Here, have some pandemic

[cjsmith]

Well, it finally reached our house: Rob is COVID+. (On home PCR, well before any rapid antigen test showed anything. Be careful out there, folks.)

For two and a half years I've guessed this is how I was going to get COVID. Rob was going to go do something fun and he'd bring it home. This is the pattern he and I have followed for decades. (He travels. I usually have a job.) In any case, here we are. I do not always love being right.

Rob says it feels like having the flu, which at our age is pretty darn fortunate, frankly.

It feels weird to be masking in my own house. But if I can skip this, I sure do want to skip this. So far so good. My biggest exposure probably would have been Tuesday/Wednesday kind of time frame. I worked pretty late Thursday, the day he started to feel bad, and we began solid precautions by Friday. If I'm still in the clear by Monday my odds go way up.

Tick... tick... tick... tick...

Comments

[minoanmiss]

ALL GOOD LUCK. Away dang viruses!

[cjsmith]

Thank you! Virus, virus, go away; don't come again any other day!

[hitchhiker]

fingers crossed!

[cjsmith]

Thanks!

[tenacious_snail]

wishing you the best. Glad that your house is large which can create some separation.

[cjsmith]

YES, we are super fortunate that way. And we are already sucky co-sleepers, so we didn't have a few nights of Massive Exposure before the positive test; that too is fortunate. AND we had a home PCR setup; that's SUPER fortunate.

Health risks really do track socioeconomic factors.

[noelfigart]

Oh my. Good luck! I am sorry this has happened.

[cjsmith]

Thanks! Fingers crossed; I'm still asymptomatic/nonfeverish and I'm saving our one remaining PCR for tomorrow AM. (Rob was finally rapid antigen positive first thing this morning, 48h after PCR told us what was going on.)

[ckd]

Fingers crossed for you both: that you stay negative, and that his case continues to be mild and ends quickly.

[cjsmith]

Thank you! Fingers crossed!

[lcohen]

here's hoping that you stay healthy and his case continues to be fairly mild!

[cjsmith]

Thank you! Fingers crossed hard over here!

[nosrednayduj]

Um. Sorry? It's sort of my fault, right?
About 15 people from the dance have told me that they tested and they were all negative, so the airplane home seems to have been the vector.

[cjsmith]

Oh it is so not your fault. You did everything.

We are both certain it was the airplane home.

(For what it's worth, Rob wasn't rapid-antigen positive until this morning. Home PCR picked it up 48h earlier. This is consistent with what I see about Omicron. If anyone's feeling punky, wait a few days of punky, THEN check rapid antigen, for best sensitivity.)

[pauamma]

*knocks on wood*

[cjsmith]

Thank you! Fingers crossed over here.

[pauamma]

Saw this again while cleaning old emails, and hoping it went well.

[cjsmith]

It did! Thank you. He recovered smoothly with no complications that we can detect, I got to stop masking in the house and stop fetching/carrying from the kitchen, and as far as we (and PCR) could tell I didn't catch it.

[billeyler]

The dynamics and mental aspects of this have certainly changed in 2.5 years. Locally, the only place I see masks now are at anything medical, like doctor's offices and at chorus rehearsals. We also have been square dancing for some months again, mostly without masks. A few people report being COVID+, but it doesn't make people crazy anymore, and typically symptoms go from nothing to light sniffles to flu-like, sometimes with extended periods of tiredness long after.

He could have gotten it on the planes or at the dance event itself. Hard to tell anymore.

[cjsmith]

Things sure have changed. The fact it isn't "good chance of being fatal" any more is a big shift, for one!

He probably got it on the plane. Not a single person from the event itself has fallen positive. Planes are full of untested, unmasked, probably some un-jabbed, people in a closed, best-attempt-ventilated environment for hours. He masked, but one mask does only so much.

[amaebi]

I am holding my thumbs tight for each of you and both of you.

[cjsmith]

Thank you! Fingers crossed and thumbs held.

[labelleizzy]

🤞🏻🤞🤞🏼🤞🏽🤞🏾

[cjsmith]

Thank you! Same here! :)

[wcg]

FWIW, we've been requiring masks at our Contra dances since we resumed them last year. In that time we've had several instances where one dancer tested positive after a dance and let us know about it. We have not had any cases of community spread. So it's pretty persuasive that the masks work, even when people are holding each other close and breathing hard.

I hope they work for you.

[cjsmith]

Thank you! Doing well so far, with Rob's signs and symptoms almost completely gone by now. Fingers crossed!