This morning, Saturday, I got an email with my PCR Covid-19 test results from Thursday: positive. I also took a rapid test this morning: negative.
Would it be useful to review the timeline?
Last Thursday: Paul, negative PCR test (test and results on the same day through a workplace program; he had an additional negative PCR test earlier in the week; he was, as we were notified later, a close contact on Thursday to someone who tested positive Friday)
Last Friday: Paul and me in the car for 8 hours, Paul feeling fine
Last Saturday: Paul and me sharing a hotel room, Paul feeling fine
Sunday: Paul and Rob and me in the car for 8 hours; Paul feeling bad; Paul positive rapid test; Swistle negative rapid test
Monday: Swistle negative rapid test
Tuesday: Swistle negative rapid test
Wednesday: (no test, because not going anywhere and no symptoms, and three negative rapid tests in a row)
Thursday: Swistle weirdish throat/ears, like maybe allergies or maybe coming down with a cold; little bit of a cough; PCR test midday
Friday: Swistle’s symptoms do not worsen; Elizabeth goes to prom, wearing a mask, after five days’ worth of negative rapid tests and staying in her room and wearing a mask in the house when she had to come out to fetch food to bring back to her room
Saturday morning (today): Swistle PCR test results come back positive; Swistle rapid test still negative
Paul, incidentally, is still testing positive on rapid tests. (He used the other one in the 2-pack I opened this morning.) He was Fairly Sick (fever, just dozing and watching TV, didn’t even touch his phone/laptop) on Sunday evening and Monday, sort of middling sick on Tuesday, and mostly better on Wednesday, I think, though already I am losing track. He has felt pretty okay since then, though still napping and coughing—but basically he’s in the bored stage of isolation now.
I am now isolating with Paul, and I don’t know if that is the right thing to do. Should I instead be isolating at a motel? But that seems silly: it seems like positive members of the family would isolate together. It IS nice to have normal access to my stuff again, instead of camping out downstairs; it IS nice not to wear a mask all day every day. Other than that, it is sub par. I am new to isolation and still settling in, and also Still Pissed and so was enjoying some Time Apart despite the inconvenience; so I feel like I am just trying to put my stuff away and get organized and figure out how to manage this, and he keeps TALKING and EXISTING and BEING RESTLESS in my vicinity.
It’s too late now, but what we COULD have done is gotten PAUL a motel room near his workplace. They think he should come back 5 days after a positive test, so they could have him. Then I could have this room/bathroom to myself. Plus, what if by some fluke the PCR test is wrong (like by swapped results or notification error, if false positive results are pretty much impossible) and the negative tests are right, and now I’m positively STEEPING in the air I’ve been vigilantly avoiding since Sunday? But we’ve already been sharing air in here for 8 hours, so. And also, I am not keen on the idea of spending so much money for him to stay in a motel and eat takeout for a week or whatever, while I am here, possibly getting sicker and trying to manage the household from isolation.
So far I have NOT gotten sicker. I have a mild irritated cough that sometimes gets caught in a little cough loop where I need to cough for a little while, but no worse/different than I have with seasonal allergies or with the tail-end of a cold or even with my reflux; “endless nagging cough” is historically one of my most common illness symptoms. I’ve also had very little appetite the past few days, though I had chalked that up to (1) lingering rage, (2) adrenaline, and (3) wearing a mask in the house and being reluctant to take it off even to eat—and those all still could have been contributors. I haven’t lost taste or smell yet; no fever yet; no unusual tiredness yet. (I was up past midnight waiting for Elizabeth to get home from prom, so I am a little tired today and that keeps catching my alarm: “Wait!! I feel tired!! …Oh, right.”)
I’m feeling very uncomfortable with being so unavailable to the kids, and so unable to do things in the house. We’re lucky the kids are all older, and in fact the oldest four ALL have driver’s licenses and can do things such as grocery shopping. Really, they are basically adults, and in earlier times would all be married off by now and running their own farms. But without SEEING what needs to be done, it’s a little difficult even to remember everything I do, so that I can delegate it. I’m also feeling very sad to be positive. Just, really sad about it.
It seems as if we should take the kids for PCR tests, since my rapid tests were negative and my PCR test was positive. But for the younger three, they have to have a parent/guardian with them. We COULD go, in a car with the windows all open, wearing masks; but right now we are just going to take a minute to think it through. No one has anywhere to be until Monday anyway.
