A Second Round of COVID

 

When our family got hit by COVID in January, it was terribly disruptive to our already crazy schedule. Quarantining meant cabin fever, and testing had us all over the city. Being sick was relatively mild, with symptoms hard to shake but hardly debilitating (thankfully; I realize many others got hit much harder). January was peak Omicron, and everyone's schedule was a mess as a result.

Fast forward to earlier this month, and surprise of all surprises that Asher tested positive a second time. He had no symptoms whatsoever, and we wouldn't have known to test at all but for an exposure at his after-school program, which required a negative test to return. Alas, at-home and PCR confirmed positive instead, throwing our schedule in the blender yet again.

If you could design a torture for me, those 10 days would probably be it: stuck at home with Asher, having to scramble to do an honest day's work away from my usual office set-up, and worst of all watching Asher completely unravel due to the abrupt break in his in-person routine. I did a lot of deep breathing and Amy was a veritable saint through it all, but I think my eyelid is still twitching. 

Earlier this calendar year, experts predicted a mini-surge in the spring and in fact that has happened, scrambling everyone's sense of normalcy and order. My psyche is particularly attuned to the need for scheduling control, and as everything has been thrown asunder by this 10-day pause, I'm still reeling from it all. Everyone's fine physically but emotionally it was quite a blender. 

We're back to normal after 10 days of chaos. No health issues whatsoever to deal with for any of us, but a reminder that, on a dime, sometimes the world has to stop when we want it to keep going.

And, with this second bout that Asher faced came another opportunity to talk with him about what this means. A fun twist of parenting is figuring out age-appropriate ways to talk about complicated and scary things. Here's my approach, and I hope that the more medically inclined among you will correct me if I have anything wrong:

* When COVID first came out, we had to balance making him aware of how dangerous the virus is without having him in constant panic mode, so we talked about playing keep-away from what could otherwise hurt us. 

* When he got vaccinated, we celebrated having a force field against which the virus couldn't get in. 

* When he and others in our family got Omicron, we described it as COVID's sneaky little brother, who is not nearly as strong but can elude capture.

* And, this go round, we assured him that even though another COVID relative got in, because Asher is young and vaccinated the virus didn't even have enough power to make him feel sick.

We are fortunate, for we know folks who got absolutely walloped by COVID, as well as others whose vulnerabilities make even a cursory bout with COVID a much more serious threat. All of us are having to figure out appropriate levels of vigilance for our families and how to communicate to our little ones. Let's take care out there.