I Tested Positive For Covid, Now What?

Well, well, well … if it isn’t the virus I’ve been trying to avoid for 2 years! If you came here from my Instagram you know COVID-19 finally took me down.

“Grace, you got Covid and the first thing you do is write a blog post about it?” No the first thing I did was curl up in the fetal position and alternate feeling crummy and frustrated. But yep. Yeah. Yes, I am posting about it because I can’t think of a more collectively shared experience to write about than this global health crisis. When I saw that dreaded second line, I thought about @My.Sister.Made.Me.Buy.It and how she shared her recent Covid experience on Instagram. I instantly felt less alone. For the past few weeks, households all around us have been dropping like flies. We’ve had more close calls since mid-December than we’ve had during this entire pandemic. I thought about waiting until I was fully recovered to share but with more and more people testing positive each day, I’m hitting publish.

To catch you up, back in October, once the 5-11 age group was eligible for vaccines and overall numbers were down, we decided to have a birthday party for our January birthday girl. We gave Margaret the choice of that versus a quick trip to her favorite place, but she loves her friends and lives for a party, so of course she picked party and I don’t blame her. Right before we were out for Winter Break, with about 5 weeks until the weekend we’d reserved for her party, and just as we were about to send out invites, we decided it’d be best to post-pone until late February. Margaret was upset, but understanding. These poor kids have had to roll with more disappointment than I like to think about. When I shared this decision on my stories, most people sent messages of solidarity as so many parents are in these tricky positions one way or another. But a few shared frustration that by postponing the party, I was “letting fear win”. Here’s more on that in this post of mine.

Here’s our thought process, to clear things up or perhaps help anyone else in the middle of analysis paralysis. We figure it is one thing to make the risk assessment to attend a party. It is another thing to put in all that work, money, and excitement into planning one in the middle of a surge, only to have it get waylaid by a quarantine or close contact. It is also another thing to take on the responsibility of hosting a large group of people when numbers are climbing at such a drastic rate. Margaret wanted both classes, the siblings of her friends, church friends, friends of the family, and then our family – so the number could easily be at 75 or more, and frankly we wanted to give that to her. There is a difference between a low-key get together of 20 people and a crowd of 75+ which is a scenario I think I’ll feel more comfortable with at the end of February based on infectious disease mapping models. So we made our Plan B to go to one of our favorite hotels for a mini-birthday trip. Not without risk, but also calculated ones and we knew that if we needed to cancel or reschedule it’d be easier to do so than it would be than for a whole party of 75+ people with multiple vendors. Sure enough the day before her birthday, Catherine’s preschool class had to quarantine for a positive test, which is the first time during this whole thing that either Margaret or Catherine’s class has had to quarantine. The protocol at our school is that Margaret was still allowed to go to school, but Catherine would be home for 5 days, no symptoms, and a negative test. Margaret is also fully vaccinated so that meets the CDC criteria even if she was exposed. I got some DMs from people saying they would’ve just gone ahead on the trip, or shared that their preschool didn’t require quarantine since their class is wearing masks (as is our school) – but for us we decided to move to Plan C which was follow the quarantine guidelines and reschedule the hotel stay. So with less than 24 hours I pulled together a lot of what I had at home or could order via Shipt and Publix Delivery. My mom who is staying with us helped out, and Curtis had already taken a half day so he helped out too. Margaret requested a birthday menu of Pink Chicken – which don’t worry, it isn’t raw chicken, it refers to the marinade! You can find the recipe here. We planned to rent Sing 2 and make it an at-home movie night.

Quick time hop – on Thursday I woke up with a froggy throat. Not sore, I just sounded like I was losing my voice. I’d heard about this warning symptom with Omicron in particular. I took an at-home Covid test – the same brand of rapid test they use at our community testing site – and it was negative. That night I continued to feel fine, but I still sounded a little like Roz from Frasier, so I tested again because I didn’t want to send Margaret to school the next day if I had Covid. Once again it was negative. Friday I woke up feeling normal and sounding better. As I ran around that evening setting the table I started to feel tired, but who isn’t, especially these days? When we finally sat down to eat dinner I was so sore. Again, not really headline news for me at the end of a busy week, but it caught my attention. We had the birthday cake and then in the middle of watching Sing 2 for Margaret’s Plan C birthday celebration at home it hit me like a freight train. The tidal wave of fever, aches, and chills came on with a speed I’ve never experienced. Even the hair follicles on my head hurt. We put the girls to bed and I tested. The second little line lit up like tinder.

Curtis grabbed his stuff and was out on the couch in a flash. Now I’ve taken up residence in our main bedroom while he takes on the girls. While they are positively going bananas out there, they’re all still negative and symptom free.

