Over the past 12 months, we avoided all public places, gathering with friends, travel and everything else required to stay safe. We always had N95 masks on when outside, kept our distance more than 6ft from others and sanitized in and out of grocery stores or anything else that was basic necessity. Our nanny however did not.
We didn’t require her to ware a mask while she took care of our daughter. After the long thanksgiving weekend, on Tuesday December 1st she called in sick. A few days later she got a positive covid test result. Our daughter was exposed and a few days later she developed a fever. It was frustrating as we thought we had done everything we could to keep our family safe, and yet we didn’t cover our bases with our nanny. Our daughter seemed like she recovered fairly quickly, with no intervention from us other than dealing with her increased fussiness and trying to focus on giving her vegetable soup when she really despised it.
About a week later (12/8), I developed a fever, followed by chills, followed by aches across the body. The fever and chills hit me like a wall. I usually don’t get sick, I can’t remember the last time I took Tylenol. But I needed one. I was in bed for an entire day. The next day I got stuffy and by the end of the day I was fully congested. The following day I lost smell, my nose felt like it was burning inside (like when you jump into a pool and you get water up your nose). About 4-5 days from first symptoms (fever) I started getting better. I never developed a cough, soar throat or had difficulty breathing. I was lucky. By day 8, from start of symptoms, I felt back to about 90%. I was a bit more tired than usual and still couldn’t smell, but no other symptoms.
CDC says the contagious period ends 10 days after first symptoms as studies indicate an absence of replication-competent virus in patients after that time period. That also lines up with me starting to feel better, not sure why the nose still doesn’t work.
The frustrating part is that the virus is so damn contagious, even with wearing a mask at home, separating our rooms, aggressively sanitizing anything we touched, separating when we eat, our dishes, bathrooms, and even timing our presence in the common areas of the house, my wife also started to develop a fever a few days ago. Think of it this way, our nanny exposed our family to this virus on December 1st, and on December 17th my wife starts developing symptoms, likely picked up the virus from me. She will be contagious through December 27th. That is almost an entire month at least one member of our family can spread this virus, that’s why this damn thing is so dangerous. Which means effectively 1 month of house arrest for any responsible family of 3 that is trying to stop the spread.
All of this happened because of our nanny irresponsibly going to thanksgiving dinner with family members who were on planes, and us irresponsibly allowing her to come into our house without a mask and without appropriate quarantine protocol. I now feel like I got a glimpse of what being a single parent might be like; my wife is out of commission and has been for a couple weeks (more on that later - it just adds a layer of complexity and stress), I’m temporarily the one making food for all of us, keeping the house afloat, taking care of the little one (currently 18 months) and our pet turtle and there simply isn’t enough minutes in the day. It’s especially rough if she wakes up in the middle of the night and we both lose an extra hour of sleep. You learn to aggressively priorities and be very selective with what you are going to take on while awake. It feels like forever since I have taken a break, it’s mentally and physically draining. But there is light at the tunnel. Hopefully if the wife recovers like we did, we will be able to say bye to 2020 the shitty year it was and welcome 2021 stronger and wiser.
The Advice
Make sure you are strict with your nanny. Require her to wear a mask always. Require her to report when there are travelers coming in and out and when she might have been exposed, and if so, ask her if o quarantine a few days just to see if symptoms show themselves before coming back for care of your little one.
Get a good thermometer. This is super helpful to monitor temperatures quickly especially for little ones. The Withings Thermo works wonderfully.
If anyone in your household is exposed, and you want to try to stop the spread, the infected need to completely isolate themselves! If possible, leave home and go to an Airbnb, or separate an entire floor, whatever you can do to contain those who are exposed.
I am fairly certain there isn’t much reach on these blog posts, but it’s my therapy, for those that read, thank you and may you stay healthy!