Covid venting JAWM

[Murphy101]

Last Monday I was on day 3 of a massive headache and general head cold yucks so canceled my volunteering to teach at atrium pending a Covid test. It was negative. 
 

Now son who works at a grocery store says all weekend was insane because literally over half their entire staff is out with Covid. So he is one of only two upper management staff left standing.  This is pretty bad considering no one there except high up management gets sick pay or have health benefits. So there’s a huge stress to not get Covid and not mention if anyone at home has it. And they are still out that many. That’s not good. Simple math of odds says of those left standing, most should either have Covid or are about to have it.  So he is getting tested today.  So should I volunteer this week?

Son at a restaurant says when he got home last night there’s a strong don’t ask, don’t tell policy.  No one has ever had Covid in their households there.  No matter what, it’s “allergies”.  He had a coworker put on dish duty the entire shift because her “allergies” were so bad no one wanted to be near her.

Ugh.  I hate this. We are doing what we can to reduce our risk. But I hate feeling like a slacker who can’t keep commitments too.  Anytime I ask what the protocol is or what I should do I’m told a vague “well you just need to do whatever you feel you should”.😒🤔😷

 

[TCB]

2 minutes ago, Murphy101 said:

Last Monday I was on day 3 of a massive headache and general head cold yucks so canceled my volunteering to teach at atrium pending a Covid test. It was negative. 
 

Now son who works at a grocery store says all weekend was insane because literally over half their entire staff is out with Covid. So he is one of only two upper management staff left standing.  This is pretty bad considering no one there except high up management gets sick pay or have health benefits. So there’s a huge stress to not get Covid and not mention if anyone at home has it. And they are still out that many. That’s not good. Simple math of odds says of those left standing, most should either have Covid or are about to have it.  So he is getting tested today.  So should I volunteer this week?

Son at a restaurant says when he got home last night there’s a strong don’t ask, don’t tell policy.  No one has ever had Covid in their households there.  No matter what, it’s “allergies”.  He had a coworker put on dish duty the entire shift because her “allergies” were so bad no one wanted to be near her.

Ugh.  I hate this. We are doing what we can to reduce our risk. But I hate feeling like a slacker who can’t keep commitments too.  Anytime I ask what the protocol is or what I should do I’m told a vague “well you just need to do whatever you feel you should”.😒🤔😷

 

It is really difficult to figure out when half the population is denying it all. I think one of the best things we could have done is ensured 10 days sick pay for anyone who tests positive.

[regentrude]

28 minutes ago, Murphy101 said:

 So should I volunteer this week?

No. Since there's a good chance he has been exposed, and you're having symptoms, despite neg test, and this is a voluntary commitment, you should stay home.
 

Edited January 25, 2021 by regentrude

[TravelingChris]

1 minute ago, regentrude said:

No. Since there's a good chance he has been exposed, and you're having symptoms, despite neg test, and this is a voluntary commitment, you should stay home.
 

Totally agree.  I know my dd had COVID even with the negative test = she had classic symptoms includding losing smell and taste, etc.  In fact, the new WHO recommendation is take the whole clinical picture - not just the test- to decide about COVID.  Because there are false positives and false negatives.

[JennyD]

52 minutes ago, Murphy101 said:

But I hate feeling like a slacker who can’t keep commitments too.

Cancelling a commitment because there is a chance you might have a novel, highly transmissible, potentially serious disease is NOT being a slacker! I can't emphasize that enough.

I am sorry that your family keeps being exposed.  Crossing fingers and toes that you all stay healthy.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle]

1 hour ago, TCB said:

It is really difficult to figure out when half the population is denying it all. I think one of the best things we could have done is ensured 10 days sick pay for anyone who tests positive.

New York has that and it doesn’t help.  Part of it is how long it takes to get the money and people who are living paycheck to paycheck can’t wait 6-8 weeks for their paid sick leave check from the insurance company.  I just got mine last week and I had Covid end of october/beginning of November.