So here we are.

The rest of this post is going to be divided into sections ideally designed to be a helpful starting off point based on what I’ve personally done so far now that I tested positive for Covid. It goes without saying if you’re reading this in the throws of a positive result, your number one source for what to do next should be your healthcare provider and for children, their pediatrician. If you do not have a PCP, I’d reach out to your most trusted provider like your OB-GYN for instance, and at the very least they can point you in the best next direction. If that isn’t an option, there is the telehealth route and telehealth.HHS.gov is a good place to explore what is available to you.

WHEN I GOT THE + COVID TEST I:

• Isolated. My mom is on an extended stay in our guest room while she looks for a house so the best place for me is our main bedroom. Curtis moved from the couch to Margaret’s room on a blow up mattress. I feel terrible about it and wish dearly we’d already upgraded her to a Queen bed so he could have more room. Here is a resource on Isolation vs. Quarantine because I know sometimes they are used interchangeably but they’re different.

• Tested the household. Curtis took a rapid test the night I tested positive because obviously if he was positive then we’d be staying together. But it was negative so the next morning he got himself and the girls tested at our community testing center.

• Notified close contacts. Obviously this part stings, but I think that we’re in a place where especially since this is happening so frequently, most everyone is understanding. I also feel lucky to have had an open dialogue throughout this whole pandemic with anyone who would be on this list. We tried to stay transparent about our risk factors and were all on the same page as far as mitigation. Here is a resource from Johns Hopkins about who qualifies as a close contact as well as quarantine and isolation procedures. It was last updated Dec. 29th, 2021 as of this post.

• Notified the school nurse. I gave her all the information and so we’ll follow the next steps to a T to best protect our school community.

• Called my PCP. I don’t feel good, but I’m not really worried. I still I just called to let him know, and see if I am eligible for any of the newer Covid therapies like Monoclonal Antibodies and antiviral pills. They’re in scarce supply so they’re prioritizing extremely at-risk patients, and I don’t qualify. Even if you think that would be the case for you, you still need to hear it from a medical professional because you just never know and I was ready to do whatever he recommended. Also, the availability for the various therapies could change even in the next few weeks and become more available when the number starts to go down. So ultimately we talked about how to treat my symptoms and what to monitor. I think anyone who knows me knows I am very much on team “call the doctor” so this is a must in my book.

 THINGS I’M GLAD WE HAD ON HAND INCLUDE:

• Thermometer – More than one so that I can have one, and then the rest of the household does too.
• Pulse Oximeter
• Blood Pressure Cuff
• Cold and Flu Meds
• Sudafed
• Tylenol and Aleve 
• Saline Spray and Sinus Rinse
• Pedialyte – I like these powdered packets.
• Afrin
• Zinc
• Vitamin D
• Eucalyptus Oil
• Boogie Wipes
• Humidifier – Here is a good face one.
• TESTS – I know this one is hard. We’ve just done our best throughout all of this to have them on hand, but our at home options had dwindled so Curtis took the girls to the community testing site this morning. We have some more en route but they have yet to arrive. We ordered these.

OTHER COMFORT ITEMS: 

• Shower Spray – Like this eucalyptus one to help open up the sinuses if you’re stuffy like I am.
• Ice Roller – We always have this on hand and it is great for headaches.
• Pretty Tissue Holder – I can’t find the exact one I have but this Caitlin Wilson one is similar and super pretty.
• Heating Pad – I have both, one that you can plug in and one that you can microwave. I’ve had back aches with this.
• Massager – I love mine and especially now when I am extra sore.
• Facemasks – I’ve been treating my skin with TLC and facemasks like these while I am laying low.
• Wedge Pillow  – This one is great when you’re congested.

THOUGHTS:

Curtis is going to need a vacation after this.

The solo parenting in a quarantine situation is hard. Curtis doesn’t have any help because even with zero symptoms and all the negative tests, we don’t want to risk exposing someone else I’d give anything to be with them. The girls are upset and they miss me. Not all the time, but periodically it hits them and I can hear them crying outside my door. We Face Time, they talk to me outside the window, and we’re trying our best. Part of us felt as though if they’d tested positive at the get go that it’d be easier and we could feel some ease on the other side knowing it was over with, at least for a little while until whatever the next hurdle is. But they didn’t, and so here we are. I know some families aren’t as fortunate to be able to set themselves up in this way, so we’re grateful to have the space to do this, and to have a two parent home. My number one priority is resting up and recovering. I’ll also share updates or anything else I can think of that might be helpful because I know one truth that persists is the reality that we’re all in this together.