Emergency COVID Kit: What Do You Need to Prepare?

Have you or someone close to you been wrestling with COVID or the fear of getting it? Vaccinated or not, we’ve all struggled, right? Of course, I don’t have all the answers. I wish I did. But I want to do what I can so I’ve been putting together a COVID kit that I believe can help anyone who gets the virus.

And you may not have thought of some of the things that are in it. I hadn’t until I talked with our guest today who was lying in bed sick.

This is not an argument for or against the vaccine. There are plenty of those. What I haven’t seen is this, a post about being proactive with a plan to be ready if you get it. And both people, with or without the vaccine, are getting it.

So, how do we fight this thing with our bodies, minds, and spirits?

A few weeks ago, I lay in bed thinking I had it.

Grieving the loss of friends who’d died, I wished I’d had a plan.

Even though I’d tested negative twice, a friend was convinced I had COVID so she sent two care packages. As I recovered (from what turned out to be strep) I took what she sent and started my COVID kit.

I want a plan because I don’t make decisions very well when I’m sick.

My friend, Paige, is on day 18.

She’s up and out of bed feeling much better, but her voice is raspy. She’s tired, sore, and still can’t smell dinner as she cooks for her family of five, but she’s motivated. 

“We need to assemble something people really need!”

Isolated for weeks, she said, “I was under severe attack in more ways than one. Let’s put together a COVID kit of the things I wish I had then.”

Only weeks before, Paige experienced a bonafide miracle.

As she prepared for surgery on her face for her third bout of skin cancer, she listened to the podcast called Your Spirit and Surgery and prayed that her spirit would be alert and watching over her the whole time.

Then something remarkable happened. 

When Paige awoke from full anesthesia, her doctor said, “During surgery, you prayed over us—out loud—for a long time. Thing is, you shouldn’t have been able to talk!” 

Paige told him about the podcast she’d listened to, and he gave her his personal cell number.

Then he said, “Send it to me. I’m definitely open-minded now.” 

Next Paige fought the virus.

Again, I know there are differing opinions on how each one is dealing with this. 

But like Paige said, “As soon as you feel symptoms coming on, you know, things like body aches, chills, and a loss of your sense of smell, start on medication.”

I added a self-test to my COVID kit.

Paige had not had the vaccine. And it took a few days to get a hold of her preferred choice of medicine, Ivecmectin*. She paid an on-line doctor $100 and he phoned the prescription in.

“For the maximum benefit,” she said, “you’re supposed to start taking Ivermectin* by day 5. I wasn’t prepared. I couldn’t get it until day 7, so that’s why people need to get that they’re going to need and have it on-hand before they get sick.”

Several people close to her were struggling with COVID at the same time. “Thank God, they had Ivermectin,” she said. “One took it the first day and hardly had any symptoms–which is why people need a COVID kit. But another was throwing up, couldn’t keep meds down, and went to the hospital for fluids.”

“Call your doctor to see if they’ll even prescribe what you want. 
Mine refused and it had helped someone close to me A LOT!”

As Paige and I talked . . .

Two friends messaged that their families had COVID and then two more wrote that they had it as I worked on this post.

One sent a list of basics that I want to add to my COVID kit:

• Tea, soup, and spicy fluids to clear chest congestion to help in breathing
• Something to help you drink water
• Bath salts with eucalyptus and peppermint
• An expectorant for coughs
• And lozenges

“When you can’t taste or smell,” she said, “texture matters, it can help you eat!”

And this is REALLY important!

You need a pulse oximeter to check your oxygen levels. They shouldn’t go below 90.

If your oxygen levels go below 90, you need oxygen support AT A HOSPITAL.

If you wait too long, you’ll have lung damage so don’t do that.

In my isolation, Paige said:

I felt far away from friends, family, and even God.

With little energy to read or listen to anything, fatigue overtook me in every way. I prayed my best prayer, “Help!”

As people I knew were struggling to live, I couldn’t do anything to help them. Fear, worry, and the darkness of the virus were trying to take me out.

I knew I was in trouble.

That’s when a thought popped into my mind that didn’t seem to be my own. “Am I enough?”

I remembered a trust fall exercise I did with students long ago. I felt like I was falling backwards with my arms crossing my chest hoping God would catch me before I hit the ground. 

Was He enough? Was He there? Could He see me struggling? 

I thought about one of my favorite verses.

“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17-18, KJV).

This was Habakkuk’s song. 

No matter how bad his circumstances, he rejoiced in the Lord. 

Then I remembered “I Will Raise a Hallelujah.” I put the song on knowing it was written about a young boy who was battling to survive and lived. That’s when, in defiance, I chose to fall away from my circumstances and trust in the God of my own salvation. 

With COVID or anything else, we’re still in control of our choices. 