I let work know that I’d had a positive test result. I’ve been so focused on AVOIDING Covid, I don’t actually know what the work protocol is now that I’ve gotten it. I don’t know how many days I’m supposed to be out, or what the requirements are for coming back. I might have it in an email somewhere. I THINK we’re supposed to stay out for 10 days, but it’s changed a few times and may now be something else.
Oh man. I am sorry to hear this. I hope this is the worst you feel with it and that everyone else stays well
I’m so sorry it has caught you; after you were so careful for so long. I hope it is mild and you can console yourself with ALL THE TREATS.
I’m sorry, Swistle. My 5yo has it for the second time and she only has to be out 5 days counting day of first positive test. She tested positive yesterday and can go back to daycare on Wednesday. She will just have to wear a mask.
Aw, man.
Around here, it’s five days, which is either based on. science or what people feel like doing
Oh no, that stinks! You’ve been so careful and thoughtful about covid but this variant is super contagious. Still, grrrr Paul for bringing it into the family. Hoping you have continued light symptoms and can read and candy crush and not worry about the state of the house. I work at a hospital and you are encouraged to return 5 days after a positive test if you’re not showing strong symptoms (I think it’s crazy). Maybe the whole family should get rapid PCRs on Monday, post-exposure, post-prom, post-everything. Good luck!
I’m so sorry to hear this. I can’t imagine how frustrating it is to be in the same room as Paul right now. May I ask if you are swabbing your tonsils before your nostrils with the rapid test? My kids were negative until we added that step and it correctly showed as positive. That’s how they recommend testing where I’m from in Canada. I hope you get better soon.
Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ve been thinking of you. I can imagine how, just profoundly DISAPPOINTING it must be to be so diligent and still have this happen.
I’m really glad Elizabeth got to go to prom. I’m noticing with kids their age a major effect of the pandemic has been this black cloud of Nothing Works Out hanging over everything. I mean, those of us on middle age feel that way, but it should happen way later. SIGH
Is “toss Paul out the window on his patoot” an option because if so I choose that one.
I am SO very sorry to hear that you have covid now. I am doing some deep breathing so as not to express my RAGE AT PAUL when really I want to be sympathetic to you. You have been SO careful. This SUCKS. I hope it remains very mild and goes away quickly.
I am very, very pleased to hear that Elizabeth got to go to prom. That is a relief. And now I will concentrate all energy toward Edward NOT GETTING COVID OMG.
Around New Year’s, in the full blast of the Omicron wave, we had 4/5 people in our house get covid. We got it in stages (2 people first, then 2 more 3-4 days later, 1 person never got it). We did isolate the first 2 covid positive, then later we had the 4 covid positive together with the run of the house and isolated the healthy person, but there was definitely 2-3 days where the healthy person was spending lots of time with the 2 who ended up covid positive, and that healthy person just never got it. We were all 5 vaccinated and boosted to the max allowable. The 3 eligible for boosters had had them within a month of getting covid; 2 got it anyway, and 1 never did.
FWIW, for me, WORRYING about getting covid was just a long, stressful, exhausting 20+ months. Actually HAVING covid felt stressful at first, when we didn’t know how sick people would get. When we very fortunately did NOT get very sick, it was just such an absolute RELIEF to have the thing I had worried about so much for so long actually over and with no (so far as we can tell) ill effects. (I get that long covid might come up at some later date but I’m choosing not to worry about that right now.) And I really did feel much less stressed about getting covid for the next few months. (It’s been 4 months now so I am starting to feel a little more concerned/aware again.) I hope your getting covid buys you a few months of reduced worry!
It is really, really, really hard to avoid getting covid. There is a lot of covid out there and it is a highly transmissible respiratory virus. You were very successful for a very long time! Getting covid is not a moral failing. Many many people I know who have avoided covid until now are starting to get it. I hope your convalescence is short and unremarkable, and your 4 driving children bring you all the good takeout and snacks.
You just articulated the blissful sense of relief that I’ve felt the past month since having covid go through our family and everyone had relatively mild cases without any lingering issues (so far). Just the stress of trying to avoid it so carefully, the mental gymnastics of mask-wearing/attending events/school, all of it. At least through the summer
… 😏
Sorry to hear this, Swistle. Hang in there and take it as easy as possible (easier said than done, I know).
