Phlegm in my throat and post nasal drip after Covid

I am 85yrs old,got long covid 7/15/23 so week could not walk across a room. Brain fog set in, had it about 3 month was in a home until April this year. I have gotten better slowly, heart, breathing have been ok. Still very week,taste and smell comes and goes, balance still not good,but I can drive ok but must be very careful. I am not taking any meds for covid as they dont know what to give me. 10 days in Naples fl hospital ,and 10 days in chester co pa hospital, they sent we home because they didnt know what I had. Going to start rehab to gain some musel stranth , doing ok by my self, wife passed in May. I feel lucky compared to some of you. Just keep going and hope for the best that somthing new will help us all Phil Young

Yes. I will provide another update in a week.
I guess the symptoms could return, but if we look at the facts, a coincidence here, is unlikely.
For instance, ever since the post nasal drip [PND] started, it remained at roughly the same level 24/7. I was pretty much clearing my throat every few minutes.
I then take a 5 day course of amoxicillin and on day 2 the bad breath starts to reduce. On day 4 the PND reduces dramatically.
6 days after starting the meds, the mucus has gone and the swallowing stopped.
Now, yes, there is always the possibility that this was all a massive coincidence, but there is an equally good chance that antibiotics may have a positive therapeutic effect on this condition.
I always fall back on the fact that I am the second person, in this forum, who has responded positively to amoxicillin.
If only one other person, responded well to this medication, I think we could be fairly certain that PND can be treated, at last.
An interesting idea would be to set up a poll on this forum, to see if people with PND have responded positively to antibiotics.

We could have 3 options:

Yes
No
Have not been treated with antibiotics

I wonder if the system administrator could set up such a poll?
If this is not possible, I could set up a Post Nasal Drip group on X. I could then set up the poll on there.
Or failing this, I would be happy to set up such a poll on one of my own website. And then add a link here for people to use.
This forum is great but I think it is about time we started analysing some of the data, people have been sharing over the years.
Anyway, if you think this is a good idea, let me know.

Yes. I will provide another update in a week.
I guess the symptoms could return, but if we look at the facts, a coincidence here, is unlikely.
For instance, ever since the post nasal drip [PND] started, it remained at roughly the same level 24/7. I was pretty much clearing my throat every few minutes.
I then take a 5 day course of amoxicillin and on day 2 the bad breath starts to reduce. On day 4 the PND reduces dramatically.
6 days after starting the meds, the mucus has gone and the swallowing stopped.
Now, yes, there is always the possibility that this was all a massive coincidence, but there is an equally good chance that antibiotics may have a positive therapeutic effect on this condition.
I always fall back on the fact that I am the second person, in this forum, who has responded positively to amoxicillin.
If only one other person, responded well to this medication, I think we could be fairly certain that PND can be treated, at last.
An interesting idea would be to set up a poll on this forum, to see if people with PND have responded positively to antibiotics.

We could have 3 options:

Yes
No
Have not been treated with antibiotics

I wonder if the system administrator could set up such a poll?
If this is not possible, I could set up a Post Nasal Drip group on X. I could then set up the poll on there.
Or failing this, I would be happy to set up such a poll on one of my own website. And then add a link here for people to use.
This forum is great but I think it is about time we started analysing some of the data, people have been sharing over the years.
Anyway, if you think this is a good idea, let me know.

Was it over the counter or did you need a prescription? How did you apply it and did you need to use distilled water?

Long - ish post coming...

Synopsis:
Covid slime for 2 years. It is miserable and really life altering. It blows. Pun intended.

Something I just tried today that seems to really clear off the slime off my throat as a quick fix -

Neti pot - Mix 7 grams of sodium ascorbate into 1 cup of warm distilled water ( ~240g DISTILLED water) This makes around a 3% solution. Add in neti salt like normal per salt directions. Neti this. I didn't notice any extra discomfort - maybe a tiny bit. Cleared off all the snot pretty well. I will post an update in a few days to let you know how long the effect lasts. Apparently this creates local levels of vitamin C that would require an astronomical oral dose to achieve.

Reasoning - Sodium ascorbate is just a buffered salt of Vitamin C (pH more neutral) This makes it not burn like Vitamin C would. Vitamin C activates CFTR channels (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) which increases the amount of liquid that cells put out to form the pericilliary liquid layer - the fluid that snot rides on as your ciliated cells try to move it out. My guess is that after infection CFTR is chronically somewhat downregulated, and/or the airway epithelium has reformed after infection to have too many mucous producing goblet cells and not enough ciliated cells (goblet cell hyperplasia).

Side note on this stuff - I used to have it worse in my lungs - now it is more in my upper chest/throat. Not really in my nose - but the neti still helps because it makes my epiglottis stay more "liquidy" and helps me swallow the covid slime or spit it up easier.

Also for those who have it rougher and want to try - I also had some success nebulizing sodium ascorbate - 1 gram in 10 grams (or 10 mL) of distilled water or isotonic (0.9%) nebulizer saline solution. This makes a 10% sodium ascorbate solution. Nebulize for 20-30 minutes or as long as it takes to feel the snot get "swallowable." Again this is Vitamin C straight to the airway epithelium including lungs. It isn't harsh to me and seems to clear things up well.

That's my 2 cents on this stuff and here is the link to amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/NutriBiotic-Ascorbate-Non-Acidic-Antioxidant-Supplement/dp/B000Z8YM7O/
Still in search of the ultimate cure - but anything to make life more normal helps - especially if it is pretty quick and easy to do.

-Mike

Long - ish post coming...

Synopsis:
Covid slime for 2 years. It is miserable and really life altering. It blows. Pun intended.

Something I just tried today that seems to really clear off the slime off my throat as a quick fix -

Neti pot - Mix 7 grams of sodium ascorbate into 1 cup of warm distilled water ( ~240g DISTILLED water) This makes around a 3% solution. Add in neti salt like normal per salt directions. Neti this. I didn't notice any extra discomfort - maybe a tiny bit. Cleared off all the snot pretty well. I will post an update in a few days to let you know how long the effect lasts. Apparently this creates local levels of vitamin C that would require an astronomical oral dose to achieve.

Reasoning - Sodium ascorbate is just a buffered salt of Vitamin C (pH more neutral) This makes it not burn like Vitamin C would. Vitamin C activates CFTR channels (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) which increases the amount of liquid that cells put out to form the pericilliary liquid layer - the fluid that snot rides on as your ciliated cells try to move it out. My guess is that after infection CFTR is chronically somewhat downregulated, and/or the airway epithelium has reformed after infection to have too many mucous producing goblet cells and not enough ciliated cells (goblet cell hyperplasia).

Side note on this stuff - I used to have it worse in my lungs - now it is more in my upper chest/throat. Not really in my nose - but the neti still helps because it makes my epiglottis stay more "liquidy" and helps me swallow the covid slime or spit it up easier.

Also for those who have it rougher and want to try - I also had some success nebulizing sodium ascorbate - 1 gram in 10 grams (or 10 mL) of distilled water or isotonic (0.9%) nebulizer saline solution. This makes a 10% sodium ascorbate solution. Nebulize for 20-30 minutes or as long as it takes to feel the snot get "swallowable." Again this is Vitamin C straight to the airway epithelium including lungs. It isn't harsh to me and seems to clear things up well.

That's my 2 cents on this stuff and here is the link to amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/NutriBiotic-Ascorbate-Non-Acidic-Antioxidant-Supplement/dp/B000Z8YM7O/
Still in search of the ultimate cure - but anything to make life more normal helps - especially if it is pretty quick and easy to do.

-Mike