Yes, that was absolutely a clickbait title! But, it's grounded in something I'm actually going to be doing to recover.

Nutrition

The first part of my recovery plan is to eat well again. My appetite is nearly completely gone, so I'm virtually force feeding myself. It's not a lot, but it's all completely nutritious. I know I need it to recover, so it's going in. Today it's oats covered in low-fat yogurt and fruits (blueberries and half a banana). There's also Mom's homemade chicken soup - and there's no surprise that this historically is known to be a wonderful "medicine" since it contains the best types of ingredients (lean chicken, vegetables, water) and it's extremely nutritious. It's actually a great food to eat even when not sick.

I'm resuming my daily baking soda (which I also swish around in my mouth briefly for gum health). The body can sometimes go into a slightly acidic state when fighting an infection; usually this happens with severe infections. The body is typically able to rebalance the pH on its own, but I give it a tiny little boost with this daily routine. It's clear that I'm a touch sensitive (particularly when it comes to my prostate) to even a slightly low pH.

I also included magnesium in my little concoction. It's historically helped me muscles recover from workouts remarkably quick. Now, my body feels like I completed an intense workout (i.e. very, very weak in virtually every muscle group). It's a little bit stronger than yesterday, but compared to my baseline as someone who exercises, this is abysmal. Magnesium may help the recovery process.

Sleep

This is going to be a tough one. I'm trying to transition to a daytime schedule. Yesterday, I got back to bed somewhere between 4-5 a.m., and didn't fall asleep again until about 3 p.m. (just dozed off briefly sometime in the morning). I then woke up again at around 7 p.m.

So I'm going to go to bed today at around 1 or 2 a.m. and try to get a full night's sleep. Since I'm now off-duty, I'll sleep as much as I need. There's no chance I'm cutting this down for any reason.

Lungs and Blowjobs!

Ah, the fun title. Well, the blowjobs refer to blowing my nose. The lung strength... well, I already began doing deep breathing exercises prior to catching this little virus. I found that I was able to take deeper breaths with practice, and got to the point where I could really feel the bottom of my lungs expanding to a degree they haven't expanded in a very long time, if ever.

This is not some type of myth. Divers use deep breathing techniques as part of their respiratory exercises to strengthen their ability to hold their breath underwater. Incentive spirometry (handheld tool-assisted breathing) is used with patients who have some lung damage from acute or chronic lung conditions. There's known data to back up the utility of exercising. This trains both the muscle groups surrounding the lungs (intercostal muscles, diaphragm, etc.) and helps the deepest cells within the lungs open up and filtering air/blood as they should be doing. It's shocking how collapsed lungs can become when they're not being utilized to their full extent... you know the saying, use it or lose it!

Deep breaths also help me blow my nose rather effectively. Now, I don't want to blow it too hard and too fast because that can cause damage, but I'm able to achieve a nice, big, prolonged blow and get things out much better with deep breaths compared to shallow breaths. That's my idea of great blowjob right now. I must be getting old, man.

Now, technically the best lung exercises are actually not lung exercises at all - it's cardiovascular workouts. That activates the lungs more than anything else. I do occasionally run, so this is not going to be an issue for me. That said, I don't think I'm ready to start running just yet. It's a bit too early in my recovery process. Which brings me to the next point...

Exercise

Since I am extremely weak right now, I'll skip exercises for today (except for deep breathing). I'll resume with light exercises as soon as tomorrow. There are very few conditions in this world where exercise is not recommended - I could count them on my fingers. In fact, light exercise even while sick is likely to aid in recovery.

So that's what I'll be doing tomorrow. I'll also resume stretching tonight and do full stretches tomorrow.

Medications

I've been trying to go about this with as little medication as possible. My body has done the vast majority of the heavy lifting here, and I can already tell I'm past the worst of it. In this time I've taken Tylenol two times and started intranasal steroid sprays (also after the worst of the virus passed).

Since I'm essentially in recovery mode, I'll continue the intranasal sprays (tapering them down to 0 over the course of a week, possibly a bit more depending on the symptoms) and I'll switch to Motrin, which I was taking once per day for my prostatitis symptoms anyway. Thus, I'll maintain a minimal amount of medications.

Not infecting family members

My Mom already began developing symptoms yesterday, and they were a bit worse today. However, they did not progress nearly as quickly as mine. And thankfully, she tested negative for COVID today - twice, at her doctor's office.

So now my goal is to maintain her safety and not get her infected. I keep trying to get her to stay away from me this week lol! I love her and want to kiss her, but not until I'm in the 5+ day zone, where the chance of infecting someone is significantly decreased. It'll be a few more days.

This is the most important goal for me right now. I can't stand to see her sick. In the meantime, since she made a good amount of chicken soup, she'll be having some of it as well. If my recovery continues to be swift, I'll try to leave her as much of it as I can so she can recover quicker!

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