Covid question

[mommyoffive]

Farrar, are you done isolating with 3 negative tests?  How is Mushroom doing and your dh?

[Farrar]

1 hour ago, mommyoffive said:

Farrar, are you done isolating with 3 negative tests?  How is Mushroom doing and your dh?

Dh is still testing negative and feels fine! It's so weird. But hey, that's Covid, I guess.

Because BalletBoy needs to not get it to continue his SI, we're leaving him in the basement. I'm taking another day or so to be totally sure so dh and I are sleeping apart and he's still encamped on the main floor. But I've relaxed my protocols for myself a good bit. Trying to keep everyone semi separated for a couple more days to be sure, but not being too harsh about it now.

Poor Mushroom. His taste and smell are altered. He thought perfectly good pizza wasn't right. So that was a bit sad. I made him quiche for dinner, which is a meal he always devours and he said it tasted wrong but still edible, unlike the pizza earlier. He's also coughing a good bit. He's basically locked in his room watching Twitch nonstop, though I hear him on call now, so he's socializing with friends on video games, I guess. He feels sick, but not horrible.

[Roadrunner]

Well, my DS tested positive today. He has had sniffles for three days. He says it feels better than his allergies.
I am high risk and can feel the beginnings of it, but since we are all in one room (don’t ask, long story), we can’t isolate anybody ever. 
Terrified of what’s to come over the next week. 

[ktgrok]

On 6/30/2022 at 11:49 AM, KSera said:

This current wave seems neverending. It hasn't gone up and back down like the first omicron; it just goes on and on and on.

Is anyone hearing of asymptomatic people currently? It seems like everyone I know who has had it recently has been at least somewhat miserable, and often very miserable. I'm not hearing many "mild cold" type descriptions recently. Maybe only people with symptoms are testing?

I had only a little postnasal drip with the associated hoarse voice for a few evenings, one night of ear pain (bad enough that if I couldn't sleep with that ear down, had to flip over or it hurt too much), and elevated heart rate. The heart rate was the most annoying part of it - it kept spiking if I got stressed (and a certain court decision happened during this!), walked up the stairs, etc. It even was spiking up from reading a suspenseful part of a book!!! I had to stop my ADHD meds for several days, and cut back to 1 single cup of coffee a day, which helped, and just rest. 

But if DH had not already been positive I would never have figured out I had it - I have worse symptoms with my allergies. I also only tested positive with a very faint line, so not sure if that all correlates. DH was much sicker. 

On 7/1/2022 at 10:46 PM, Farrar said:

 Also, I went unmasked out in the hall on the Covid floor of the house. And I've resumed cooking, though masked. ALL VERY EXCITING.

 

the first time I was able to leave my bedroom without masking WAS very exciting!!!! 

13 hours ago, Farrar said:

I am SO bored. We're all still on separate floors of the house. I emailed a co-worker a question and only after I was like, well, that was probably rude of me doing that on a holiday weekend, but I'm SO BORED.

Boredom. One of the unforeseen side effects of the Covid quarantine house.

Third negative test. Woo. Hoo.

I spent a lot of time doing the Geoguessr website, and the crosswords on the Vox website. 

[ktgrok]

Those who tested positive beyond 10 days, do you know your vitamin D levels? Just curious, because DH took 12/13 days to test negative, and he has low vitamin D. Wondering if that is a factor. 

I also am wondering if this strain just tends to linger longer? 

[alisoncooks]

8 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Well, my DS tested positive today. He has had sniffles for three days. He says it feels better than his allergies.
I am high risk and can feel the beginnings of it, but since we are all in one room (don’t ask, long story), we can’t isolate anybody ever. 
Terrified of what’s to come over the next week. 

Well, there may be hope. We didn’t isolate at all when our DD’s came home from camp with Covid. We have a small house with a weird setup; we just went with it. We’re on the 10th day since they’ve been home. I had negative tests at day 3 and 8, and I’m still feeling fine. One daughter feels completely recovered and the other is slowly getting better. DH has not tested (and was at the camp with them) but he hasn’t had any symptoms (he also got some special antibody things from his doctor before going…)

[alisoncooks]

dp

Edited July 3, 2022 by alisoncooks

[mommyoffive]

10 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Well, my DS tested positive today. He has had sniffles for three days. He says it feels better than his allergies.
I am high risk and can feel the beginnings of it, but since we are all in one room (don’t ask, long story), we can’t isolate anybody ever. 
Terrified of what’s to come over the next week. 