[ktgrok]

If you have Covid high in your area (you do) and fairly high risk of exposure (you do) AND you had symptoms consistent with Covid I would proceed as if you had Covid - regardless of negative test. False negatives are high enough that CDC has said that they are not enough to say you don't have it. 

Sorry. But better to have them not have Atrium for a week than have someone get sick, be in financial straits because they can't work, or worse. 

[Murphy101]

Well this would be week two of not volunteering. 

And... unrelated... venting  

Today college girl calls me sobbing bc she has to ask for money bc she has not been paid at all so far this semester. Apparently the person who is supposed to handle campus payroll has been slow processing new hires. And art supplies aren’t available in the campus bookstore and her teachers won’t give her an extension, and people do not know what broke means. They say they are broke too and go out to eat and she is broke broke like out of gas and no gas money broke.  So I vented in empathy for stupid people who don’t have any concept of what being actually broke is and people who act like college kids don’t have money concerns. She’s an ADULT with BILLS and that’s why she has a JOB  so pay her instead of acting like oh no big deal we’ll just send a check sometime in February. Probably.  Pretty sure they’d lose their crap if they didn’t get paid for 3 paychecks in a row instead of blowing it off. And by miracle of miracles I was able to send her some money to get what she needs.  But now she’s stressed over paying us back even tho I told her not to worry about it. We have been there and done that. I’m just glad I could help. She’s a top honors student and doing well. It just sucks donkey nuts to live below the poverty line. Been lots of times I wouldn’t have been able to help. I don’t need to save for a newer car anyways. The rust buckets are going strong at 300k and 600k miles. And all the lights on the dash lighting up are just cheerful during the holidays. 😆
 

Get that all sorted and a teen walks up to me and says, “hey what’s this weird color in my finger?” 
holy crap. The first knuckle to tip of the nail is black and bright green and angry red.  That’s a serious infection of some kind. So he has an appt with the dr in an hour. 
 

And the new pup that got spayed 10 days ago decided to lose her mind over a squirrel and when she came in her incision site is leaking red and clear gooey stuff.  I clean her up and call the vet who did the spay and sent her a picture of it and now I’ve got a son heading out to get antibiotics for pup. Who is super sad to be stuck in her crate so she doesn’t rip it open more. 

So this is my Monday. And it’s just now noon.

[TCB]

1 hour ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle said:

New York has that and it doesn’t help.  Part of it is how long it takes to get the money and people who are living paycheck to paycheck can’t wait 6-8 weeks for their paid sick leave check from the insurance company.  I just got mine last week and I had Covid end of october/beginning of November.

Not getting it quickly stinks and I can see that that wouldn’t help. I think it should come via the employer. Some countries have done that with job furloughs, so the employer gets help to keep paying their employees, rather than the money going from the government to the employee. I think that makes it easier to get them to come back to work once they’re ready to open again. Places around here just couldn’t get people to come back to work so a number of small businesses folded because of that.

[Murphy101]

1 hour ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle said:

New York has that and it doesn’t help.  Part of it is how long it takes to get the money and people who are living paycheck to paycheck can’t wait 6-8 weeks for their paid sick leave check from the insurance company.  I just got mine last week and I had Covid end of october/beginning of November.

Yep. Similarly I know of two families in my state that have been waiting over 2 months for their unemployment deposits to arrive.  Oklahoma unemployment has been a cluster for everyone. At one point they just threw their hands up and scraped the online system to use a new system in hopes that would resolve the backlog. Nope. Made it even worse. The response to thousands of people who need to pay bills and buy food and the system isn’t working?🤷‍♀️

[Scarlett]

2 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

Well this would be week two of not volunteering. 

