These are the key strategies for what to do when feeling sick. We used these things in our household when we had a certain sickness that’s been going around for a few years. (*wink) There are lots of things you can do at home when feeling ill. We employed 3 key pillars as soon as we knew there was definite exposure, throughout our experience with symptoms, and positive results.
I have been asked if due to having cancer if I was scared after we knew we had positively been exposed to a positive case. My honest reply is NO, I was not scared! I knew we had items at home to support our bodies, knowledge of evidence-based research on how to champion our immune system needs, and I have a caring team of medical professionals I could call if we needed additional assistance.
In other words, we were prepared. I put together this page of info to help you be more prepared for illness in your house and to encourage you that there are things you CAN DO to support your body during illness and recovery.
Sharing Our Experience
Let me just state right at the start that this is NOT medical advice. I am simply sharing our experience as information, not recommendations nor advice. Please consult your own licensed practitioner for personalized care.
I am not here to declare any one person should do any or all of these practices, nor am I here to declare the status of my or my family’s medical records. Unfortunately, it is not safe to share that type of personal info nor to use particular words and titles online. It is also not wise nor responsible of me to give specific dosing etc. as I am not a medical provider. This page will however give you the three key pillars we used to support our bodies, which will include details on some of the things we did and took.
KEY PILLARS to Support Our Health
We used three key pillars as the base of our strategies for what to do when feeling sick:
Simplify, Nourish, and Support
As soon as we learned one of us in our household had definitely been exposed to “the thing that is going around”, I jumped into action to prepare us for what *may* turn to a positive test result and symptoms — and was positive and symptomatic in a few days time.
Jumping into action meant PREPARING all kinds of things for the week that I may not have done on that day of the week typically. I wanted to be prepared for fatigue or other physical symptoms that may have made it less likely that either my husband or I would be able to take care of in the moments of being ill.
There is a lot of talk about what supplements to have and/or use (you can read what we used further below). There seems to be less talk about other practical things to take care of or consider during an acute illness week. These next few points focus on the “other practical things” to help setup your week, whenever this illness happens on whatever day of the week.
ACTION ITEMS to SIMPLIFY LIFE after an EXPOSURE
Create a Small Container
Create a small carry-able container that can sit on a nightstand or end table with the key supplements, vitamins, lozenges, throat sprays, etc. for the adult household member. *Please note, we do not have children in our household, so this is not meant to be an all encompassing child-friendly/safe list. Apply the parts that work for your household situation.*
Because there are only the two adults in our household, I created two separate containers – one for each of us. Along with items that may help with “the thing going around”, I also included some of the things I use on a daily basis in my cancer life in this season. So my items were slightly different than my husband’s container.
These containers simplified me having to make decisions or think too much about what supplements, vitamins, Rx, lozenges, and essential oils we were going to be using that week. These little bins were simply a collection point for all the various items, instead of me trying to think about where one of the items might have been at a certain point. Many of these items are things we do use on a daily basis to support our bodies overall, but in this scenario we wanted to get the stuff grouped together so we didn’t have to hunt down throat spray, as example, in the moments of the wretched sore throat issues that both of us experienced. This was a practical tool for when we knew we were exposed to the illness and what to do when feeling sick.
Reduce the Demands — Do a Quick Clean-up
I did a few essential and quick loads of LAUNDRY the morning after we were exposed (we learned of exposure that morning). That way, we had our necessary essentials taken care of already even if it wasn’t a big load and it reduced the burden on either one of us – whether we both got sick or one of us was a busy caretaker. It was my “something is better than nothing” motto kicking into gear.
I did a LOAD OF DISHES so that we had a bigger amount of clean dishes ready without having to do much labor over the coming days if we got sick. As someone who lives with the fatigue of cancer and an auto-immune disorder, I wanted to be prepped for having household items ready if exhaustion set in.
I did a quick CLEAN-UP including the house and myself. Wipe down high traffic door knobs, drawer & cabinet pulls, sink levers with a non-toxic cleaner. This doesn’t have to be a huge deep clean. This was quick.
And yep, I made sure to take a SHOWER and wash my hair in case I didn’t feel up to it in the coming days.
STAY HOME
We knew one of us had definitely been exposed, so we started putting things into place for us to stay home. That means getting a grocery order that was appropriate for staying home for the next several days and preparing to rebook a flight (which we ended up doing) we were supposed to be on later in the week.
As someone living with cancer for years before covid, I have experienced going to work with people who are sick. Unfortunately in the USA, we don’t have a great infrastructure for supporting workers who need to go into work in order to make their paycheck. That is an issue I cannot solve here, but wanted to acknowledge — all of this is nuanced. There will always be people who go into public who are transmitting illness. It’s not new since 2020 and it’s not going to be gone after this particular illness awareness is “over”.
Living with cancer has made me all the more aware of how important it is to consider others but also to take care of one’s own health. No one else is responsible for my health. But the point of STAYING HOME after being definitely exposed, is to help reduce transmission of illness to others and to provide your body a time and space to rest.
NOURISH Your Body Well
Limit Sugar and Processed Food
An inflamed body has a lot of fires to put out. We LIMIT cane sugar, artificial ingredients, and processed food in our household regularly and especially if we are sick (we don’t get sick very often). Sugar and processed oils can be inflammatory to our cells. We want our cells to have good fuel to do their job well when we are sick. We refrain from using these oils in our household: vegetable oil, canola oil, soybean oil, corn oil, peanut oil. Instead we use pure avocado oil, virgin unrefined coconut oil, and olive oil. If a sweetener is truly needed we use pure maple syrup, raw honey, or coconut sugar in small amounts.