I’ve followed your blog for a while, though this is my first time commenting. I arrived here via your baby name blog, having stumbled into the world of online baby naming while grieving my parents and generally needing a corner of the Internet that was kind, and thoughtful, and hopeful. Your writing gave me comfort during a lot of bleak and sleepness nights. I had meant to message you at some point to tell you that and to thank you, but it seems that now might be as good a time as any to find out that you have been a big help to a faraway stranger, so: thank you, and I am sending Good Thoughts, for what they are worth, in the direction of you and your family. (Generally Good But Also Exasperated Thoughts in the direction of Paul.)
I am so angry for you. SO. ANGRY.
OMG.
We also recently got it, this mild and highly transmissible version. Only I got a fever. The rest of the 5 of us had either no symptoms or a slight allergy symptoms. This was the goal – to do what we could to avoid it until the hospital systems could deal with it and/or the mutation was more mild.
The 12 year old had many many rapid tests but a positive pcr finally. But still negative rapid test. Most things I’ve read is that if you are negative on the rapid test you don’t have enough viral load to spread it.
The current cdc guidance is 5 days home. 5 days masked at work or school.
I read this, too (about negative rapid = not enough viral load to be contagious), but it’s not true. I got Covid from my husband who was asymptomatic but took a PCR test through work. After his positive test result came back, he immediately started isolating and took a rapid test: negative. Yet, he had already spread it to me and our two kids. We tested positive a few days later. It went against everything I had read!
I sort of wonder if you need to have a lot of mucus in your nose to test positive? When I had COVID in January, I started to feel a cold come on and was stuffed up/blowing my nose. I took a rapid test that day and it came back negative. I did a spit PCR test that day as well and mailed it in. The next day, I was a bit more stuffed up and took another rapid test and it showed positive almost the second I put the drops on the test strip. That night I got the rapid PCR test results back and they were positive (so I was positive the the first day and the rapid test was wrong). My symptoms were INCREDIBLY mild even at the worst of it. I took a rapid test a few days later and it was negative. Then again, a day later I took a rapid test after I had blown my nose and it was positive. I still think it is probably true that if you test negative on a rapid test you aren’t AS contagious as you could be. And, as an aside, when I got it I realized just how easy it is to catch it and pass it along. Because my symptoms were so mild, I never would have tested myself except I had an event to attend with lots of people in a few days and I was being super careful. If I was a person who had allergies or who just wasn’t as concerned, there would have been no reason to test. Because I was never ‘sick’.
In fact the rapid test is supposed to test the viral load in your nasal/throat tissue, NOT mucus. Having too much mucus sort of “dilutes” the sample and you’re more likely to get a false negative. Your positive result the next day would have corresponded to managing to get a better sample or, more likely, an increase in your viral load by then.
Oh shoot. I’m sorry. Well wishes for the kids, esp. Edward.
You have every right to be sad about it.
I’m hearing five days after the positive test is the norm around here – a negative test isn’t required to return to work. Which, in my opinion, is ridiculous and possibly dangerous.
I hope your symptoms remain mild and that no one else gets it.
Did Elizabeth have fun at the prom?
Ugh Covid is no fun, though hopefully you won’t lose smell or taste, I didn’t and maybe it is less associated with these new variants. In France the rule is 5 days if symptom-free, 7 days even if you are still testing positive. I was so tired that I couldn’t really return to normal life much before 10 days but I did go quickly into a grocery store with a mask on day 6. Get well soon!
I believe I had Omicron, too, sometime in February, and man, did I get tired! My 8 year old daughter and my husband skated through without a symptom or a positive test.
I also work in healthcare, specifically outpatient primary care and the rule is out for 5 days then back at work. They will let you back sooner with minor symptoms. We always mask anyways with patients.
My daughter had it 3 weeks ago. I was very slow to recognize it because her first symptom was dry throat after a soccer game. After two days of that she got congested. She was better in about 5 days, never had a fever, barely had a cough. I didn’t isolate from her bc my husband was out of town and, at 9, I didn’t think she could handle it. I tried not to be in her face but we spent lots of time in the same room and I never got any symptoms at all ( I also never tested)
Due to my work in healthcare I have been exposed hundreds of times by unsuspecting patients, clueless patients or both. I’ve also been exposed by two of my kids, my husband and my nephew and never gotten it. I’ve tested at times but many, many times I haven’t tested partly because I would’ve needed hundreds of tests by now. I assume I was either asymptomatic or all my micro-exposures have protected me. I am fully vaccinated and boosted but my booster was six months ago now.
Same from another medical family except it’s my husband who works in the hospital, not me.