And... unrelated... venting  

Today college girl calls me sobbing bc she has to ask for money bc she has not been paid at all so far this semester. Apparently the person who is supposed to handle campus payroll has been slow processing new hires. And art supplies aren’t available in the campus bookstore and her teachers won’t give her an extension, and people do not know what broke means. They say they are broke too and go out to eat and she is broke broke like out of gas and no gas money broke.  So I vented in empathy for stupid people who don’t have any concept of what being actually broke is and people who act like college kids don’t have money concerns. She’s an ADULT with BILLS and that’s why she has a JOB  so pay her instead of acting like oh no big deal we’ll just send a check sometime in February. Probably.  Pretty sure they’d lose their crap if they didn’t get paid for 3 paychecks in a row instead of blowing it off. And by miracle of miracles I was able to send her some money to get what she needs.  But now she’s stressed over paying us back even tho I told her not to worry about it. We have been there and done that. I’m just glad I could help. She’s a top honors student and doing well. It just sucks donkey nuts to live below the poverty line. Been lots of times I wouldn’t have been able to help. I don’t need to save for a newer car anyways. The rust buckets are going strong at 300k and 600k miles. And all the lights on the dash lighting up are just cheerful during the holidays. 😆
 

Get that all sorted and a teen walks up to me and says, “hey what’s this weird color in my finger?” 
holy crap. The first knuckle to tip of the nail is black and bright green and angry red.  That’s a serious infection of some kind. So he has an appt with the dr in an hour. 
 

And the new pup that got spayed 10 days ago decided to lose her mind over a squirrel and when she came in her incision site is leaking red and clear gooey stuff.  I clean her up and call the vet who did the spay and sent her a picture of it and now I’ve got a son heading out to get antibiotics for pup. Who is super sad to be stuck in her crate so she doesn’t rip it open more. 

So this is my Monday. And it’s just now noon.

That is a lot of stress.  Wow.  So sorry.  

I too am so tired of wondering and worrying if every little thing is Covid.  We have an employee out....2 weeks tomorrow.  One of his kids tested positive and we really have no idea how long he should stay out.  We will probably ask for a negative test before he comes back....but as we discussed her earlier, he could potentially need to be quarantined for 3-4 weeks.  

[Farrar]

Oh no. That's so rough. Theft of wages by employers makes me so angry for your dd. You're right that in college, everyone says they're "broke" when they're really, really not.

I hate to tell you this, but just so you're aware, what looks like an infection on fingers and toes is one possible less common symptom of Covid. So it's possible that's what your teen is experiencing. You can google "Covid toe" or "Covid fingers" to see some images (which will be not very attractive, as you can probably imagine).

[Ausmumof3]

Ugh I’m sorry

that all sounds like a lot going on!

[Murphy101]

55 minutes ago, Farrar said:

Oh no. That's so rough. Theft of wages by employers makes me so angry for your dd. You're right that in college, everyone says they're "broke" when they're really, really not.

I hate to tell you this, but just so you're aware, what looks like an infection on fingers and toes is one possible less common symptom of Covid. So it's possible that's what your teen is experiencing. You can google "Covid toe" or "Covid fingers" to see some images (which will be not very attractive, as you can probably imagine).

The doctor did not seem to think it related and now I’m home and I’m not going back.  I am absolutely not going to look up Covid toe.  Nope. I do not need that today. 

[Murphy101]

Got home and a daughter fell off her bike and scraped a good 4 inches of skin off her leg. I don’t think she broke her kneecap and I don’t think she needs stitches. But she’s also one of my high sensitivity kids so just cleaning it and putting ointment on it meant she was screaming her head off like I was killing her. Pretty sure the neighbors could hear it.  I know my husband’s boss that he was on a zoom call in the attic to discuss his annual review heard it.

I have done one page of explode the code with the 4yr old and 2 pages of MCP math with the 9 yr old. The 12, 14, and 16 yr olds are waiting for me to go over their lessons with them. 

But I just ate a peanut butter sandwich for “breakfast”.  Very not Whole30 approved but screw it all - I’m calling it a day. This is why all those Leave it to Beaver episodes show June Cleaver drinking when her husband comes in from work. She’s not being a goody goody wife to her husband. She’s just letting him join her.

[retiredHSmom]

9 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

Simple math of odds says of those left standing, most should either have Covid or are about to have it.  So he is getting tested today.  So should I volunteer this week?

