After spending months and months…and months avoiding the virus – back in December we finally fell victim to it! We’re still not entirely sure where it spread from but Steve was the first one to develop symptoms. It was right after Christmas and we hadn’t even been with family on Christmas but somewhere Steve caught it. He tested relatively quickly after his symptoms manifested, but by that time, Hallie too was experiencing symptoms. Immediately, they went into quarantine and I decided since I share a bed with Steve, I had been exposed and I went into quarantine in a different room. (We were trying to limit exposure to the rest of the kids).
For days we quarantined separately and away from the rest of the kids. It sounded like a great idea when we started – didn’t want to put anyone else at risk – but I’m not sure we would do it like that again. With Steve, Hallie and myself out of the picture it left Hunter to manage the home and younger kids for days on end. He took care of his siblings. He fed them. He cleaned up after them. And we couldn’t be more grateful for how amazingly helpful he was. But it took it’s toll. It took it’s toll on us and especially the kids. For the first several days we remained in our rooms. Eventually, we ventured out of our rooms with masks on and I remember Cannon was struggling with one thing after another and tears became his constant companion. And then like a dagger to the heart he says, “I just want to give you a hug.” I thought he would be thrilled to have unlimited TV access while mom and dad were out of the picture, but he needed more and we couldn’t give it to him.
The virus was manageable – the quarantine, however, just about did us in. Like I mentioned earlier, given the opportunity to do it again, we probably would do it a little different.
Steve ended up having the most severe symptoms and even then, they weren’t bad. He experienced some light cold symptoms and extreme headaches and fatigue. Hallie had extreme cold symptoms for three days and lost her taste and smell. She still doesn’t have much smell and limited taste. I had hardly any cold symptoms, but I had extreme headaches and some exhaustion for two days and then after day 5 I too lost my taste and smell and it really was the weirdest sensation. I ate and fully tasted a banana at lunch and minutes later I ate something else and my taste was completely gone. Over a week later, I started to regain taste, although smell has been a little slower in coming back. Hunter, Bennett and Cannon ended up with runny/stuffy noses within that week but they were so minor if you blinked you would have missed it. Perhaps that was their bodies fighting the virus and perhaps they never got it, we just don’t know.
I’ve always dreamed of being quarantined in my house without home responsibilities…think of how much I could accomplish! 🙂 As you can imagine, this wasn’t quite what I had in mind. Hallie kept entertained by facetiming friends. I worked on some blog books. And Steve…slept. Every afternoon we would all head outside for some much needed vitamin D and later on some mask relief.
It was the longest two weeks of my life. Seriously.
Like most people, we have spent the better part of the year making calculated decisions – should we do this? Skip that? Sometimes our concern and diligence was high and other times we felt normalcy creep in. Everyone can agree it’s been a long and drawn out year.
Honestly, we are grateful for good health that allowed our bodies to fight it. Oddly enough it’s been a sigh of relief the last month and a half because our subconscious fear of the virus has been calmed. I still wear a mask every where and sanitize my hands like crazy, but I’m really doing it out of respect for others because I’m not concerned for myself at this time. And it’s liberating.
And I’m going to enjoy this peace of mind for a while longer until my body no longer shows signs of antibodies!!
