How to Live with Someone who is Covid19 Positive
I do not claim to be a caregiver or a of course not a doctor or a nurse. This is from conversation I had with nurse friend of mine, a doctor who works with my friend and reading on the net. All the things I found useful have been put here. I hope not too many people will have to use this blog and I will be very happy about that but its always be prepared to go to war then just winging it, so here are the ways of Caring for a COVID-19
patient at home
Think like a
combination of nurse and hotel room service.
For more than 100
years, nurses and other health care workers have followed basic steps to take
care of people with contagious diseases, while protecting themselves from
infections.
If someone you live
with has COVID-19 symptoms but isn’t sick enough to need a hospital, now it’s
your turn to provide “supportive care” while protecting your health.
Must read to survive covid19
Here are 10 ways how:
1. Pick a ‘sick room’:
The sick person should stay in a bedroom with a door if at all possible, and
not come out except to go to the bathroom. No one else should spend time in
that room more than absolutely necessary. Children and pets should stay out.
Keep a window open in the sick room if possible, to keep air circulating.
Provide tissues.
If you don’t have more
than one bedroom, give them the bedroom, and you can sleep on the couch or
other temporary spot like an inflatable mattress, so you can still use the
living room, kitchen and other spaces while they stay in their room.
2. Pick a ‘sick
bathroom’: If you have two bathrooms, make one of them the sick person’s
bathroom, and don’t let anyone else use it. If you don’t have two, you’re going
to have to clean every surface they touch after they go to the bathroom, so
it’s clean when you or other people you live with need to use it. (see cleaning
tips below.) And don’t share water cups.
3. Help them track
their symptoms: Have them take their temperature several times a day, without
getting close to them. Write down the readings, and note when new symptoms
occur.
4. Help them hydrate:
Make sure they’re drinking a lot of water and other non-alcoholic clear
liquids.
5. Ease their
symptoms: Help them understand how often they can take medicine to reduce their
fever, like acetaminophen and ibuprofen. (Michigan Medicine physicians have reviewed
the evidence about these medications and others that have been in the news for
COVID-19; see more information here.) Make sure the sick person understands how
much to take – read the label on the bottle and follow it. If they have a bad
cough, help them understand how much cough medicine to take and when.
Don’t let them take
more than the recommended dose of any medicine, or use alcohol when taking a
medicine that advises against it. Keep track of what the sick person has taken
and when.
Make sure they keep
taking any other medicines they would usually take, unless their doctor has
told them to stop.
6. Keep them
comfortable and entertained, while keeping your distance: Make sure they have
blankets and pillows, books, magazines, and a computer or TV to pass the time,
and a charger for their phone near their bed, so you don’t have to go in and
out of the room. Keep the house or apartment quiet so they can sleep.
7. Help them with
food, but keep your distance: Find a tray or cookie sheet that you can use to
bring them food or drinks when they need it.
If they can get out of
bed: Put the food and drinks on the tray, and place it outside their closed
door. Walk away. They can open the door, get the tray, eat in their room, and
then put the tray back on the floor outside the door and close it.
If they can’t get out
of bed: Wear a mask or cloth over your mouth and nose when you go in their
room, and have them cover theirs too. Bring their food and drink to their
bedside table, and go back after a while to pick it up again, wearing a mask or
cloth again. Wash their dishes thoroughly with hot water and soap. Don’t touch
your face after handling their dishes, and wash your hands thoroughly after you
touch anything they ate or drank from.
8. Keep their laundry
separate: Bring changes of clothes and pajamas to them if they’re not already
in the sick room. Get your clothes out of the sick room if they’re usually
stored there.
Make sure they have a
basket, hamper or bag in the sick room to put clothes, towels, washcloths and
bedding in. Have them put it outside their door when it’s full, or wear a mask
or cloth over your mouth and nose when you go in to get it. Wash their clothes,
towels and bedding separately from anyone else’s.
9. Clean, clean,
clean: Go through your entire home and use disinfectant spray or wipes to clean
everything the sick person might have touched when they were in the early
stages of getting sick, or when they were contagious before developing
symptoms.
This includes tables,
hard-backed chairs, doorknobs, light switches, remote controls, handles on
cabinets and refrigerators, desks, toilets, sinks, computer keyboards and mice,
tablets, and more. Wash things they wore or used in the days before you
isolated them in the ‘sick room.’
ALSO: Viruses Live
on Doorknobs and Phones and Can Get You Sick – Smart Cleaning and Good Habits
Can Help Protect You
Hope this helps, please do share it with people so everyone is prepared
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