I say go volunteer. My 23 year old daughter lost sense of small and tested positive.  She lives with my 72 year old parents, she cooks for them and socializes with the all the time. Her fiancé lives with us.  She and I work in a high school and carpool to work together (without masks). She is a special ed teacher and is with 6 feet of her students all day (masked).

No one got it from her. No students, not my parents, not the finance. Not my husband, son or I.

If you develop a symptom. stop immediately and get tested.

[Harriet Vane]

Just now, retiredHSmom said:

I say go volunteer. My 23 year old daughter lost sense of small and tested positive.  She lives with my 72 year old parents, she cooks for them and socializes with the all the time. Her fiancé lives with us.  She and I work in a high school and carpool to work together (without masks). She is a special ed teacher and is with 6 feet of her students all day (masked).

No one got it from her. No students, not my parents, not the finance. Not my husband, son or I.

If you develop a symptom. stop immediately and get tested.

I have to say--gently--that your anecdotal experience is not the norm. With more than 400,000 dead and many with long-term serious effects, we have to make decisions based on the science about how infectious it is, not on an incredibly serendipitous single family who have been luckier than many.

[MercyA]

11 minutes ago, retiredHSmom said:

No one got it from her. No students, not my parents, not the finance. Not my husband, son or I.

You do not know that. Over half of all COVID infections are spread by people who have no symptoms. You could have all been carrying it everywhere you went (and definitely she was). That's the thing about COVID; everyone really should assume they could be potential carriers at all times because it can and does spread without symptoms. It ends up killing some who come in contact with it and causing long-term effects in others.

Edited January 26, 2021 by MercyA

[MercyA]

@Murphy101, I'm super sorry for your rough day. 😞  

I don't think you should volunteer. 

Have a drink tonight if you partake. 🍷

[Murphy101]

Son is taking a Covid test and I’ll base whether I volunteer tomorrow on that result since no one is having have symptoms recently.

My day did not go smoothly after my last post. 4 yr old fell half way down the stairs and smacked the back of her head hard enough to bleed and welt up. 

I’m going to watch All Creatures Great and small.

[katilac]

36 minutes ago, retiredHSmom said:

I say go volunteer. My 23 year old daughter lost sense of small and tested positive.  She lives with my 72 year old parents, she cooks for them and socializes with the all the time. Her fiancé lives with us.  She and I work in a high school and carpool to work together (without masks). She is a special ed teacher and is with 6 feet of her students all day (masked).

No one got it from her. No students, not my parents, not the finance. Not my husband, son or I.

If you develop a symptom. stop immediately and get tested.

I mean, a man named James Sanders lived for 30 years with a bullet in his head, but that doesn't mean I'm good to shoot myself in the temple. 

[ktgrok]

6 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

 is why all those Leave it to Beaver episodes show June Cleaver drinking when her husband comes in from work. She’s not being a goody goody wife to her husband. She’s just letting him join her.

And she a house keeper that came several times a week and sent all the laundry out to be done and the kids were at school all day or outside playing!

3 hours ago, retiredHSmom said:

I say go volunteer. My 23 year old daughter lost sense of small and tested positive.  She lives with my 72 year old parents, she cooks for them and socializes with the all the time. Her fiancé lives with us.  She and I work in a high school and carpool to work together (without masks). She is a special ed teacher and is with 6 feet of her students all day (masked).

No one got it from her. No students, not my parents, not the finance. Not my husband, son or I.

If you develop a symptom. stop immediately and get tested.

I know a guy that smoked 2 packs a day and lived a long life - doesn't mean I should tell people to smoke two packs a day and they will be fine. 

For crying out loud - to say that no one is contagious because one person didn't spread it that you know of?!?! If it isn't contagious, how did so many people get it?

[Happy2BaMom]

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents, and point out that we're not even dealing with the same environment we were two months ago, or even a month ago, and that is because of the new variants. The UK strain has now been identified in 22 states, which is telling/worrying, because the US does not have a robust variants-tracking system(s) in place, so do we really know all the states where this variant is, or how prevalent it is in those states?

