Covid seems to be invading our lives even more than any other surge. Sunday we found out that our kids’ ELA teacher tested positive. Then Tuesday morning we got a notice that a friend in their class did as well. And even more concerning was the email that someone in the cast of the show my husband just finished tested positive as well. The reason that was most concerning is because none of the cast wore masks in rehearsals, back stage, or during performances. At least the teacher and friend were wearing masks at school, as were my kids.
We didn’t want to risk spreading anything to vulnerable members of our family, so we made the decision to have my husband get a rapid test before seeing his grandmother on Friday. He was negative, thank goodness.
We were still debating on if the rest of us should test, just to be sure, when we found out that one of the little boys that my mother in law (who lives with us) homeschools has tested positive. The last time she was with him was Thursday. We are scheduled to drive to Florida on Monday to spend Christmas with family. All of the adults and my kids are fully vaccinated, with several of us already boosted as well. Unfortunately, one nephew and our niece are too young to be vaccinated and the other nephew only became eligible last month and his second dose is scheduled for while we are there.
So right now the plan is that my mother in law will test tomorrow morning before we leave. Assuming she’s negative (which I am sure she is), we will start our trip. We plan to stay in a hotel along the way, so the next morning we will all test with the home test kits I bought. If we are all negative, we will travel the rest of the way to Florida and see our family. I don’t even want to think about the possibility that we might not get to see them.
All of the old fears about unwittingly carrying the virus to people we care about are back. We had planned to go caroling with our church this afternoon, but with as stressful as this has been I decided to cancel. The kids and I stayed home and watched church online instead of potentially exposing ourselves yet again.
I did get some comfort this morning when I read a Wall Street Journal article that said that the Phizer and Moderna vaccines are the only ones that seem to be preventing infection from Omicron. Other vaccines are helping in reducing the risk of severe illness or death, but Phizer and Moderna (the vaccines we all got) are the ones that are to stopping it entirely. I know there’s still the potential for breakthrough, but it’s unlikely that we would be silent carriers. At least, that’s what I’m holding onto.
My kids, and particularly my son, have been extremely upset by the whole situation and with his usual dramatic flare, my son has decided it’s all due to his personal luck. No matter how hard we try to convince him otherwise. And I just read a note I wrote down from one of my sessions in which we discussed his dramatic outbursts and instead of giving him solutions or other ways to look at the situation I’m supposed to turn it on him and ask “What are your options?” Maybe I can try to remember that during the next outburst.
And to top it all off, I screwed up twice today. Once when I noticed that I hadn’t taken my morning medication (I have a morning and an evening pill sorter). So I took it at 10:00. And as I swallowed, I noticed that my evening pill box for Sunday was empty. I had taken my evening dose when I got up and now I just took my morning dose. Which meant I’d just taken double the dose for two of my five meds. I immediately texted my husband (a cardiac nurse for over a decade) and he said that I might feel a bit light headed, but he’s not too concerned because I have a pacemaker that won’t let my heart rate drop below 60. I’ve noticed several odd feelings today, but nothing too terrible, thank goodness. I just hope I haven’t thrown everything completely out of whack.
The other mistake I made was with the gift to my daughter. I decided to get both of our kids an iPhone for Christmas. One of them has a brand new number, so it won’t be a problem to set up when the time comes. But the other one will use the same phone number that is currently being used by a flip phone that my daughter keeps for emergencies (my son refuses to use it because it’s “not a real phone”). Now that school is out and there’s no reason for her to need that phone, I figured I’d try to get the number transferred to the iPhone. Only it needed me to get some information from the phone and you can’t get to settings without an Apple ID. Silly me decided to use my daughter’s ID to get onto it, since it will be her phone. Only it didn’t occur to me that an email would be sent to her saying someone was attempting to sign into a phone using her ID. Oops! She came to find me, telling me she was getting these strange emails about someone using her Apple ID to log onto an iPhone. I told her I’d see what I could figure out, then said I changed her password and not to worry about it. However, I know she’s a clever thinker and she knows that the gift she’d asked for from “Santa” was given to her by her great-aunt. So I wouldn’t put it past her to suspect that she’s getting an phone from “Santa” this year. And I’m sure she’ll put two and two together and realize that her brother (who would have asked for an iPhone if I’d made any indication that it could happen) would be getting one too. I am forever ruining surprises because I get overly anxious about how to get it all set up and end up giving it away accidentally. This has been a problem for years and it’s why I’ve stopped trying to surprise my husband.
Okay, I know that last part doesn’t have anything to do with COVID, but honestly, I think I was trying to get it set up to keep me distracted from all the “what ifs” surrounding this trip. And it’s anxiety that made me try to set it up now instead of just waiting until the night before we give it to them. Ugh! Stupid anxiety!!
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