Think Positive, Test Negative
MEDICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE
Hallelujah. Today my kids, parents, and I got word that yesterday's COVID PCR tests came back negative. My neck and back muscles released their death grip just a smidge.
My husband reports that he is now sitting up in bed, his chest less tight and head less painful. He’s weak but working on his laptop, texting us funny memes, and making us laugh.
Unfortunately for him, I misspoke when I said he can leave isolation after seven days. People infected with COVID (with or without symptoms) still need to isolate for ten days. He’s locked in the basement—alongside our Christmas decorations—till the middle of next week.
The rest of us are on day five of quarantine. The new CDC guidelines say that we can leave quarantine with a negative COVID test at day seven (instead of fourteen). I plan to get a rapid PCR test early Monday morning, and, if negative, I will feel very confident that I’m in the clear. I’m already excited to be back in the office.
Last night at dinner the kids and I were feeling SO happy NOT to be sick that we forgot about feeding our COVID inmate. A pitiful text arrived from my husband around 10 pm: “any dinner up there?”
Oops.
I did an interview today with my childhood news idol, Doreen Gentzler at NBC, to help scare the pants off more people as we enter the worst phase of the pandemic. I hope it’s working. We need to stay vigilant until we have widespread uptake of the vaccine.
Next week, once the dust settles from my family's COVID saga, I’ll dig into vaccine news, information, and guidance. (Hint: you need the vaccine, lest you end up like us—or a whole lot worse.)
I will check in then. Until then, be safe and well.