I loosely follow Dr John Campbell on YT (he's UK-based and *very* down-to-earth, science-based, *and* not part of the US, which just helps with the neutrality) and his last few updates have been about the UK variant (and, to a lesser extent, the SA one). That UK variant is almost unbelievable in it's infectiousness (we'll skip the part where they suspect it is more deadly as well)....it's been known to level every worker in a building ill within days (like, did we *need* a more infectious version of Covid??????).

My point is...there are a *lot* of sick people around you & yours, and unless you have assurance that those cases are not only not due to Covid, but not due to the new variant, the most responsible thing is to be as cautious as possible in your own circumstances. So I vote for not volunteering until all necessary data comes in.

Life is so hard right now, for nearly everyone.

Edited January 26, 2021 by Happy2BaMom

[SKL]

I get it.  How many days go by in normal life that your kids aren't exposed to mild health symptoms?  And it seems everything is a symptom of Covid, including things that don't involve germs at all.  The other day, someone's kids were all sent home to quarantine for 10 days, because the 6yo "looked lethargic" in school.  (Folks, I'd still be in 1st grade if that was the criterion back then.)

So ... today I cancelled my kids' music lesson, because someone we were around felt a little off recently.  Their teacher is a retired diabetic smoker, so I don't want to take the risk, even though Covid is statistically unlikely.

But they'll be going to school (hybrid) come Thursday, if none of us in the household are sick.  Everyone at school has accepted that much risk (we have an all-remote option for those who prefer it).

Every day we go through this whole risk-benefit thing over and over (like everyone else this year).  Yes, it's exhausting.

[regentrude]

2 hours ago, SKL said:

But they'll be going to school (hybrid) come Thursday, if none of us in the household are sick.  Everyone at school has accepted that much risk (we have an all-remote option for those who prefer it).

Did the teachers have a choice, too?

[AngieC]

14 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Did the teachers have a choice, too?

Probably not, but has anybody who is considered essential had a choice?  

Edited January 26, 2021 by AngieC

[retiredHSmom]

19 hours ago, MercyA said:

You do not know that. Over half of all COVID infections are spread by people who have no symptoms. You could have all been carrying it everywhere you went (and definitely she was). That's the thing about COVID; everyone really should assume they could be potential carriers at all times because it can and does spread without symptoms. It ends up killing some who come in contact with it and causing long-term effects in others.

I am sorry, I should have made clear that we all isolated immediately and all got tested at 5 days and again at 10 days and no one else ever experienced symptoms or tested positive.

I am not assuming that no one else got it.

[retiredHSmom]

16 hours ago, ktgrok said:

For crying out loud - to say that no one is contagious because one person didn't spread it that you know of?!?! If it isn't contagious, how did so many people get it?

I did not say that is not contagious; clearly it is, otherwise no one would be sick.  

However some research seems to indicate that about 80% of all people who are infected don't infect anyone else (https://uofuhealth.utah.edu/newsroom/news/2020/08/household-covid19.php)

I was relating my personal experience which is backed up by my further experience in my extended family and at school.  

My 18 year old nephew tested positive (asymptomatic) in April. He was isolated for 10 days and neither his parents or 3 younger brothers got it from him. Everyone in the family tested negative.

My BIL rested positive (with symptoms) in July. He isolated for 10 days and neither his wife or 2 daughters got it from him. Everyone in the family tested negative.

I work at a high school that has been hybrid since August. We have had 10 cases of COVID and none of them have spread to another person at school (I don't know what is happening in other families)

As a result, I conclude that if your son has no symptoms and you do not know that he has been exposed and you have not been exposed then if you want to volunteer go for it.

[retiredHSmom]

On 1/25/2021 at 11:01 AM, Murphy101 said:

Last Monday I was on day 3 of a massive headache and general head cold yucks so canceled my volunteering to teach at atrium pending a Covid test. It was negative. 
 