Sending good thoughts your way.  

[Farrar]

1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

Those who tested positive beyond 10 days, do you know your vitamin D levels? Just curious, because DH took 12/13 days to test negative, and he has low vitamin D. Wondering if that is a factor. 

I also am wondering if this strain just tends to linger longer? 

I've read that this strain does linger longer. That's an interesting thought about the Vit D.

I'm curious about the role of the rapids and the period where someone is contagious. They say that the current trend is that the rapid positives lag behind symptoms and then continue beyond. Previously, the thinking was that the rapids were pretty good at detecting whether a person was actually contagious or not - that the PCR's detected the presence of coronavirus but the rapids detected whether you could really give it to anyone. Does that mean when a person is contagious has changed? And changed to when they feel better after the illness is passing? Because that's interesting.

[ktgrok]

1 hour ago, Farrar said:

I've read that this strain does linger longer. That's an interesting thought about the Vit D.

I'm curious about the role of the rapids and the period where someone is contagious. They say that the current trend is that the rapid positives lag behind symptoms and then continue beyond. Previously, the thinking was that the rapids were pretty good at detecting whether a person was actually contagious or not - that the PCR's detected the presence of coronavirus but the rapids detected whether you could really give it to anyone. Does that mean when a person is contagious has changed? And changed to when they feel better after the illness is passing? Because that's interesting.

what I read was that vaccinated individuals make take longer to build up a high viral load, that is caught by rapid tests. But that you can be contagious even before the rapid comes positive. 

 

[Roadrunner]

My kid’s rapid went positive basically the moment we put drops on. He was on day 3 of what appeared like a mild allergy/cold. 
We haven’t tested anybody else in the house since the rest of us still appear without symptoms and we are saving those tests for when we need them (making sure we are negative when we need to leave the house). As long as my kid keeps testing positive, the rest of us are staying holed up in the house. 

[ktgrok]

30 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

My kid’s rapid went positive basically the moment we put drops on. He was on day 3 of what appeared like a mild allergy/cold. 
We haven’t tested anybody else in the house since the rest of us still appear without symptoms and we are saving those tests for when we need them (making sure we are negative when we need to leave the house). As long as my kid keeps testing positive, the rest of us are staying holed up in the house. 

yeah, that's how my husband's test was. Instant positive the first time he used it. 

He had gotten back from his conference on Friday around midnight. Had circles under his eyes worse than usual, no symptoms that day. Monday we tested, as we had planned on testing him on day 3 and day 5 if he had no symptoms, from when he returned. We SHOULD have tested him that first morning as well, Saturday morning, but were low on tests and trying to get some. 

Anyway, he woke up with a headache monday, took some ibuprofen, and went right into his office for a zoom meeting he was late for. When he came down at lunch time he took a test. Instantly positive. Line darker than control line. He felt worse that afternoon, and was miserable with VERY painful joint pain and body aches all that night. That night was his worst symptoms. Developed congestion that day as well, which got worse the next few days, then stabilized for many days, then gradually got better starting around day 9, tested positive day 10, negative day 12. 

I tested negative that monday that he first tested positive, but since I'd slept next to him since he got home, and um..had him um..breathing heavily over my face (you get the idea) that Sunday night for quite a while, plus um, various bodily fluids exhanged, I knew it was VERY exposed. So I instantly put an KF94 mask on. DH isolated in his office other than bathroom breaks in the master bathroom. I tested positive that friday, so 4 days later. Very very faint psoitive that took about 17 minutes to show up. (still in back and forth emails with Binax about this, actually). Also took another brand several times and never turned those positive. But, given my exposure, and some mild symptoms, we called me positive. DH started eating with me and hanging out some in the master bedroom at that point, but continued to sleep in the office so I'd be able to sleep better. I started isolating in my room once I was positive, but had already been masking when out of my room since that monday. 

