ASHEVILLE, NC – April 5, 2023 – I’ve been isolating at home since my COVID symptoms officially began on March 20th. Day 1 of isolation started the following day, the first full day after the symptoms began. I was too sick to get out of bed for 2 days, Day 1 & 2 of isolation. I began a 5-day course of treatment with Paxlovid on Day 1. Paxlovid is for the early-stage treatment of mild to moderate disease in at-risk persons. It has been proven effective at reducing the risk of developing severe disease and death in high-risk people and reducing the risk of having long COVID symptoms.
Each day that followed was better than the day before. My fever resolved by Day 3. I was able to walk the dogs twice a day, play my guitar, and even use my exercise bike indoors. My isolation period was over after 5 full days and because my fever had resolved more than 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medicines. The CDC recommends wearing a mask for 5 more days if I was in a public indoors space or indoors with other people. I took a COVID test on Day 8. It was negative! I suspected that the mild ongoing fatigue was par for the COVID course. By Day 10 of isolation, my COVID headache and cough returned. However, this time my test was positive! As the day progressed, so did my symptoms of intense headache, nagging cough, fatigue, chills and fever to 100.8 in spite of taking Tylenol.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the recently retired Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and President Biden have had a COVID ‘rebound’ infection after taken the COVID anti-viral medicine Paxlovid. However, according to the CDC, COVID rebound can also occur in patients not taking Paxlovid. People infected with COVID can have symptoms that worsen and recede before going away completely similar to many other respiratory virus infections, like the common cold and the flu. Symptoms of COVID rebound are usually less severe than the original illness. Estimates are as high as 30% of untreated COVID patients can develop a rebound. The CDC reports that COVID rebound can occur between 2 and 8 days after the first recovery. It is characterized by a recurrence of COVID symptoms or a new positive test after having tested negative. The CDC says that there is no need for any further medical treatment for COVID rebound after Paxlovid treatment. COVID rebound does not represent a new infection; however, it can be spread to others during the period of rebound.
I’ve cancelled all my activities for another 10 days. My original Day 10 is now my new Day 1. My new Day 10 will be on April 8th. I plan to test on the new Day 8 and again 48 hours later on the new Day 10.
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Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, healthyasheville@ashevillefm.org