Exposure and Quarantine

 These past few weeks have been rough.  We have been filled with anxiety, worry, and guilt over the fact that despite being INCREDIBLY careful about Covid all along, we ended up being a close contact of a positive case.  Turns out that when Grandpa Steve was sick back in early October, it was actually Covid.  We treated it like that could be the case and distanced from him for more than ten days, which is the recommendation, but we failed to take Grandma Patti's exposure into account when we gathered with them for his birthday.  Two days after we gathered,  Grandma started to not feel that great.  Nothing major...a tickle, maybe a slightly scratchy throat, but thankfully she told us not to come over that morning as we had planned.  Four days later she decided to get tested, mostly just to get some piece of mind so we didn't have to worry anymore.  Unfortunately the worry got much bigger because a few days after that, she found out that she was positive for Covid and we were close contacts.  Therefore, we needed to quarantine for fourteen days from the time of exposure.  Eric had to stay home from work, as we fretted and worried over every single sneeze, tickle, cough for all fourteen of those days.  On Day thirteen Nolan woke up complaining of a sore throat.  I had been achy for a few days and Eric was too.  We were certain that this was it, and we were in for a wild ride of illness.  I went in to get a test.  It was super quick, but not the most comfortable - they stick a long q-tip up your nose.  Three days later I got the shock of my life when it actually came back negative!  We had Eric get a test just in case mine was a false negative.  His was negative too!  We actually think our body aches and headaches were a manifestation of the stress that we were under...physical pain from mental anguish.  Patti was super stressed and later called those fourteen days excruciating.  And they were...it was so scary.  And we felt so guilty for making a decision that caused our children to be exposed.  Thankfully both Steve and Patti recovered with incident, and we skated through without getting it.  It was a good reminder though of how you can be careful 99% of the time, and STILL end up getting the virus.  We are remaining locked down from other households for the foreseeable future.  We are hopeful that the vaccine prospects will come through and that we can lay low until then.  We are so relieved it all turned out ok this time, but we DON"T want there to be a next time!