Well, it happened. We got covid. Charlotte woke up complaining of a sore throat on Sunday, January 9. She was otherwise fine all morning, and I kinda wrote it off and we all went on with our day. That afternoon, I gave a virtual lecture to a guild in North Carolina.
When I finished and ventured into the rest of the house to see what the family was up to, I found Jose and Charlotte on the couch with her looking quite sad and sick. After a nose swab and a 15-minute wait, we had our answer:
Positive.
To answer a few FAQ:
Charlotte was exposed at school. We know this with certainty. There were multiple others in the class who also came down with it last week.
We did not try to isolate without our house. Maybe if the kids were older? But it’s pretty difficult with younger kids. We also didn’t mask within the house. The whole family had been together alllll day Saturday so it was probably too late for isolation or masks to be very effective. Everyone was already exposed.
The first symptom for all of us was a sore, scratchy throat. Charlotte felt it on Sunday, Emma on Monday, and Jose and me on Tuesday.
The kids’ illnesses were staggered by about 36 hours, but their symptoms were the same. Sore throats, very slight congestion, and nausea. Charlotte threw up once (which may have been exacerbated by medicine on an empty stomach). Both girls ran fevers of 100-101 for about 24 hours. We treated their symptoms with ibuprofen and benedryl.
Each kid completely turned a corner around the 24 hour mark and was totally fine after that. It was very short-lived for them.
Jose and I had different symptoms from the kids. Neither of us ever ran a fever, but we both had sore/scratchy/raw throats, body aches/malaise, noticeable fatigue, and congestion. Jose’s congestion was more of the runny nose variety, while mine was more of a stuffed head/clogged ears.
Symptoms lasted about 4 days for me. I first noticed my throat on Tuesday afternoon. I felt pretty lousy all day Wednesday. Mid-day Thursday I started to feel better. By Saturday, the only lingering symptom was the stuffy head/clogged ears. (I am still a bit stuffy today, a week later, but it’s getting better. Lingering stuffiness is pretty typical for me with any type of viral cold/flu so I’m not surprised.)
Symptoms took a bit longer to ramp up for Jose, and lasted longer overall. He felt the sore throat late Tuesday as well, but was sickest on Friday. He started feeling better over the weekend and felt mostly normal again by Monday.
We did 3 at-home tests total. Charlotte’s (on Sunday 1/9) was positive. Mine (on Tuesday 1/11) was negative. Jose’s (on Friday 1/14) was positive. We did not get PCR tests, but it seems pretty clear that my test was a false negative. Interesting.
The girls stayed home from school all week. They were cleared to return to school yesterday, and required to wear masks this week. (They have been wearing masks all along.)
Jose and I stayed home from work — which isn’t that different from our usual, since I’m still full-time at home and Jose is about 50/50. We each worked a little, but were thankfully able to take a bunch of sick time to care for both ourselves and the kids.
We went nowhere and saw no one and overall it was both a very eventful and a very boring week. Ha!
It’s ironic that our experience was exactly what the anti-vaxxers and covid deniers claim. For us, omicron was “just a bad cold.” Fortunately, I’m not naive enough to think that the combined 10 shots my family has gotten in the last year didn’t play a huge role in that.
I wrote about our experience in an Instagram post yesterday, and wanted to preserve those words so I am copying them here:
Heyyy! My whole family had covid last week! 0/10 do not recommend.
We caught it through the elementary school. (Surprise! Except not really surprising at all.) All four of us are fully vaccinated, and Jose and I had both gotten booster shots in mid-late December. Nonetheless, we fell like dominos — one kid, the other kid, me, and finally Jose. But! Thanks to the vaccines, we experienced relatively mild symptoms and 10 days later, we are all feeling fine.
There is a very strange mix of feelings when you finally catch the thing you have been avoiding for nearly 2 years. The combo of omicron, school-age kids, and living in Texas had made it start to feel inevitable, but I was still a bit shocked when the test turned positive. I felt a flash of fear. But then I felt oddly relieved. The bad thing had happened, and now the only thing to do was get through it.
I’m thankful for many things. That vaccines exist. That we had access to them. That they helped keep our illness mild. For the family, friends, and neighbors who checked in on us, sent treats, and offered to run errands.
Instead of saying “stay safe” I’ll say this: manage your risk, friends. Get your shots, wear those masks. If you have symptoms, stay home. We caught it from someone, but we made sure no one caught it from us.
As for me, I figure my consolation prize is to enjoy the heck out of these antibodies for a while.
My brother tested positive last Thursday, my dad positive yesterday, I think my niece might be down with it now and I’m just biding my time for my mom to text to say she’s sick. And one of my BFF’s household is now down with it. It feels like things are closing in. And I am still unsure if we really had it last year or not. If so, it was so-called mild then as well. It just sucks to know that you never know the reaction will end up being. I’m glad y’all are all ok!
We’re getting so many school notifications and hearing so many anecdotal “so-and-so has it” that it’s hard to keep up. I hope you manage to avoid it!
The boosters you had may have had an impact (and obviously only worked because you and Jose had the first four). Certainly, they should have reduced your likelihood of requiring hospitalization by 75% or so. It seems logical to assume this translates to lower severity of illness in general, though I don’t think that’s been proven.
I think it’s entirely unclear whether the shots the kids had had any impact. As far as I know, there have been no studies showing that vaccines reduce hospitalization or severe illness in healthy children due to Omicron. (Vaccine approval was based on reduction in symptomatic illness.)
As you know, I vaccinated my children. But I doubt it had a measurable impact on their risk of severe illness from all causes this year, since far fewer than 1% of pediatric deaths even before the vaccine became available to kids were in children with Covid.
I get what you are arguing, but it feels irrelevant at this point. I am relieved that we avoided covid until after we were all vaccinated, and I am thankful we had mild cases. Perhaps they would have been mild regardless, but I’m glad I didn’t have to test that theory.
I don’t know if it is irrelevant. The CDC recommends kids 11 and up get a third shot 5 months after getting their second shot. It won’t be long before we have to decide whether to give our kids another shot as well, especially since L and E aren’t far off 11. (And the decision becomes more difficult because at 11 they will get the full dose.) My kids got their second dose in early December, so I imagine they’ll become eligible by early May.
Is there a feeling of relief, now that you’ve had it? You mentioned enjoying the antibodies, so maybe you don’t have to be so careful now?
Yes, I do feel some relief, unexpectedly. I wouldn’t have chosen to get covid, but we did, and now that we have gotten through it I am less anxious knowing that the chances of us catching it again in the next few months are extremely low. (Unless there’s a new variant…)