(Author chose to remain anonymous for protection)
“The Lord has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)
Hi there, I am a Registered Nurse. I’ve worked on almost every floor you can think of and currently I find myself on an Intensive Care Unit floor.
Sara asked me here to share with you my perspective on Covid from both a professional standpoint and from the four corners of my own household.
Back in the early, early Spring we watched the world wake up to a new threat. We watched countless YouTube videos of medical staff donning and doffing personal protective equipment (PPE) as they feared they would need to face another patient coming in with Covid. The world was gripped with fear.
That is where I stopped. Though I was working with moms and babies during that time, I saw our hospital policies change every few hours to accommodate what they thought was an evolving and incredibly dangerous situation. That caused huge amounts of fear in my co-workers. I began to get concerned. However, the day I saw our CEO and hospital administration CHANGE the policy on our PPE, telling us it was safe to use differently, to accommodate the shortage, I immediately put on my skeptics eyes and saw a very different “pandemic” than everyone else.
Watching my hospital’s administration throw out extremely important guidelines in order to account for “safety” so that they could keep their accreditation brought me to an all time low in my trust of western medicine practice and pharmaceutical policy. I could not recount the number of times my co-workers from all floors told me they felt abandoned and thrown under the bus. Fear began to mount fast.
I checked in with Sara. She advised me what to stock up on. My own mother, a homeopath and naturopath, pulled multiple bottles of high potency vitamin d off her shelves for me to take to work as well as homeopathic remedies she had prepared. Those remedies had nothing to do with Covid. They were remedies known to calm anxiety.
The former mentioned supplements plus melatonin (said to have an impact on fighting the virus), plus vitamin A (found in cod liver oil), became an instant staple in my house. Throughout the whole spring my family of 5 routinely took all of these supplements. Eventually NAC was added to our list to support our liver function, and another natural product that I cannot list publicly, as a way to combat inflammation. My own personal battles with health have led me to keep on hand multiple other supplements, herbs, and remedies, but the ones mentioned here became our arsenal against Covid.
That, and the Word of God. The Bible tells us over and over again to not fear. The Bible also says, “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb 4:12)
I spent hours in Psalm 37, specially verses 3, 5, 7, 11, 23, and 31. This chapter was open on my kitchen counter and on my nightstand throughout the summer. I prayed this out, I cried it before the Lord, and I bathed in the truth it held - whether I felt moved by the verses or not.
“The law of his God is in his heart, his steps do not slip.” (Psalm 37:31)
Fast forward through September, October, November, and into December where my family found out that we had been exposed to friends who had tested positive for Covid. We had no idea until after I personally had lost my ability to smell or taste. To test myself, I put a drop of a very strong extract on the palm of my hand and I licked it! I tasted nothing! I had known for a long time that a loss of taste and smell are key signs of the virus.
My husband and I spent the night debating about getting officially tested. Being a nurse, I have seen up close the flaws of the PCR nasal swab test, and I have seen the pain and the danger of the PCR nasopharyngeal test (the one that is pushed to the back of your nose/throat). I have seen research stating the potential transmission of the virus through the test, I have seen research that states that the PCR is only designed for gathering genetic material (DNA) with an added substance to detect SARS-CO V2. The information I have seen, I believe, is credible and bothersome.
We also debated on testing knowing that the test itself has a 30% margin of error. To put this in perspective, physicists only allow themselves a .04-.01% margin of error in calculations. A 30% margin of error? That is bad science, folks.
Ultimately, despite our concern, my husband and I needed to have testing done to return to work and to report to our leadership that those around us may or may not have also been exposed. I believe the Lord gave us mercy and we only had a minor swab in both nostrils, not extensively back to our throats. I do know depending on where you go, the testing is different. Because I am a “patient facing healthcare worker,” my test and my husband’s test were expedited. I was called the next morning with a positive result. My husband had tested negative. I was symptomatic that day, as I had also come down with fatigue and the general symptoms of a sinus infection. My husband was fine.
If you know my husband and I, you know we basically share everything. We’re pretty close. How could he be asymptomatic and test negative and not me? Especially if this virus is as contagious as they say? I believe a key factor is that, as a nurse, I am required to mask 99% of my shift. For me, those shifts were twelve hours each, usually three in a row. The hospital issued masks also contain chemicals known to cause cancer and pulmonary inflammation. So, I doubled masked. First with an organic cotton cloth layer with essential oils applied to my face, then with the hospital issued tissue paper mask. My husband and I believe that this had already put a strain on my immune system this year and left me vulnerable to other infections.
While I experienced sinus infection like symptoms, with occasional joint aches, a headache, sneezing, and fatigue, I increased my supplement protocol mentioned at the beginning of this post. In four days I took
- 15,000+mg of Liposomal Vitamin C daily
- 12 mg of Melatonin daily
- Copious amounts of bio available Vitamin D and MSM.
- 3 doses of Bryonia 200c
- 1 dose of Gelsemium 200c
- Other plant products I’m unable to state publicly
All of these supplements, in these quantities, would normally give you intense gastrointestinal side effects. I had none, meaning that my body was absorbing every bit of what I was giving it. Also during this time, I consumed extremely minimal amounts of sugar. Keeping inflammation low will ultimately stop the virus from being able to attack the lining of the blood vessel walls and will give strength to the rest of the body to fight off the virus on it’s own.
The biggest factor, I believe, in my personal experience with Covid, was that I was not worried. I have seen my own Covid positive patients in the hospital, I have visited other units, and I have spoken to frontline medical staff who believe that this virus, like any virus, can hit some people hard and not others.
The biggest key factors in how bad a case might be rely upon how the person is managing their health. What is the mental, emotional, spiritual state they are in? Do they have underlying medical conditions? Are those underlying conditions comorbidities (meaning, are they a potential cause of death)? All of those pieces play an incredibly huge role in determining just how bad any illness will be. I have seen this across the board in my practice of 8 years that the emotional, spiritual, and mental state will directly impact a person’s physical state.
I firmly believe what we do now directly affects our future. I am incredibly grateful to have had the supplements I needed on hand exactly when I needed them. I am grateful to have spent the previous months and years correcting my diet and daily habits to give a good foundation for my physical health.
Even more than all of that combined, I am grateful that I was not moved by fear. I saw this virus and the response of my coworkers and the people around me, even when everyone panicked about toilet paper, and I actively CHOSE to take no part in the panic or the fear.
“A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh.” (Prov 14:30)