Our 6 year old seemed to have mild cold like symptoms end of March. He tested negative on rapid kits so when I got sick shortly after I never thought anything of it. Of course, then my husband and 8 yr old started displaying symptoms and the three of us tested positive. The 6 year old even at this later stage never tested positive at home. Here they have stopped pcr testing except for in high risk environments and workplaces. Them being a somewhat young age we decided against isolating anybody within the house but of course all stayed home. All 4 of us wore our masks inside the house for 5 days, then another 5 days outside the house after. It felt like an eternity. We tried to eat outside as much as possible and would essentially unmask only to shower and sleep to try to keep the little one negative. Although it’s possible he had it and just never tested positive. Our symptoms were relatively mild – thank goodness for vaccines :)
What I am curious about if you feel like volunteering it, is whether Paul has shown remorse or can tell you’re super angry with him and what his response to that has been…
Oh, Swistle. I’m so sorry you’re sick, but I’m SO GLAD Elizabeth got to go to Prom! I would love to see a (headless) picture of her in her beautiful gown, if she’s ok with that.
Healthy and protective energy to Edward!
Nothing of the sort to Paul.
I hope you’re able to recover, physically and emotionally, more quickly than you think.
Staying positive (pun intended) for a speedy return to good health for you. Please don’t kill your husband, we would miss you too much! Think of the readers Swistle!
Oh Swistle, I’m sorry. I hope your symptoms will continue to be minor and that none of the children will get sick.
Ugh. Just ugh. I suppose being stuck in a car together for so long while he had symptoms made it almost inevitable but still… ugh.
If I’d caught it under similar circumstances I would not be too pleased to be stuck in the same room as him and I wouldn’t be able to keep that from showing, even if I tried, which I don’t think I’d be inclined to do. Honestly I think I’d drag the spare room mattress into the room and sleep on it rather than sleep beside my husband in that situation and feel him breathe (and snore!) on me during the night. I’d isolate separately in the spare room, but the only room with its own bathroom is ours so it would be too much of a risk to the rest of the household to use the common bathroom.
Agreed. I would not yet be able to isolate with my husband so soon in this situation. I already struggle with unintentionally broadcasting my annoyance/anger/frustration to him at non-him-related things. When it WAS his fault? I’d end up starting an argument over it in no time flat.
Oh boyyyy I’m sorry.
Swistle, I think this is an EXCELLENT time for you to indulge in one of those smallish indulgent purchases. Or possibly two! And also whatever special snacks you feel like.
And perhaps now is a good time to buy an anvil as well so you can test if you drop it on a loved one’s head, will he indeed sit up with a gloingggoinggggoinggggg sound with a bunch of birdies flying around his head? We just don’t know until it happens! Science needs you, Swistle.
I think that it would be a good idea to test at least the kids that were in the car with you guys
I understand it sucks and I HATE to sound like I’m siding with Paul on this based on the last post but our own (family of 6) bout with Covid went like this (in a country (Korea) that at the time required every case be documented).
Masks were required by everyone over 2 and everyone in our family was up to date with Covid vaccines and yet STILL my 3rd grader tested positive on a home test, which were then (March) required bi-weekly for kids to even go to school. All kids had tested negative on a Sunday evening (on the mandatory test). Tuesday morning a kid coughed so I tested her at home and it was positive. The ENTIRE FAMILY was then required a mandatory 7 day isolation, together, in our apartment, with PCR on day 2 and 7.
Day 2, no one else positive. Day 7 only her twin was positive. Luckily, at that point the guidance had changed to negative family could go to school. However, we were all still required a negative PCR on the new days 2 and 7, again. So prior-positive (patient 0) and negative brothers went to school. Husband and I stayed home with (new) sick daughter. I started feeling sick on day 3 of the new 7-day period but did not get a home test to turn positive until day 6. (In korea, then, any positive test was an immediate 7 days government-mandated isolation but only clinic tests counted so my home test HAD to be followed up with a clinic, which added a day bc it was the weekend). So EVEN THOUGH I had symptoms I couldn’t start my isolation until I got a positive home test (and subsequent “actual” PCR) the following day. My husband and one son tested positive on their mandatory PCR the next day even though neither of them had any symptoms yet.
Basically it was patient 0-home test/follow up PCR
patient 1 (7 days later)-clinical RAT
patient 2-me (13 days after patient 0)-home test/follow up PCR
patients 3&4 (14 days after patient 0) but my husband and son got symptoms pretty much immediately following their PCR tests (so on day 14) PCR
and my other son NEVER got sick.(he took nearly daily tests plus several clinical RAT and at least 3 PCR) he was also the only kid old enough to have had a booster.
