Well, it wouldn't be right to make it through the year 2020 without some sort of blog post about Covid. The first time I heard about Covid-19 was way back in January. At the time, it was being referred to as Coronavirus and I honestly found it funny that it partially shared a name with a beer. January and February moved along at their normal pace. Our family had its share of sicknesses come and go...normal colds, a nasty 24 hour stomach bug...the usual suspects. March started out like any other March. The hope of another long winter fading away and dreams of an upcoming trip to Florida for our annual spring break getaway were the main focus. Then, suddenly, everything changed.
The end of March, all of April, and most of May were lived with great amounts of confusion, isolation, and uncertainty. We managed to find a groove with our new normal and learned to find joy in the simplicity of life at home with the six of us here ALL.THE.TIME!
Summer came and went. We tried to keep it as normal as possible. Trips to the lake were a reminder that not everything in the world was different. Longer days at home reminded us of the fact that we are so thankful for our pool, wonderful neighbors, and small amounts of friends that helped keep our "bubble" small and safe.
School started with great amounts of chaos. Choosing between in-person learning and the remote learning option felt like a no-win situation. We went with in-person only to experience a last minute switch to remote learning for all kids. The fear of a repeat of Spring's horrendous e-learning was real. However, we were blown away by how phenomenal our teachers did with implementing a remote learning option that was as good as it possibly could be. We found a new groove and began to enjoy yet another new normal in 2020.
A few weeks into remote learning, the talks began about how and when they would finally be able to get kids back into school. Mid-October became the goal, and on October 13, all four of our kids were back to school (at the high school, Nyla started a couple weeks prior). There were so many changes to what school used to be like, but 2020 has made children more resilient than ever and the kids handled the changes like champs. It was amazing to think that kids could wear masks all day at school, and yet there are grown adults who refuse to wear them for a 30 minute trip to the grocery store!
All seemed well until just a few days into it. I got a call around 11:00 on Monday morning. After only four days of being back at school, Joel was being sent home to quarantine due to an exposure at school. It turned out that his whole class was considered exposed because his teacher was the unlucky one that had gotten sick. Joel was expected to go back to remote learning with his class. Unfortunately, this time his remote learning was being provided by a substitute while his teacher was home recovering. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing. Like I said, these kids have learned to be insanely resilient in 2020!
Our family took the necessary precautions. Nobody came into our house besides the six who live here. Joel didn't interact with anyone besides the people in our immediate family. Our safe, seemingly secure little bubble shrunk back to the small size it was last spring. As we have always said, we wanted to do our part to make sure we didn't spread Covid. Just in case Joel was an asymptomatic spreader, we wanted to be careful. Doctors didn't recommend for him to be tested if he didn't show symptoms, so we just kept an eye on him and kept our circle small. We could handle 14 days of this if it meant keeping others safe.
About a week after Joel was sent home to quarantine, Tyler started to show some mild symptoms. However, they were so mild that we didn't even pay close attention to them. It wasn't until Wednesday, the 28th, when he woke up feeling quite sick, that we finally put the pieces together. Tyler was lucky enough to get into a testing facility (after nearly five hours of waiting) and by 3:00 that afternoon, we found out that he was positive for Covid. Aside from the initial panicked feelings that come with recognizing that this awful virus is now hitting this close to home, there was now a logistical nightmare to tackle.
I immediately called the schools and had to arrange for the kids to all be home for the next two weeks. We had to try to think back on anyone we had interacted with in recent days, and needed to do the right thing and let them know that they were potentially exposed. The silver lining with that is the fact that we had majorly scaled back our circle due to Joel's exposure and Tyler had also spent the past few days working from home. There were tons of calls made to doctors, health departments, testing facilities, and school nurses. All of which were a desperate attempt at getting enough information to decide how to handle the situation in the safest way. Unfortunately, every expert had different advice. Nobody seemed to know the right answer. Do we get everyone tested in our house? If so, when? And where? And what type of test? And how much will that cost (have I ever mentioned how much I loathe phone calls with insurance people)? And when can my kids go back to school? And how will they learn over the next two weeks? Oh wait, there's no option for remote learning when I child is home on quarantine? Unless, of course, they are in junior high, where the superhero teachers are livestreaming their classes all day. What about the other kids? I was thrusted into single parenting and was caring (from a distance) for a sick husband who was going downhill FAST. I moved myself out of our room and shut the door behind me....praying that he would be okay. I couldn't afford to get sick as well. Thank God I'm "only a stay-at-home-mom" and didn't have to also deal with my own work/career obligations.