Now son who works at a grocery store says all weekend was insane because literally over half their entire staff is out with Covid. So he is one of only two upper management staff left standing.  This is pretty bad considering no one there except high up management gets sick pay or have health benefits. So there’s a huge stress to not get Covid and not mention if anyone at home has it. And they are still out that many. That’s not good. Simple math of odds says of those left standing, most should either have Covid or are about to have it.  So he is getting tested today.  So should I volunteer this week?

Son at a restaurant says when he got home last night there’s a strong don’t ask, don’t tell policy.  No one has ever had Covid in their households there.  No matter what, it’s “allergies”.  He had a coworker put on dish duty the entire shift because her “allergies” were so bad no one wanted to be near her.

Ugh.  I hate this. We are doing what we can to reduce our risk. But I hate feeling like a slacker who can’t keep commitments too.  Anytime I ask what the protocol is or what I should do I’m told a vague “well you just need to do whatever you feel you should”.😒🤔😷

 

 

On 1/25/2021 at 1:39 PM, Murphy101 said:

Well this would be week two of not volunteering. 

And... unrelated... venting  

Today college girl calls me sobbing bc she has to ask for money bc she has not been paid at all so far this semester. Apparently the person who is supposed to handle campus payroll has been slow processing new hires. And art supplies aren’t available in the campus bookstore and her teachers won’t give her an extension, and people do not know what broke means. They say they are broke too and go out to eat and she is broke broke like out of gas and no gas money broke.  So I vented in empathy for stupid people who don’t have any concept of what being actually broke is and people who act like college kids don’t have money concerns. She’s an ADULT with BILLS and that’s why she has a JOB  so pay her instead of acting like oh no big deal we’ll just send a check sometime in February. Probably.  Pretty sure they’d lose their crap if they didn’t get paid for 3 paychecks in a row instead of blowing it off. And by miracle of miracles I was able to send her some money to get what she needs.  But now she’s stressed over paying us back even tho I told her not to worry about it. We have been there and done that. I’m just glad I could help. She’s a top honors student and doing well. It just sucks donkey nuts to live below the poverty line. Been lots of times I wouldn’t have been able to help. I don’t need to save for a newer car anyways. The rust buckets are going strong at 300k and 600k miles. And all the lights on the dash lighting up are just cheerful during the holidays. 😆
 

Get that all sorted and a teen walks up to me and says, “hey what’s this weird color in my finger?” 
holy crap. The first knuckle to tip of the nail is black and bright green and angry red.  That’s a serious infection of some kind. So he has an appt with the dr in an hour. 
 

And the new pup that got spayed 10 days ago decided to lose her mind over a squirrel and when she came in her incision site is leaking red and clear gooey stuff.  I clean her up and call the vet who did the spay and sent her a picture of it and now I’ve got a son heading out to get antibiotics for pup. Who is super sad to be stuck in her crate so she doesn’t rip it open more. 

So this is my Monday. And it’s just now noon.

 

23 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

Got home and a daughter fell off her bike and scraped a good 4 inches of skin off her leg. I don’t think she broke her kneecap and I don’t think she needs stitches. But she’s also one of my high sensitivity kids so just cleaning it and putting ointment on it meant she was screaming her head off like I was killing her. Pretty sure the neighbors could hear it.  I know my husband’s boss that he was on a zoom call in the attic to discuss his annual review heard it.

I have done one page of explode the code with the 4yr old and 2 pages of MCP math with the 9 yr old. The 12, 14, and 16 yr olds are waiting for me to go over their lessons with them. 

But I just ate a peanut butter sandwich for “breakfast”.  Very not Whole30 approved but screw it all - I’m calling it a day. This is why all those Leave it to Beaver episodes show June Cleaver drinking when her husband comes in from work. She’s not being a goody goody wife to her husband. She’s just letting him join her.

And you deserve a day off. 

[Murphy101]

I volunteered today bc son was negative. 
 

One of the kids sneezed a nasty green snot mess all over his face and chest and the craft we were working on.  *sigh*

Yesterday was a good day, just hectic. 

Today is better.