Daughter 1 had a cough and then nothing. Daughter 2 was much more of a standard cold/congested grossness with a small fever. (both girls are 9) My son (10) sounded like he had Croup for 2 days and ran a fever and seemed legitimately sick, as compared to his sisters. I was EXHAUSTED by measures not seen since I had mono in college and had a really sore throat for about 4 days. My husband was obnoxiously coughing and pitifully asking for cold medicine even though *I* got sick first and that didn’t seem to register with him at all. All of us were fine within a week although I will say I had terrible brain fog and still seem to get brain foggy/randomly dizzy 6 weeks later. It is so weird to me how differently it affected everyone, hence the probably incomprehensible write-up. But hopefully it’s helpful to someone.
my reply was already obnoxiously long but it’s late in Korea and I already had a few drinks so after re-reading your post:
1) you could ideally get the kids PCR and that would be the best gauge but based on friends in the states now that is either hard to do or would take a long time to get back. Maybe they can just stay home a few extra days to be safe?
2) my kids were technically only allowed back at school with a negative home test although there was a weird glitch with the first daughter so basically we sent her back without follow up testing on day 8 post-positive as instructed, and then she tested positive on her next home test (day 13). She was still allowed to come to school b/c her designated isolation period had passed but basically at-home tests are weird and not to be completely trusted. Everyone else tested negative on follow-on tests, but my husband has said many military here have been screwed bc they can test positive on tests for WEEKS and they get stuck in isolation that entire time.
I truly hope you all have light cases b/c Covid sucks.
I’m sorry. After two+ years of avoidance, my entire family of 5 got it this past week. Honestly, I’m sort of glad we got it all at once because my kids are younger and need parental involvement/care, so at least I’m not worried about infecting them while I prepare meals and such.
Hope that your symptoms continue to be mild. I have been taken aback at how rotten I have felt and all the Covid effects (such as PINKEYE, who knew it could cause that??!! I didn’t! So that’s been fun). I naively though my vaccination and booster would equal super, super mild case…and while it has been mild by a doctor’s standard, it has still really sucked. Good luck!!!
Everyone in my family has had Covid, but it’s been weird – first (pre-vaccine, everyone super careful, not going anywhere and masking always) me, my husband, my son and my mom got it, but not my daughter, and we didn’t isolate her AT ALL because we thought it was inevitable that she would get it too and she is emotionally fragile when left alone too long. Then, post vaccine, still masking, still careful, but participating in life activities like school, my daughter got it. I didn’t isolate her from me (I did from the rest of the house) because I was worried about the impact on her mental health, but none of us got it regardless. And then, just last week, with us more lax about masking than we used to be, my husband (the least exposed of all of us because he works for himself and I go to work and the kids go to school) got it for a second time. We isolated him in the basement and none of us got it from him. Every single time, there was no identifiable reason that we had caught Covid. No school exposure, no work exposure, no friend exposure that we know of. And in all the MANY known times that my kids had been exposed at school and I had been exposed at work (both masked and unmasked) none of us ever caught Covid.
I don’t know what my point is exactly, but it’s a weird disease and it doesn’t seem like protecting yourself is very straight-forward. Paul may have caught it even if he was wearing a mask.
Ever since your last post I have been wondering if Elizabeth was able to go to prom and I AM SO HAPPY SHE DID!!!
I’m so sorry you got Covid too. I know when I got it I felt like, I did so well for so long! And then I got it. But you and I both did the best we could, it happened, and I hope for you that your symptoms are mild and your recovery quick and total. xo
I am glad Elizabeth got to go to the prom. I am so sorry you are now sick. I am hoping that your case is mild and no one else gets it. I think I’ll be nervous until we hear from you again.
I’m truly sorry, Swistle. That sucks so much. Two of my loved ones recently contracted it despite careful masking these past two years. I feel like it’s not if, it’s when, when it comes to Covid. I suspect we’ll all get it eventually, but now we’re at a point where we held out long enough to be protected from serious complications by vaccines and boosters, plus therapeutics. Plus by keeping ourselves healthy this long, we’ve helped not overburden the hospitals. Not sure if any of this is a consolation, but I really am so sorry you have to go through this.
Hopefully you’ll be extra immune for a few months, and you can enjoy a few Before Times activities with less fear! Hoping for a speedy recovery. <3