COVID

Well, it happened.  One of us has COVID.  Bo woke up on Monday morning complaining of a headache and had a fever.  In normal times, I wouldn’t think much of this, but since it’s 2020, I kept the trio home and arranged for all three to have COVID tests.

Bo’s test came back positive this morning, but both Clara and Anna’s tests came back negative.  Bo says he feels like he has a bad case of strep throat but overall is still functional.  We’ve talked to the trio’s school, swim coach, friends, and the health department.  Now the fun of trying to physically distance from each other in our own house begins.

The health department recommended quarantining him downstairs, all of us wearing masks in the house, and cleaning all surfaces as frequently as possible.  We’ve quarantined Bo in the basement and we’ve been wearing masks when we go to check on him or take him food.  The girls are also in their rooms or masked.  Keeping those two away from each other is not an easy task…  I did a thorough cleaning this morning of all bathrooms, the kitchen, and all other surfaces that may have been touched over the last few days.  Plus I’m doing laundry for any napkins, towels, etc. that may have been used by several of us.  The goal/hope is that none of the rest of us will get it and we can confine it to Bo.  Our 14-day quarantine started yesterday.

We are the first case at school, plus we exposed some of our friends before Bo was symptomatic, and that just makes me so sad.  My worst fear has always been exposing others and we have been so careful with following protocols at activities and with travel — but unless we are all willing to stay home 100% of the time…   At this point, I’m not sure where Bo could have picked it up.  Overall, we are back to a routine — a masked and different one with less exposure, but still exposure apparently.  He has been to school (class of 17 – physically distanced and masked), swim (a pod of 12, physically distanced in the water and masked outside of the water – plus a swim meet on Saturday with COVID protocols), art (a pod of 4, 3 of them Weitls), the gym (one-on-one with a personal trainer), and with a few close friends.  He went with Mike to Menards on Saturday the 17th to pick out new towel bars for his bathroom, masked, of course.  I’ve racked my brain for every contact he might have had and there is no known exposure point.

As soon as we noticed symptoms we quarantined, but of course, you don’t have to have symptoms to spread it.  I am just hoping that it didn’t go too far and that everyone he has been in contact with will be okay.  In the scheme of things, a 14-day quarantine is no big thing, as long as we all come out of it on the other side.

In positive news, Bo doesn’t seem to have any breathing issues so far and none of the rest of us have symptoms so far.  We are going to count all of that as a positive at this point.  Also a positive, I haven’t been traveling at all in the last two weeks, so it definitely can’t be blamed on travel.  Honestly, I think we are actually safer when we are traveling… but that’s a post for another day.

It’s crazy to see our calendar go from the normal hustle and bustle back to nothing, just like it did in March.  Online school, Mike and I working from home, no swim, no art, no gym, just a lot of time at home — and we can’t even really be together.  It’s going to be a long few weeks, but hopefully, this is the end of our bad news streak.  Fingers crossed.