by pumpkinpi » Wed May 10, 2023 1:26 pm
Ugh. The virus has hit our house again.
Friday Rooster was at a friend's house, and Monday we learned that the friend got sick over the weekend and tested positive Monday. I thought oh great.....that's exactly how it happened the last two times, our kids brought it home from a playdate.
In the meantime MrPi wakes up feeling crummy Monday. He chalks it up to having slept with the windows open for the first time (allergy season!) and being exhausted after coming back from Buster's soccer tourney in Wisconsin.
Then Tuesday morning, MrPi tests positive. Fortunately he seems to have it pretty mild, even compared to the rest of us. He's comparing it to a cold, as you hear often.
As of Wednesday morning, the rest of us are still feeling fine. We are really not sure how MrPi got it. He and Buster were with people for the soccer games Friday-Sunday, but that was almost all outside. Even meals. And the two of them had the same exposures. So he probably got it Wed-Th away from us, but he can't point to any time he was inside with people for any length of time.
What's so ironic is that he traveled to Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, London, Rockford, and Madison between April 12 and May 7. He wore masks while on planes, and inside as much as he could, but he had meals and business meetings unmasked plenty of times. But his exposure wasn't tied to any of those trips!
So it's coming at us from two angles right now. I hate this stupid virus. I am so grateful that now that we've all had it, we know that it's likely not very serious for us. But it totally upends our life. Finding tests (yay, we got two more batches of free tests before the funding runs out!) counting days from exposure, deciding if it's safe to go to school/work/activities even if we are feeling fine and testing negative. According to the CDC, yes. But they also report that you are most infectious 1 day before you get symptoms! Buster had a soccer game and Rooster had a band concert last night, but we all tested negative so we went (masked, of course.) Still, I'm going to be paranoid that it was the wrong decision.
It's also a hard decision about whether or not I should go in to work. For the safety of my coworkers I should stay home, but that means I'm around MrPi more. (we're isolating on different levels of the house, wearing masks, and have windows open.) Fortunately it's not critical for me to be onsite, so I decided to stay home. But then I send the kids to school....is that hypocritical?
What's ironic is that for the past few weeks, we are usually the only people masked anymore. Even at my work. I feel like we've been so much more careful. But even I let my guard down---I had a conference a couple weeks ago, and I was inside over a Friday night/Saturday morning-afternoon, and I went unmasked the whole time. It was with about 20 planetarium professionals, and I would have been the only one in a mask. That's not why I did it--I had chosen to already.
So now we're on covid watch. Buster rode in the car 4+hours with MrPi Sunday, but he just had it in February so maybe he's immune? I definitely had close contact with MrPi after he became symptomatic, but not at ton. I sleep on the couch because he snores, so that removes a whole lot of exposure! Still, Buster would probably test positive in the next day or two, and those of us without symptoms are not isolating. I'm almost of the mind of having us all get it now, and get it over with. It's not a bad time for us, there is nothing in the next week that we can't miss.
Too bad ignorance isn't painful.
"Standing at the forefront of human ignorance." Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe
This damn disease.
