sick babysitter + contact tracing = perplexed paralysis

by David B.

 

I had just finished writing my coronavirus story when I received a call from the mother of our children that her babysitter tested positive for covid-19. As she is sharing this information with me I look over at my 6-yr-old son and notice him sleeping. He never sleeps in the afternoon! So I took his temperature, 100.7. Then I checked my 5-yr-old daughter, 99.9. At this moment I knew I would be sharing a different story on corona.

My kids were tested that same day. I immediately felt stressed. I'm 61 and in a somewhat risky age bracket plus I have two young children. Impossible to not consider the very worst case scenario. Then more thoughts entered my mind. What about the other people who were directly and indirectly exposed to my kids recently? The indirect link in this is me. So immediately I needed to think about everyone who was near us and contact them to let them know the scary news. I accomplished that within 30 minutes after the news about the babysitter.

The frustrating part about this is I did a good job of keeping social distance throughout the onset of covid in our society. However, the day I learned about the babysitter having covid was a Monday. That previous weekend I had finally loosened up somewhat on distancing. I reconnected with my mentor boy who is 10. We are connected through a local mentorship program. His mother is expecting another child. There is added risk. My cousin was visiting and has health issues. More risk. A friend in her 70s was visiting. Yet more risk. I visited my 87 year old father. Extreme risk!

I can not put into words the amount of stress I suffered at this time. I worried about all those around me and myself. There is little chance all of us would have had the worst possible outcome. But I know there existed the possibility of someone experiencing that. And it was bad enough to imagine people around me becoming very sick because of me. I took this on as my responsibility and I felt guilt for the situation we were all in.

I just assumed since the babysitter had it, and my kids had fevers, they must have it, too. And if my kids have it, then I will surely have it because my kids climb my body like it's a jungle gym.

Then I asked myself, "what should I do now?" Fortunately, I already spent time studying the virus and possible helpful supplements. On that same day, the WHO came out with a statement that it is very unlikely to spread the virus if you have no symptoms. So I wasted no time. I grabbed my mask and went out the door with a shopping list. I needed to buy food and supplies to last a few weeks and I needed my covid health supplements.

My health supplements included black elderberry concentrate (sambucol), zinc, vitamins C & D, NAC (N-acetyl cysteine), and a multi-vitamin. Then I bought organic blueberries and other things for nice smoothies. Coconut water for electrolytes. I started taking everything immediately. That first evening I was nauseous. Is this my first symptom!!!

The next day I awoke and felt normal again! Whew! Now my kids' fevers were gone. Another whew! The only symptom between us all was my son and a pain in his stomach. He had suffered with diarrhea the day of his fever.

Are we safe now? No. Many people, especially kids, have little or no symptoms. It was time to wait it out while being quarantined.

My kids tested on Monday, I had no symptoms but was advised to test anyways, not waiting for symptoms to appear. I was under the impression it was likely I would test false negative if I had no symptoms. Since I was already under quarantine after my quick shopping trip for supplies, I thought it was best to wait for symptoms, but my niece's boyfriend is a doctor and he advised testing asap. So I did.

4 days passed until the news came on the kids' tests; NEGATIVE! But, but... how? How can they have limited exposure to other people but exposure to the babysitter who is covid positive... then have a fever and it isn't covid? Right away I'm thinking FALSE NEGATIVE! That is the defensive side of me talking. But the facts were the facts. Both kids tested negative and no symptoms remain for many days.

Everything back to normal, right? Not so fast. On the day I found out that the contact source (my kids) for my worries of covid came back negative I wasn't prepared to go back to life like it was. First off... my test results were still unknown. But there is more to this than that.

I was invited to a friend's house to celebrate her birthday with just a few of her family members. Additional news... one of her daughters has some illness symptoms. Hmmm... Back into the risky waters so quickly? No. I am not ready to go through that stress again. And then from there, meet other people. No, not ready to go through that guilt again.

Modern day life is complicated. The coronavirus has added a huge wrinkle into our lives and has clumped up the fabric of our social existence. What are the answers? Hmmm... to what? We need answers for every fiber of our lives now. Maybe stories from many people can help fill in the gaps. Maybe.