On Doing Everything Right...
and Still Getting Covid
When we moved in with my in-laws, we made the decision to pull our kids out of their beloved preschool, I started working from home again, and only went to the grocery store. We planned to live in this bubble with Chris only going to and from work until the vaccine was available to his parents. We knew this was our best shot at keeping them safe and we were very lucky to even have that option because so many people do not.
Chris left for work on a Monday morning and returned within minutes saying he got a message from their school nurse that people he works in close contact with had tested positive for Covid and not to come in. Everything stood still as we thought about what this could mean for our family. He went and got re-tested that day and I scheduled a test for later in the week to be sure we were in the clear. His test results were negative but mine came back positive.
We confined ourselves to our bedrooms and wore our masks until the children went to sleep at night. I cooked our Christmas dinner on a George Forman grill on the dryer because we didn’t want to go in any part of the house where his parents were or could be. The anxiety I felt over possibly having spread it to his parents - alternated with the complete rage I felt over getting it in the first place (I had done everything right!). We will never know if I got it at the grocery store or if Chris passed it to me without ever getting it. I’m trying to lay that down and just be grateful that so far, everyone else is healthy.
One of my biggest fears in sharing my story is having people who are already resisting the safety precautions of our medical experts say, “see, it doesn’t matter what I do because I can still get it even if I follow the rules!”
If that is your takeaway from this- well- I don’t know what to say.
What I hope, instead, is that people will realize that the unknowns of this disease are not worth the risk. It’s been a really long year and I know everyone is tired and frustrated, and yet, I am praying more people are guided by love for their fellow humans and decide “I will do everything in my power to not be the reason someone else gets sick.”
This is a season, friends. It’s not going to last forever.
We’ve all got big feelings about this year- let’s make sure care for one another remains the priority.
I also had the fear of passing it on. My Dad has prostate cancer. So I try to stay away. My Mom came to my house for cake on my sons birthday. It was only my Mom, niece, and me and the boys. I got symptoms the next day. The fear and guilt of possibly giving it to my Mom and her passing it to my Dad is not even describable. I did almost all of my Christmas shopping online. The stores that I went too I was in and out, sanitized the cart if used, washed and sanitized my hands. If I did go out I made sure to stay socially distanced. I tried to still live as normal of a life, yet be safe about it. I almost went to the hospital 2x. I had it pretty bad. I am still afraid that my boys will end up with it. They still have until this Friday to stay in quarentine. Just to be safe. Long story short. I get it.