We are almost two years into the global Covid-19 pandemic now. We have been extremely careful at our house... probably more careful than the vast majority of Utahns. We all have our vaccinations, and we still wear masks to church and school. Despite our best efforts, Covid finally struck our family. The new Omicron variant was first discovered in November in South Africa, and it quickly spread through the whole world. By Christmastime, people in Utah were dropping like flies with the virus. Luckily, this variant appears to be much less severe, and people who have been vaccinated have mostly experienced mild cases. Thankfully, that was our experience.
It all started on New Year's Day (Happy 2022 to us!). Jonathon had a slight headache and started coughing. It got to the point on Sunday morning that we decided it would be irresponsible for him to not test before going to church. I had actually stocked up on some at-home covid tests when they were cheap on Amazon, so I had a whole bunch available to use. He took the test, and four minutes into the 15 minute waiting period, his test already showed positive. Gah!
Then came the dilemma... what were our social responsibilities of who we had to tell? Despite being 2 years into this, it still feels embarrassing and creates a stigma when you have to tell people that you may have exposed them. We looked up info on the Internet, and it said people are likely contagious up to 2 days before symptoms start. Thankfully, that meant that my mom and dad, who had left the previous Tuesday, were likely not exposed. We did, however, have to tell our friends, the Vigues, because we had done a family party with them. It was the first time we had actually gotten together with them after months of talking about it. :( They were so understanding, and luckily, none of them got it.
Jonathon officially tested positive on Sunday, and the new CDC guidelines require a 5 day quarantine (shortened from 10), so Jonathon had to call out sick from work all week. He arranged to teach his classes from home via Zoom, but it definitely wasn't ideal.
When we checked the guidelines, it said that anyone who was exposed, but fully vaccinated didn't have to quarantine, so Christian, Andrew, and I could all go to work and school if we didn't have any symptoms. Hyrum was in between vaccine doses, so he had to test in order to go to school.
He tested positive.
With no symptoms.
It was definitely hard for Hyrum to miss school when he was feeling perfectly fine. I picked up schoolwork for him to do at home so he wouldn't be bored and get behind, but he spent a lot of time watching movies and playing video games while Jonathon worked. There really wasn't a lot of other choices available, so we just had to make do.
The rest of us continued our week as usual until Wednesday when Christian started coughing. The poor boy had tons of tests and end of semester stuff to do, but when he tested positive on Thursday morning, that all had to be adjusted. He joined Jonathon and Hyrum at home for the rest of the week. His teachers were mostly understanding, and they provided him the work that he needed to do.
Andrew never got sick, so we never tested him and weren't required to because he was vaccinated. There is a chance that he was just asymptomatic, but he remained healthy throughout.
I am grateful that we came through our Covid bout without too many problems. The coughs were the worst of the symptoms, and even those were fairly mild. My brother and his family were sick with covid in July, and they had a miserable week and were so so sick with many lingering symptoms. They had the Delta variant, so the cases aren't directly comparable, but we still feel very grateful.
There is also a sense of relief associated with finally getting covid. We have spent two years being so nervous about getting it that now it seems less scary.
We were definitely not the only ones affected. The Omicron variant is so contagious. Our ward and school were decimated. At one point, our principal didn't think we would be able to run the school because there were so many teachers and aids missing. We had to cancel all interventions and anyone available had to sub for regular classes. The 5th grade class I normally help only had 11 students there because all of the rest were out sick. I also helped team-teach a sixth grade class since they couldn't get a sub. One day that week, the state reported 12,990 new Covid-19 cases in one day! After that crazy week, the school district decided we couldn't continue like that. Luckily, it was Martin Luther King Day, so we already had Monday and Tuesday off, and they decided that Wednesday would be an online learning day. After the long break, we had a lot more of the students and teachers back, so we were able to function more normally.
Covid isn't gone, but so many people have gotten it now that it seems to be decreasing significantly. Hopefully after the rough start, 2022 will end up with us all getting back to normal.
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