I did come down to scoop litter box, grab some coffee and food for DH and I, etc about 3 times a day, but I masked and stayed more than 6 feet away from anyone. We kept the AC set with the fan part always on, instead of on auto, so it kept the air circulating, and we use good air filters in it. We did not open windows, as the "feels like" temp was over 100 degrees daily. 

Each evening after kids were in bed I went downstairs in my mask and cleaned up a bit, loaded dishwasher (had DS22 empty the dishwasher so I wasn't touching the clean dishes), and then wiped everything down behind me. DS though made their food those first 5 days. After 5 days I did make some quick cereal, etc for DD5 in the morning, boiled some pasta, stuff like that and was down a little more, but again stayed 6 feet away, and was still masked. 

I tested negative on day 9, day 10, and day 12 (tested again as had a runny nose and was paranoid...but it was just allergies). I stopped masking on day 11. 

[Roadrunner]

Couldn’t take the suspense. Tested. It’s negative. 🤞 

 

Cooked enough food for a week just in case I go down. We are rural so we get no takeout here. 
 

Editing to correct - we get takeout but no delivery option. 

Edited July 3, 2022 by Roadrunner

[Ausmumof3]

19 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

Well, my DS tested positive today. He has had sniffles for three days. He says it feels better than his allergies.
I am high risk and can feel the beginnings of it, but since we are all in one room (don’t ask, long story), we can’t isolate anybody ever. 
Terrified of what’s to come over the next week. 

Hoping for you all that you end up staying safe and clear or have only mild symptoms.

[elegantlion]

SO is on the mend. I'm still feeling it in my throat and upper chest. We had two totally different set of symptoms. His was chills and body aches - seriously, he's walking around in a winter robe and I'm in a tank top which is entirely switched from normal. My syptoms are all respiratory. I couldn't do much of anything yesterday - today at least I'm upright. 

[alisoncooks]

2 minutes ago, elegantlion said:

SO is on the mend. I'm still feeling it in my throat and upper chest. We had two totally different set of symptoms. His was chills and body aches - seriously, he's walking around in a winter robe and I'm in a tank top which is entirely switched from normal. My syptoms are all respiratory. I couldn't do much of anything yesterday - today at least I'm upright. 

This is exactly how it went with my girls. Younger dd had chills and fatigue and general yuck feeling for a few days and then felt better. Older dd had congestion and cough. She’s going on a week+ of having the cough but is definitely getting better. 

[Amira]

We’re scheduled to fly out in about a day and a half.  Neither ds nor dh have had any symptoms so hopefully we’ll really get on that plane.  I don’t want to move, but at this point, we have to get going.  I feel pretty much normal. It’s hard to know what normal is right now though.

[Farrar]

And now BalletBoy feels sick. Y'all. I CAN'T EVEN.

[Kassia]

27 minutes ago, Farrar said:

And now BalletBoy feels sick. Y'all. I CAN'T EVEN.

ugh  - nothing to say but I'm sorry.  😞 

[MEmama]

39 minutes ago, Farrar said:

And now BalletBoy feels sick. Y'all. I CAN'T EVEN.

Oh no! 😞 

[KSera]

1 hour ago, Farrar said:

And now BalletBoy feels sick. Y'all. I CAN'T EVEN.

Oh no, I’m so sorry! 😢 

[mommyoffive]

1 hour ago, Farrar said:

And now BalletBoy feels sick. Y'all. I CAN'T EVEN.

Oh no.  I am sorry.  How much of the intensive did he get done?   Sending good thoughts his way.

[ktgrok]

4 hours ago, elegantlion said:

SO is on the mend. I'm still feeling it in my throat and upper chest. We had two totally different set of symptoms. His was chills and body aches - seriously, he's walking around in a winter robe and I'm in a tank top which is entirely switched from normal. My syptoms are all respiratory. I couldn't do much of anything yesterday - today at least I'm upright. 

Isn't it crazy? DH had congestion AND the chills/body aches - he was literally whimpering one night from the pain. He said it felt like he had broken bones. 

I had mostly cardiac and exercise intolerance. And ear pain one night. 

Totally different. 

[ktgrok]

2 hours ago, Farrar said:

And now BalletBoy feels sick. Y'all. I CAN'T EVEN.