What will we believe? Where do we place our trust? Is God enough? 

Remember, God “has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV). 

We can raise our own Hallelujah no matter what’s going on because God says, “I Will Never Leave You Nor Forsake You” (Hebrews 13:5, ESV).

Next, we added a playlist to our COVID kit.

You know how it is when you can’t do anything but lay there and listen? Here are some links to songs for you:

• Fear is a liar!
• Even If
• Come to the Table
• Grace Got You
• Eye of the Storm
• Raise a Hallelujah
• Freedom Hymn
• Jesus I Believe
• Even Then
• Breathe
• All My Hope
• Counting Every Blessing
• Never Been a Moment
• Walking on Water
• Death Has No Power

Or, you can click here to listen to the whole playlist if you have Spotify. (Thank you Amber Gail Fecher for making this playlist for us!)

Books on tape can also help you take control of your mind.

Paige found a book called “How to Play the Game of Life.”

It encouraged her because it’s about words—basically, it’s about speaking blessings over ourselves. It’s an hour long and you can get it on Audible, through your library, or you could order a copy here:

“But,” Paige said, “this is what people really need!”

“COVID is just as much of a spiritual and emotional battle as it is a physical one,” she said the other night. “So, we need to prepare for that, too.”

How?

Well, we know how our minds are, right, how negative thoughts bombard us when we’re down? So, we prepare. 

The Bible says: “Finally, my friends, keep your minds on whatever is true, pure, right, holy, friendly, and proper. Don’t ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise.” (Phil 4:8, CEV).

That’s when we decided to add decrees to our COVID kits.

What are those?

The ability to decree is one of our superpowers! When we stand on Scriptures–own them–they empower us. You might be surprised at what happens when you pick one of these and try it:

• My spirit will sustain me in sickness. (Proverbs 18:14)
• I sought the Lord, and He delivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:4)
• No weapon formed against me will ever prosper! (Isaiah 54:17)
• Just as death had no power over Jesus, death has no power over me. (Romans 6:8)
• The Lord will sustain me on my sick bed and restore me from my bed of illness. (Psalm 41:4)
• God is my refuge and my strength, my very present help in time of trouble. (Psalm 46:1)

Over and over, as Paige lay in bed, she repeated, “I will be well and free!”

There is so much power in our words and what we agree with so taking control of our thoughts at a time like this really helps.

What helps if your friend is sick?

I loved the special way God blessed Paige in the midst of the angst.

She’d recently had a friend’s mom ask, “What are your favorite colors and your favorite animal?”

God is so cool. He knows exactly when something will mean the most. As Paige lay there on her sick bed praying for an extra blessing from God, a necklace arrived from afar made out of her favorite colors with a turtle in it. ?

She reminded me that we can never underestimate the importance of enCOURAGEment whether it’s through texts, prayer, gifts, or meals. And of course, all the usual things, like picking up groceries, are super helpful, too!

Is this COVID kit our be-all-and-end-all?

No, this is where we start.

Then we make a plan. We rest in knowing we’ve done what we can. And if you’ve been around this website very long, you know what everything always comes back to for me . . . what is God saying?

As I wrestled all this out with God, I kept saying, “I don’t know what to do!”

Over and over, He’d say, “Yes, you do! You just wrote a book about it! You talk to Me. I’ll lead you and then you do what I say.”

Now more than ever, we need our Shepherd!

This has always been one of my favorite verses: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27, NIV). That’s my aim.

And I love what Paige’s dad says, too:

Never make a decision based on fear.

No, let’s decide what we’re going to do based on faith, ok? ?

*Disclaimer: 

This is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or another health care professional. You should not use this information for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. Consult with a healthcare professional before starting any supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem. You are solely responsible for doing your own research on the provided information. This does not substitute as professional advice. 

Ivermectin is not approved by the FDA. You can read about that here.

And I am NOT pushing any particular drug. This is what I’m recommending:

• Do YOUR OWN research
• TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR
• And most of all, listen to God so you know what He has FOR YOU!
• Then make your plan (with God)
• Determine what to have on hand before anyone gets sick
• Then go shopping and put together your own personal COVID kit because I want all of you to have everything you need to care for yourself and your loved ones around you! ?  

Paige Van Meter Sturgeon is the author of a devotional book called, In the Winter of Grief: 25 Devotions of Advent Hope. She also developed the ANCHOR outreach program for schools and parents to use to increase suicide awareness and to strengthen better resiliency in handling suffering for students at www.anchorforlife.org).

Paige has a Masters degree in Counseling and has been certified as a School Suicide Prevention Specialist. She works with adolescents and adults in her home state of Kentucky to help people to find meaning and hope even when grieving significant losses in their lives.

Before you go, click here so Paige can pray for you!

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