Yes, you read that correctly. I was one of the millions to have the bad luck of getting COVID back in October 2020. Even worse, when I was 28 weeks pregnant…
Now before I go on to talk about our experience -- please know this is 100% what we went through. Everything I’ve read and researched said something different when I was searching for answers. This virus has been very different for everyone and my thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost loved ones or who are struggling now.
It was a normal Tuesday for my daughter and I at home when my husband called and his first words were “Now honey, don’t freak out” which by the way — that’s not what you say first when calling your pregnant wife. Actually that’s probably not how you should start out the conversation with anyone. However, that’s what my husband did and my brain went a 100 different directions of: “What’s wrong?” “What happened?” “Did you get into an accident?” “Are you at the hospital?” “Is your family okay?” etc.
A little back story, my husband wasn’t feeling well the weekend before but every year at that time he caught a head cold and it wasn’t abnormal. We had our flu shots and were up to date on our vaccinations since we were expecting. He showed no signs that were considered COVID and took some mucinex and continued his normal work week. So when I got the phone call that he was being sent home to get tested I was really confused. He went on to explain that someone he worked around the week before tested positive for COVID and since he wasn’t feeling well they said he had to go that day. Before even getting off the phone I made his appointment at CVS. We tried to find a location that did rapid testing so we could know as soon as possible but of course nothing was available. So we had to wait 3-5 days before finding out which of course it was exactly the 5.
Unlike his first sentence of our conversation— of course I freaked out. I began by calling my job, my clients family, my doctor then my daughters doctor. I felt fine and my daughter was doing fine as well. All the doctors had something different to say. Which didn’t help at all but basically to quarantine until his results came back. We didn’t mind the thought of having to quarantine, I was more concerned about my daughter and I’s health and what to do if we did end up getting sick. Again, all they came up with was quarantine at home and to basically wait and take cold medicine.
That’s when the deep clean began. I cleaned EVERYTHING! The amount of Lysol and Clorox I used that day was insane but I knew my house was cleaned from head to toe. When my husband arrived home after getting tested I made him strip outside, take a shower and I quarantined him in our back bedroom. I remember taking him everything he needed, medicine, food etc. all with a mask on and every time washing my hands — he was literally sick for only 3 days and we didn’t get his positive test results until 5 days after. So he was feeling better for 2 days after his last symptom. Here is where our quarantine was confusing again — his job said 2 weeks after his first symptom, a doctor said 2 weeks after getting a positive test and then the health department said 2 weeks after his last symptom.
IT WAS SO STRESSFUL!
His symptoms were the same as a head cold: Sinus pressure, coughing and fatigue. Again by the time he found out he was positive he was feeling completely fine and ended up just doing house/yard work outside until he had to take care of our daughter when I got sick...
3 days after he started feeling better I was beginning to show symptoms. So many emotions came over me because I took ALL the precautions they said to: wear the mask, wash your hands, disinfect everything — obviously it didn’t matter….At first I was really really mad at my husband. I blamed him for bringing it into the house. I blamed him for not taking care of himself at work (which I know he was) and putting us all at risk and I cried A LOT. The unknown of having it and not knowing what it would do to our daughter or our unborn son. I was scared out of my mind and you know the media didn’t help at all...they steadily just kept wanting to scare me and I felt like something was wrong with me because I got sick.
Unlike my husband mine lasted a good week long. However, I am pregnant and wasn’t able to figure out what medicine I could take until I could reach my doctor, which was 2 days after I started to not feel well. Once I was told mucinex was fine it made the world of difference.
My symptoms were just like my husbands (sinus pressure, sinus headache, fatigue and cough) except I did also lose my taste and smell — that’s how I really knew I had COVID. I’ll never forget realizing I lost my smell when I was cooking dinner and I couldn’t smell the garlic like normal! I leaned over my pot of spaghetti sauce and smelled again — nothing! Then I opened my jar of minced garlic and smelled that — nothing! It was honestly the craziest thing! But I knew my body could smell it because I began coughing like crazy. Another bizarre thing I noticed was that neither of us got a fever. I get frustrated at the fever checks now because people could have no clue they have it by a fever check…I mean my husband literally thought he just had a head cold.
It is one strange virus y’all.
To be continued….
XO,
Christine