A Family With Covid-19
Jan 27, 2021
A FAMILY WITH COVID-19
I never thought I’d be recording this episode but here I am - post having tested positive for Covid-19.
On 12/27/2020, my Dad tested positive for Covid-19. His symptoms were a dry cough but being in the barbering business he felt the responsible thing to do was to get tested for Covid-19, never imagining that he would come back positive.
Since that positive test, what a whirlwind it’s been. I began with symptoms that you could pass off as everyday regular ailments - like a dull headache that comes and goes. And then I started with waves of nauseousness. If you’ve ever been pregnant and experienced morning sickness, that’s exactly what it felt like but as fast as it hit, it was gone.
So I never thought anything of these.
Five days after my Dad tested positive, my daughter Natalie woke up with a belly and back ache. She looked terrible and didn’t want to get out of bed. This triggered me to have everyone in my family tested since we had just spent Christmas with my Dad.
On 12/30/2020, my whole family - me, my husband and my two daughters were tested. Because of the holiday and the labs being closed on New Years Day we were able to get our results the same day.
The call came in and I was informed that I was positive along with my daughter Natalie. So I asked about my husband and daughter Nyla. The nurse proceeded on that they were negative. This was a relief and a total burden all in the same sentence.
A relief that half of my family dodged the virus and a burden that we would now have to try to lie separately to not infect the other two. Natalie and I decided to stay upstairs where we could have easy access to our own beds as we had no idea how this virus would progress. John and Nyla hunkered down in the basement where they had access to their own bathroom and John came upstairs masked when they required food.
The first couple of days I went total psycho cleaning. If you don’t know, there are time requirements for sanitizing and disinfecting. Ten seconds to sanitize and 2 minutes to disinfect. So I disinfected the bathroom, the kitchen and any door knob, light switch in my house.
Because it was just after Christmas, we still had our Christmas tree up. I took all the ornaments off the tree and put my house back together. I also found it in me to organize and clean out my clothes closet.
These simple tasks that would normally not impact much, had me wanting to lay down. We were told that we would need to quarantine for 10 days from the start of our symptoms. Quarantine felt like forever and not being able to go anywhere was hard. More on that in a minute.
The rule of thumb for testing seems to be if you have no symptoms but live with someone who is positive - like my family’s situation - then you get tested around day 5 because it can take up to 5 days to become symptomatic.
On 1/4/2021, John and Nyla were retested to determine if they would remain negative and my family would be able to come off from quarantine on the 09th which was 10 days from Natalie becoming symptomatic.
I got the call on 1/5/2021 that both John and Nyla were positive now too. We had an idea that John was positive as he started with back aches shortly after we had originally gotten tested. But now our quarantine would have to be restarted from their symptoms.
Quarantine was a long road especially on the days we felt good enough to get outside. Fortunately, my family was mildly symptomatic aside from my Dad. I felt as though getting outside was very beneficial for us to breathe fresh air and get vitamin D. I also felt that moving was necessary as well.
Let me share the symptoms that my family experienced but before I dive in, I want you to know that Covid-19 seems to start mild and progressively gets worse before it gets better. And in a moment’s time, you can take a turn for the worse.
Ok, for symptoms:
For me, I was hit with fatigue. The smallest of tasks would tire me out. The mornings were the worst for me. I would wake up with backaches and headaches. One day, out of nowhere I developed a dry cough. If I breathed in too deeply, it would trigger me to cough every single time. At my worst, I was laid up in bed for most of the day because moving around made me feel sick to my stomach. I lost my appetite and also my taste and smell for a couple days.
John was faced with backaches, headaches and restless legs all of which prevented him from getting a good night’s rest. He could be classified as more mildly symptomatic than me.
Natalie complained of her belly and backache that initial day and only of her neck hurting a few times. Otherwise, she was herself but did lay around with me much of the time.
Nyla expressed pain in her forehead which I assumed was a headache-like symptom. She had this a few times but much like Natalie, she was herself as well.
Having to parent through this was not easy. We took epsom salt baths for our aches (me and John) and allowed the kids to play in the tub whenever they wanted.
Because we were not aggressively knocked down, we tried to get outside in our backyard with the kids to breathe fresh air and get some natural sunshine, aka vitamin D. We took short walks through the woods and would head back into the house 15 minutes later. It was enough to keep our sanity during the quarantine.
Now that I’ve explained what Covid-19 was like for my family, in the briefest way, I need to talk about something that really hit me hard and surprised me.
There is a nasty stigma tied to getting / having Covid-19.
People judge you.
They target you as dangerous.
You must not have followed the “rules”.
I need to put this out there and it’s not to scare you but every time you leave your house - with or without a mask - you are at risk of being exposed to the virus.
You can do all the right things and still get it.
It doesn’t make you a bad person or a danger to society if you have it.
I’m not a person to get hung up on the negatives of life because it does no good to dwell. However, I need to express to my listeners that if you have Covid-19, if you’ve had Covid-19 - you are still a good person.
If you’re a listener who perhaps judges people, stop. Because, heaven forbid you get it, you wouldn’t want someone judging you for things that are seemingly out of your control. It’s not fair to people.
Ok, now that I got that off my chest - I want to end this episode with some things you should know about Covid-19 based on my own experience.
This virus affects every BODY differently. I can now understand how people are super spreaders and never even know. Which leads me to the next thing -
Not everyone gets a fever. My two daughters and I never had a fever and John had a temp of 99.4 once. A fever is not the only indicator of this virus.
You can feel good one day and like you got run over the next. As I already mentioned, you will get worse before you get better. And you can wake up feeling ok and as you move around, feel like you have to lay down. You never know what each moment will bring.
If you lose your appetite, make sure you keep eating and hydrating. Food will gross you out at the thought of eating it but do it anyway. This will ensure you don’t weaken yourself. There were many days I forced my shake down just to have something in my body. I promise it will help.
Quarantine is hard. There is no other way around it. You can literally do nothing until you get cleared. Instacart can become your best friend.
Quarantine and being positive with two young kids is hard. We did what we could and survived.
If you buy a pulse oximeter for home to make sure your O2 levels don’t drop, please know that these can give inaccurate readings as we learned with my Dad. The EMT that came to my parent’s house informed us of this and said to try putting a towel over the pulse ox to get a more accurate reading.
I think I have covered much of my experience with Covid-19 and will be interviewing my Dad on his experience. He has had a rough go of this and I think it’s important for you to get both sides of how this virus can impact people who are considered healthy.
If you have questions, head on over to my Instagram where I hang out most often on social media and feel free to send me a DM. Let me know you’re coming from the podcast. My handle is @heatherfcooper.
Or you can visit my website to sign up to be on my besties list. I send out emails that are helpful and give my peeps some handy dandy tips. Go to www.heatherfcooper.com/email
Until next time, I’m sending you all so much love. Know you’re never alone in whatever it is you’re going through.