dreaded every single dose to the point that I didn’t take mine exactly 12 hours apart.

My only relief was in the hour leading up to the next dose’s time, unless I’d been sleeping. If I’d been sleeping, the aftertaste of Paxlovid coated my mouth.

No amount of brushing my teeth helped.

I remember waking up around 5am one morning. After using the toilet, I sat in the hallway with my mug, a handful of Lifesaver Wint-o-Green mints, and my Paxlovid dose.

I rested my head on my pulled up knees and started crying over not wanting to take it. These two stupid pills that tasted so bad — why?

And WHY were they so expensive without insurance? Why did being insured give me the privilege of only paying $28?

Why isn’t it not more readily available instead of a privilege for high-risk individuals like me?

If I’d gotten COVID when I was homeless, I’d not have had access to it.

I took the two stupid pills and cried some more.

Despite the horrifically putrid taste, I would take Paxlovid again if I had to and could.

My Day 1 was awful and I don’t think I could’ve survived that for a week since I was already like, “Something is gravely wrong with me,” and it was not actually anaphylaxis anymore, apparently.

Of course, I don’t want to contract COVID again to the point of needing Paxlovid. It wasn’t fun.

Skip the dairy.

Dairy can make the taste of Paxlovid taste worse.

It’ll prolong it and add bitterness to the aftertaste.

Same with chocolate, even milk-free dark chocolate, because it’s already bitter.

Combatting Paxlovid’s taste

Things that worked for me:

• Super strong mints (until my tongue was too used to one, then I’d need another)
• Utz sour cream & onion chips (the vinegar ingredient is what helped)

I’m not interested in drinking vinegar. Like, hard pass.

Stay hydrated

I had one Liquid IV Immune Support a day. After that, I only drank water when it had a regular Liquid IV because I struggle to stay hydrated when sick.

On a typical work day, I have 2-3 Liquid IV packets depending on the weather and how I’m feeling. I had 1-2 Liquid IV packets a day while sick with COVID.

Rest

Don’t overextend yourself. Having COVID is, quite literally, not the time to get stuff done.

I felt like crap the four days I had a fever and did not start feeling better until one day after 24 hours fever-free without ibuprofen.

So for six days, I felt like utter shit. I’d open my laptop and stare at a screen.

I played The Sims 4 a few times, then closed the game (saved, of course!) and conked out with diphenhydramine.

After my LOA was sorted, I shut down my laptop because I needed to rest.

I was so glad for my evergreen email sequence — no stressing about whether my subscribers would receive an email that week!

Eat comfort food

I ate Panera Bread Broccoli Cheddar Soup — the kind from the grocery store.

I don’t know how, but this is the only soup that stopped the Paxlovid taste while I was eating it.

Chicken noodle or rice soup also tasted like vomit.

I wonder if it had something to do with the broccoli, but I’m not a chemist so whatever.

Ponder what lifestyle changes you need

COVID reinforced, or validated, my decision:

I’m going to turn my blog into a business so I can live a life where I’m accommodated and don’t lose a source of income — or need to rely on someone else’s decision on whether my time off is valid — when unexpected events like falling ill happen.

Having an email marketing strategy that runs on its own long-term is much better for me, too.

And my blog? I could write and schedule posts a few months in advance.

Like, I can do this. I have to do this — for myself and for my cat.

I’m not saying you need to start a blog, too — it’s not for everyone.

Rather…having COVID reminded me of why I chose this path for myself and why, for me, there are no viable alternatives.

Stressing over my LOA when I could barely keep my eyes open, was freezing cold and burning hot with a fever was, like, the worst experience of having COVID that I felt I could’ve had control over if I was not at the mercy of another company.

If I had my own.

I was so frustrated that I started crying, honestly. And that made my symptoms worse. I could barely stay awake and was struggling to sort this LOA shit out for a company that wouldn’t care if I died from this thing.

Other lifestyle changes included:

• Easier litter box scooping/cleanout routine
• Decluttered/organized room with what I use frequently & little else (because dust)
• Better clean laundry system
• Stop with the catch-all laundry basket of trash and other shit

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Have you experienced COVID? How was it for you?