I don't know if it was the rather hectic and stressful Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday....or if it was the fact that I share a bed with a person who was coughing all night on Tuesday (just hours before testing positive for Covid)...or a combination of the two, but on Saturday morning, I woke up knowing that it was my turn to go down with the ship. My headache was brutal, I was achy everywhere, and simply walking up the stairs left me exhausted. It was, however, October 31, and my mama heart wanted to make the most of a disappointing, cancelled Halloween. We were going to carve pumpkins, make cupcakes, play games, and enjoy our quarantined Halloween. I tried my best, but by noon, I was laying in my makeshift bedroom (the basement futon) and couldn't even make it upstairs to check in on Tyler (who, by the way, was doing WAY worse by this point). I was torn between just going upstairs and joining him, or hanging onto the hope that this was just a fluke and I'd be fine the next day. Needless to say, I needed to get tested. And that is easier said than done. I was lucky enough to get a reserved testing slot the following day, so I drove my weak and feverish self 30 minutes to the one testing facility that I could get into. I was positive.
I drove home, walked in with my mask on and faced the harsh reality that I wouldn't be hugging or interacting with my kids for the next ten days. I was heartbroken and anxious. How on earth could two parents isolate themselves in a house with four kids and a dog that need to be cared for? Under any normal circumstances, we would LOVE an excuse to check out of the parenting game for a couple weeks and spend time with just the two of us. This, however, was anything but normal. I immediately packed up my makeshift room and headed back upstairs. Though sick, weak, and battling the worst headache of my life, I mustered up the strength to do as much disinfecting and cleaning as I could. I felt terrible knowing that I had been walking around exposing the kids for well over 24 hours before I tested positive.
I finally made it to our room and closed the door behind me. Our angel of a teenager assured me that she had things under control, but I still felt awful leaving her with that burden. She took on this nightmare like a champ, and the simple joy of hearing my four kids laughing downstairs was enough to brighten the darkest moments of our struggles with this nasty virus. Added to that joy was the blessing of so many friends who brought meals or sent texts on a daily basis to check in. My mom and sister were saints for making grocery runs and leaving things on the front porch for us. There was so much goodness amidst the endless days of feeling awful. Thankfully, my battle was much easier than Tyler's. I had about four days of a low, but relentless fever. I had the most excruciating headache and back pain that I've ever experienced and I was EXHAUSTED. I also had a loss of taste, which was so odd, but completely normal with this virus. Tyler seemed to be on an endless rollercoaster. At some points, he seemed to be on the mend, but at other points, I felt like we were minutes away from going to the hospital. After almost a week, he ended up with what appeared to be a secondary infection (possibly an ear infection). Once he got meds for that, he seemed to slowly bounce back and get on the path to healing completely.
The entire experience was one that I do not wish upon anyone. Aside from the obvious part....being super sick....there was so much more that had to be dealt with. Like I said, I'm incredibly thankful for the blessing of so many people that we could rely on to get us through. We were able to focus on getting better and (we think) were able to keep anyone else from getting it. Tyler and I did come out of our "isolation" periodically to get food, throw some laundry in, explain a math problem or check a piece of writing (from a distance), etc., etc.....but, for the most part, we made sure we were keeping as far from our kids as possible. The last thing we would've wanted was for us to be left caring for a sick kid while feeling sick ourselves. We also wanted to do whatever we could to avoid adding more days onto what already felt like endless weeks of quarantining! By the time we were finally all in the clear, it felt so good to just hug our kids, sit down and eat a meal together, and even to be the mediator of a sibling squabble!