It may be tempting to get fast food for the convenience when sick, but most fast food establishments cook with the inflammatory ingredients and include many artificial and unnecessary ingredients that add to the body’s toxic burden. When you are sick, this is a time to fuel your body with real food ingredients that give your cells the nourishment they need to overcome the illness.
Meal Prep
I intentionally did some meal prep the first two days after we knew we were exposed to the illness but before I was fatigued with symptoms. I wanted whole real food ingredients that could power our bodies through the sickness and onto recovery.
I made my roasted red pepper tomato soup, Meghan Telpner’s turmeric, ginger, garlic powerhouse Gracious Glow Soup from her cookbook, prepped organic vegetables for raw power veggie plates with hummus, and my protein pumpkin coconut overnight oats. These were meals with multiple servings that would get us through a few days each as something we could have to smartly nourish our bodies after we were exposed to illness and if we started having symptoms of sickness (which we did).
Simple Whole Food Meals
I’ve learned over the years of my cancer journey the importance of using whole food ingredients for my meals. And I’ve learned how inflammatory much of the standard American diet can be, especially for me. There’s enough reason in working to heal my cancer that I want to stay away from foods (or artificial “frankenfoods”) that would fatigue my body and cause it to work even harder than it needs to while I want it focusing on the cancer. I could say the same for working on a pandemic-causing virus — I want my body focused on recovering from the virus not on having to sort out the unhelpful ingredients in over processed food.
Each day, I made my anti-inflammatory and anticancer herbal teas and elixirs, lots of matcha or green tea to drink with our zinc (green tea has plant compound EGCG which is an ionophore that helps the zinc get into the cells better), and throat soothing tea with lots of lemon and honey.
SUPPORT Your Body
Supporting our bodies has been a main focus throughout my cancer healing journey. So many of the actions we employed were not new to us. And many of the things are actions we do regularly for our general wellness. Some of the measures taken were more specified to reduce the burden on us during symptomatic sickness. Whereas other actions are on-going.
I understand not everyone will have access or resources for all of these things. Focus on the basics of hydrating well, resting well, nourishing well. All the others can be aids in supporting those processes.
List of things we used/did (in no particular order of listing) to Support Body as a whole:
Good Hygiene
- Washing hands
- Not sharing dishes, cups, utensils, mouthwash
- Placed this Air Filter (that’s been shown to filter out v*rus particles) close to where we were moving it from room to room as necessary
Supporting Detox Pathways
- Rebounding – bouncing on mini trampoline to induce lymphatic drainage
- Sauna – inducing heat shock proteins and sweating out toxins
- Rest – giving body the chance to clean up inside including the glymphatic system in brain
- Hydrating well with purified water and herbal teas
- Eating lots of veggies, herbs, and spices – helping support the liver
Supporting Circadian Rhythm
- Sunlight – put face to the sun each morning to help regulate circadian rhythm for proper production of melatonin and serotonin
Supporting Sense of Smell & Taste
- Diffusing Thieves Essential Oil along with Orange and Peppermint
- Herbal Steam for upper respiratory learned from this herbal workshop
- Showering & Infrared Sauna to keep mucous membranes moist
- Zinc & VitA – when the body is busy utilizing all the Zinc & A for illness it may not give the sense of smell & taste all it needs (as shared by Dr. Ben Lynch); One of the enzymes critical to maintain taste and smell function is a zinc dependent metalloenzyme called carbonic anhydrase PMID 11216508; VitA has been shown to be used in regeneration of olfactory receptors PMID 28434127
Intentional Supplementation (repeat – this is NOT medical advice; this is my personal experience)
- Vit A drops
- Vit D3/K2 (taken with fat to help body absorb it)
- Magnesium (different kinds throughout day to help a multitude of body functions and soothe discomfort but take this one with Vit. C everyday)
- Zinc (immune support)
- Turmeric (reducing inflammation and discomfort) using the ground rhizome powder as well as these capsules that include the anti-inflammatory enzyme Bromelain & Green Lipped Mussel
- Vit C (immune support etc.) using these daily Vitamin C and Elderberry packet & Vit C drink
- Melatonin (it’s not about sleep, it’s about it’s anti-inflammatory, immunomodulating, and antioxidant properties that help interrupt the virus’s process PMID 34119679)
- Probiotics for gut health that informs immune system
- Mushroom based capsule blend to modulate the immune system based on what it needs
Keeping Well Hydrated
We drank lots of teas of many varieties including this matcha in the morning, this throat soothing recipe through the day, this Immuni-Tea Love from my friend Katie at night, and nondairy golden lattes full of tuermic and ginger!
You CAN support your body at home during an illness!
References
PMIDs: 11216508, 28434127, 34119679
Disclaimers
Medical Disclaimer: This website and resources are intended for informational purposes. This is not medical advice. No part of this website is meant to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any illness, disease, or condition. Please consult your healthcare practitioner for direct and personalized medical advice. By reading this page, you acknowledge that each person is responsible for his/her own health decisions. Do not take anything from any website or resource, including this one, and try it without proper research and medical supervision. Any statements or claims about the possible health benefits conferred by any foods or supplements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Information in this website is the perspective of this author based on personal experience and education unless otherwise noted.
Affiliate Disclaimer: No companies asked me to share any of the above products for this post. These are my own choices based on much time studying info on safer items to use in the home and in/on the body as a cancer patient. I choose to provide you referral links to make life a little easier for you. This post contains affiliate links from various companies that I personally use and choose. This means I may earn a commission should you chose to make a purchase using my referral link. Any commissions I earn from my work, time, energy, and effort spent on Shrink the Mutant School go back to paying for the resources needed to keep this running or to my on-going medical treatment. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration and support of my work.
