Monoclonal antibody treatments have been used for a while now to treat patients with COVID-19.
Some patients say it helped make their bout with the virus better.
My uncle, Mike Funk, has been talking about this. He was sick with COVID-19 this winter but got a monoclonal antibody treatment.
RELATED: Gov. DeSantis: New Jacksonville monoclonal treatment center will help reduce hospitalizations
He believes it turned things around for him -- quickly. The results can be different, but here’s his story.
To me, Uncle Mike has always been rugged and tough. But when he came down with COVID-19 on a camping trip this past January, it hit him hard. He described his symptoms as achy joints and feeling lethargic.
I told him our family was worried about him because of his preexisting conditions.
He’s a school bus driver in Mississippi and thinks he could have gotten sick on the job.
“What was your biggest concern when you came down with the virus?” I asked.
“At that point, they were going crazy with the respirators. And I didn’t want to have to go that route. So I needed to figure out some other option,” he said.
But my aunt found out about monoclonal antibody treatment.
They were doing it at an Ocean Springs hospital, and he got in for IV treatment within a day.
This is how he described the treatment:
“And they started a slow drip. I basically fell asleep. And they woke me up. It’s OK. One more hour, watch TV, and then we’ll cut you loose. I didn’t have any effects as far as side effects at all. Once they told me to go home, I was already exhausted. And I just went straight to bed. Slept really well. And then when I got up about six hours later, it was a miracle. I was I felt like it was 100%.”
He says in his opinion he was a new man after the treatment.
Mike doesn’t know how it’ll affect others and says it’s best to not get the virus in the first place.
Mike recommends wearing a mask and getting the vaccine. But he believes in the treatment and says people who come down with the virus should have access to it and, if they can, get it “yesterday.”