We have been very Covid-responsible. We were able to work from home so kept our son at home. We did both lose our jobs at different points, but we’ve found new remote work, and just recently sent our son back to daycare, because at 2.5 years-old, the man needs some socialization.
But Covid-responsible is a sliding scale. Are there people who took more precautions than us? Definitely. Were there people who did less? Of course. But we went from full lockdown to venturing out a bit to getting vaccinated which led to venturing out a whole lot more but still keeping it tight because that vaccine for young children is still on its way. We still mask up if we are indoors. In fact, when I went to meet up with friends for a football game, my friend couldn’t stop being irate with me for wearing a mask at the bar after the game. Even after that, I got tested when I got back in town just to make sure that I wasn’t going to contaminate my son.
But, just a week later, our bubble, which had been growing in size but we still thought was safe had finally popped. My son’s teacher, despite having a fever and chills, decided it would be a good idea to go in to work on Monday morning. She stayed there until the afternoon when my wife picked up my son, listened to the teacher complain about having chills, and told the director that something needed to be done. Sure enough, they got a rapid test and the teacher had Covid.
My son is only doing half days, which gave us slightly more comfort on things, but not a ton, because he was in close contact with someone who had it for half a day.
I like to take action, but my wife LOVES to take action. She wanted me to schedule a Covid test immediately, and I almost followed orders, but I knew it took a couple days to show up so I decided to call our pediatrician as opposed to trying to find a correct answer on the internet (spoiler alert: the internet says every action is both the right and wrong decision in regards to everything). They had a more measured approach. Just monitor him, look for symptoms, and if the symptoms start piling up, get him tested at that point.
So, of course, in our heads, everything became a symptom at that point. If he sneezed, could this be Covid? A cough? Oh no, that’s gotta be Covid. Plus, checking his temperature nearly every hour. It’s 98.8…that’s a pretty high 98, is this the fever? Yes, we were losing our minds in a very short period of time.
But after day 1, I started to calm down. I realized there is nothing I can do at this point. My son didn’t need to pumped full of horse dewormer or cow flea medicine, or any other stupid shit being peddled by morons on the internet. I also knew that it was rare (but not impossible) for a child to have terrible effects from it. So I stayed calm and kept our eyes open for signs. There was a runny nose (nearly constant with him at daycare), a few coughs, but his temperature and appetite stayed normal so there wasn’t too much cause for concern.
He had his exposure on Monday so Friday we got him tested, mostly because my wife was planning on visiting her sister so we figured we might as well get both of them tested for peace of mind. Although there were a few hiccups with applying a nose test to a toddler, I didn’t have to experience any of that as my wife was in charge of that one. And, less than an hour later, we had the result that they were both negative.
Exhale.
This is the trade-off for getting back to some sense of normalcy. It’s a trade-off in order for my son not to become an antisocial hobbit, and it’s a necessary obstacle in order to move forward. So we’ll do what we can. Keep the bubble as tight as we can while taking measured risks in order to put ourselves in the best position to not contract anything.
And keep monitoring news of a vaccine for two-year-olds, because that would be awesome.