Surviving Covid, the story of Mari and Enchang Kaimo

My cool, articulate, TV host friend Mari Kaimo and his wife Enchang Kaimo got sick last July 3. This is a belated repost, his story how he survived Covid, long haul. I failed to post this earlier because I myself got sick of Covid and was hardly touching my laptop for at least a week. Anyway here it is.
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July 31, 2021

It’s now official! By the grace of God, Enchang and I are now documented COVID survivors. 

I first felt sick July 3rd. If you check the CDC USA website on COVID, you will find a list of symptoms. These are the ones I had: 

   Fever or chills 
   Cough 
   Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing 
   Fatigue 
   Muscle or body aches 
   Headache 
   Sore throat 
   Congestion or runny nose 

Ench had similar symptoms but fewer than I did. On Day 2, I started to experience the shortness of breath and immediately double-dosed on Ivermectin. By the next day, the symptom was gone. By my estimation, we beat what we have only just confirmed was COVID within 2-3 days. This is thanks to the Lord first and foremost, of course, but thanks as well to the very safe and affordable Ivermectin (P30-50 per capsule). Thank you, Dr Satoshi Omura! And a great big thank you is also well-deserved by our CDC Ph Doctors for their unstinting commitment to science, integrity, and the true practice of medicine. They are truly a credit to their profession! 

Unfortunately for me, the antibiotics I was taking together with the Ivermectin caused some serious side effects, ruining my stomach and leaving me unable to eat for many days. And yet I doggedly continued taking them for the full 7 day course, losing 13 pounds and spending many days in bed in the process. Most likely because she was my faithful caregiver and fully-exposed roommate, Enchang succumbed to the virus less than 2 weeks after me. Doc Homer put her on the same meds I was on, Ivermectin and that antibiotic included, but when she complained of the same side effects that I had suffered from the antibiotic, I immediately messaged Doc to ask him what we could replace it with. By the second day of switching the antibiotics, Ench’s symptoms were gone.

We isolated right away once I got sick but my 94 year old Mom has remained absolutely fine by the grace of God the entire time, even now more than 2 weeks after we beat COVID. At first we could not tell for sure what it was we were fighting, and so Doc instructed me to get a CBC for platelets and to test for typhoid. The typhoid test proved negative while the platelets results showed that my immune system had fought an infection and won.

On July 31st I was well enough to drive us to Doc Homer’s Quezon City clinic to take a COVID antibodies test. That was when we finally confirmed that it was, in fact, COVID for both of us. While my IgG antibodies are still low, Doc says I need to sleep and eat mushrooms to get them to go up, which I have been trying to do. The day I took the COVID antibodies test I had had only 3-4 hours sleep so I guess my results could have been affected by that.

Enchang’s, on the other hand, are very good. Doc's wife is a pharmacist and she said Ench's results are far better than someone who's been vaccinated.  Once I get my antibodies up, both Ench and I will technically no longer need to wear those suffocating masks or the utterly ridiculous and scientifically-unsupportable face shields, observe social distancing or get vaccinated, which we wouldn't have done with this current crop of vaccines anyway.

I would estimate the total cost of medication to treat both of us for C19 at about P4,000, with the bulk of that going to antibiotics and cough syrups and medication. We self-treated entirely at home and never stepped anywhere near a hospital where we might have infected any doctors or Health Care Workers. The closest we ever got to a hospital was when I was already recovered and non-infectious and had to get my blood tested which, sadly, the lab screwed up, requiring me to return for a second extraction.

Now, some of you may be thinking, “But I thought you were taking Ivermectin as a prophylaxis? Why didn’t the Ivermectin prevent you from getting sick when that was its job in the first place?” 

The answer is very simple. Yes, the Ivermectin does work as a prophylaxis, but the patient also has to do his or her part to keep his immune system at the best levels possible at all times. Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) and other studies show that Ivermectin can protect a person up to 85% of the time, but that means there remains a 15% chance that you might still fall ill. And that is where getting enough sleep, catching some sunlight and taking your Vitamin C, D, and zinc is crucial. You also need to take your Ivermectin at the right dose and at the right time.

And that is where I messed up. 

On the days prior to my infection, I had been neglecting to take my supplements. I also lacked sleep. Plenty of sleep. We also failed to take our Ivermectin at the right time, since our exposure to some vaccinated friends came at the one time that the stock of Ivermectin in our systems was at their lowest levels. We took the Ivermectin on the same day we were exposed to our vaccinated friends instead of on the day prior, which would have given the medicine sufficient time to do its thing and protect us from infection.

So that's my report. We thank God for getting us through that, for now making us naturally immune — even against variants -- and for ensuring that Mom remained safe all throughout it!