Our Corona Virus Experience

Having successfully navigated the pandemic without contracting the Corona virus for over two years we may have given thoughts to being the rare exception and possibly even carriers of an antibody that when discovered could be harvested and save mankind. 

Key words:  may, possibly, could

We arrived home from our cruise at about 1am on Friday, May 6th.  Jason admitted as we drifted off to sleep that he wasn't feeling great and would take a covid test in the morning.  We agreed that we would all take a test.  

After a reasonable sleep, we woke up and tested.  He was positive and Lucy & I were negative.  

Jason made a video appointment with our doctor's office for later that morning and I made an extensive post vacation shopping list and masked up to gather provisions.   The thinking was that we would be stuck at home and maybe wouldn't have a lot of energy to make gourmet meals.  Oh, and of course vacation laundry.

He was given a prescription for an anti-viral cocktail and I was able to pick them up at the local RiteAid on my travels. The doctor suggested that he isolate from us and the fun game of masking in our own home began.   Paxlovid is a five-day regimen of 3 pills in the morning and 3 at night.  

With the groceries gathered (lots of extra great things for hydration, soups, ramen, a couple different pre-planned dinners) and about 8 loads of laundry I was DONE.  The time zone change was catching up with me and I was very tired.

So, off to bed with me.  Jason was in the basement for a night (or 4) in the guest room. First thing the next morning - a test.  That's my results up top.  You can see it's not a faint line, no squinting needed.  The day before 100% negative.   Lucy's test also had a positive result, but the line on that test was very light.  After two plus years of worst case scenario news stories, Lucy looked at me with genuine fear in her eyes and asked quietly, "am I going to die?"  Hugs were distributed, and I did my best to reassure her that the vaccine would help her from getting really sick and that we would all be ok.  

Our doctor's office is closed on Saturday, so I used the handy Doctor on-demand application that came with our insurance and had a quick chat with a medical person somewhere in the online world. I too was given the anti-viral prescription, but not Lucy.   This doctor also recommended that we three isolate from one another within the house.  So, we continued that path.

The energy I had Friday was gone. Saturday and Sunday I was one with the couch.  There were movies but mostly I was lightly napping all day, then pulling together a dinner type meal which we three ate away from each other.  Then, at bedtime - sleeping thru the night was not an issue.  

Symptoms included a terrible headache, low energy, some body aches and for a couple of days congestion (no cough, but we went thru multiple boxes of tissues.).  The Paxlovid had a terrible side effect of the worst taste in my mouth that I've ever experienced, and it went on for days.  Jason said it was like a moose set up camp and then died in his mouth.  We busted out the altoids. We knew it was the Paxlovid because Lucy had all the other symptoms but not the awful mouth. 

We did manage to come up with a pretty decent dinner for Mother's Day and we ate together that night.  Lucy managed to sneak home a 1000 piece puzzle from the cruise as a gift.   The following day was Monday, and both Jason and I worked a full day.  Thank goodness for online/remote work.  

Lucy was uninvited to attend school until Friday the 13th, but on Thursday evening when we took our 5 day follow up tests, Jason and I tested negative, but Lucy was still positive. That meant she was out of school for another five days.  She was not happy about the delayed return, especially since she was feeling just fine.

Mrs. W sent home worksheets and emailed us links to the lessons she was missing.   Yeah, so we managed to miss almost the entire school curriculum for sex ed.  But fun for Lucy we did those lessons together.  Anatomy, relationships, pregnancy, exploitation... all of it.  With charts, visuals, and worksheets.  It was fine, some of it was really awesome to walk thru at home - specifically the exploitation topic.  Since that happens to kids and it's almost never a stranger, we were able to explain that no matter what, her safety and happiness is more important than someone we know that is making her uncomfortable or hurting her. 

 There was a test today on the topics and I'll be interested to see how "we" did.