It took nearly two years, but COVID hit the house.
It started on a Tuesday actually. Bryan was talking about how he felt tired, more than usual. Then Wednesday, he was talking about how he felt cold and couldn’t get warm. Cue mild panic. He got tested Wednesday night and isolated from the family. I stayed with the kids, working from home. Luckily, the district was on the first of two weeks of virtual schooling at that point, so they still could attend classes. The routine was good for them and it kept them busy. I let the teachers know what was going on as well. We were really worried. While Bryan, Alex and I are all vaccinated, Mary is too young and at a higher risk of complications because of the Down syndrome. So if this was COVID, what would it do to her?
Thursday, I started feeling really fatigued. Mary was feeling under the weather too. She just wanted to be in my lap, whining and crying most of the day. That afternoon we both started running a low grade temp of 99.5. I just knew it was COVID at that point. Alex remained fine, being helpful where he could and was extra cautious about hand washing.
Friday, Bryan got his test results: Positive. Immediately, I scheduled tests for the kids and me. I found a drive-thru test site that was being administered by the National Guard. Alex thought that was cool. Part of the swab test is that they have you blow your nose first to get out everything. I was worried how the test would be with Mary since she is unable to blow her nose yet, and told them so. This swab went just inside the nose, not the “sinus cleaner” type I’ve had before. They swabbed all of us and we were told 1-3 days for results. Mary was still practically glued to my lap, being very whiny and running an elevated temp. I was still dealing with fatigue. Alex was still acting his usual self.
We kept questioning if Bryan should just rejoin us since I was so sure that Mary and I had COVID, but we decided to wait for results just in case. If any of us tested positive, he was coming out of isolation and we would quarantine as a family. Saturday morning, we got results. I tested positive, but the kids tested negative. The only good news about that was that it meant Bryan could rejoin us. When he came upstairs, Mary grabbed on to him and did not let go for HOURS. Later that day, Mary started playing again. She was eating saltine crackers enthusiastically. It seemed she was feeling better and we breathed a sigh of relief.
Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon and Mary suddenly spiked a fever. It hit 103F scary fast. Luckily, the Tylenol brought it back down pretty quickly. It hovered between 99.5F and 100F until the end of the day when the Tylenol wore off and climbed back up to 102F. We gave her some Motrin and prayed she would sleep well. Wednesday morning, she was at 99.4F. She was playing and VERY hungry. She had FOUR waffles for breakfast! Her temperature started it’s climb up and hit 101F when we gave her Tylenol. It came back down just as quickly and stayed down the rest of day. She was still very active and playful, always a good sign for her. After that, her temperature stayed down below 99F
Wednesday evening, Bryan took an at home test. He was at the end of the CDC recommended quarantine (5 days quarantine then masked for 5 days, but he stayed home for 7 days and we are always masked when we go places). The test came back negative! He was able to return to work while I stayed home with the kids and worked from home. I tested negative two days later. That weekend, we tested the kids again since they were supposed to return to in person school the next week and we wanted to be sure they were safe to. They both tested positive. They were completely symptom free at that point, so we figured they were on the second half or nearing the end of the virus run, but that meant no school for them and continued quarantine. We retested them a week later and they both tested negative!
We have been so grateful that Mary’s symptoms were mild and that Alex was asymptomatic. Yay vaccine! We’re still going to take extra precautions and continue mask wearing. We are still in a global pandemic and will continue to treat it as such. Please wear a mask and please get vaccinated if you are able.
Raising Special Roses 