Oh no! I can't imagine how he caught it if he was isolated down there! Maybe he caught it AT the intensive?

[Farrar]

58 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

Oh no! I can't imagine how he caught it if he was isolated down there! Maybe he caught it AT the intensive?

Yeah. I mean, he hasn't been 100% zero contact with us. He has come upstairs a couple of times in his N95 to get something or other. But... it does occur to me he could have gotten it there.

Also, his rapid was negative. Sigh. He's like, great, if I feel better tomorrow, I'm going. I'm like, hell no, if you feel better tomorrow, we'll go shell out for a rapid PCR.

[lmrich]

On 7/3/2022 at 8:14 AM, ktgrok said:

Those who tested positive beyond 10 days, do you know your vitamin D levels? Just curious, because DH took 12/13 days to test negative, and he has low vitamin D. Wondering if that is a factor. 

I also am wondering if this strain just tends to linger longer? 

I have not had an abnormal Vitamin D level. I regularly take D and I spend time in the sun just about every day - just my legs and arms. I was testing positive at day 12 and finally got a negative test on day 14. 

(yesterday I broke my toe so I am back on the couch for  a few days..) 

[ktgrok]

29 minutes ago, lmrich said:

I have not had an abnormal Vitamin D level. I regularly take D and I spend time in the sun just about every day - just my legs and arms. I was testing positive at day 12 and finally got a negative test on day 14. 

(yesterday I broke my toe so I am back on the couch for  a few days..) 

well, there goes my theory, lol. 

and so sorry about the toe!

[Farrar]

Mushroom just tested positive again. He really wants to get back to work and has a shift on Thursday. He buses tables at a super fancy restaurant and brings in the dough. So... we'll see.

[Roadrunner]

3 hours ago, Farrar said:

Mushroom just tested positive again. He really wants to get back to work and has a shift on Thursday. He buses tables at a super fancy restaurant and brings in the dough. So... we'll see.

How is balletboy? Hope he doesn’t test positive. I know how much summer activities mean for kids.

 

My DS is on day 4 and already is symptom free but still tests positive with an instantaneous big fat red line. The rest of the family is still holding up,  but with one tiny bathroom in what is essentially a studio, probably not for much longer. 

Edited July 5, 2022 by Roadrunner

[JennyD]

11 hours ago, Farrar said:

And now BalletBoy feels sick. Y'all. I CAN'T EVEN.

Oof.  So sorry to hear that.

We were super strict with masking/isolating/running filters when we had covid last month and it was mostly fruitless -- 4/5 of us got sick, and the remaining 1 almost certainly had it at one point, too.  

[Farrar]

11 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

How is balletboy? Hope he doesn’t test positive. I know how much summer activities mean for kids.

 

My DS is on day 4 and already is symptom free but still tests positive with an instantaneous big fat red line. The rest of the family is still holding up,  but with one tiny bathroom in what is essentially a studio, probably not for much longer. 

He's feeling okay. He thinks it might have been just a nothing - he did have nearly the same thing happen a month ago and we all thought it was Covid and it was not. We all think he got it at SI if he got it.

I feel like it's weird... but this isn't really a summer activity per se. I mean, he's two hot seconds for adulthood and graduated from high school. Summer training is a professional thing for his career. It's not quite the same as his regular training program, but close. I think it's probably good that he's at home.

I'm so glad you're all doing okay. I hope everyone stays symptom free at least.

[mommyoffive]

4 minutes ago, Farrar said:

He's feeling okay. He thinks it might have been just a nothing - he did have nearly the same thing happen a month ago and we all thought it was Covid and it was not. We all think he got it at SI if he got it.

I feel like it's weird... but this isn't really a summer activity per se. I mean, he's two hot seconds for adulthood and graduated from high school. Summer training is a professional thing for his career. It's not quite the same as his regular training program, but close. I think it's probably good that he's at home.

I'm so glad you're all doing okay. I hope everyone stays symptom free at least.

Sending some don't get sick vibes to BalletBoy.  

How is Mushroom feeling?   I hope he tests negative soon.

[Farrar]

12 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Sending some don't get sick vibes to BalletBoy.  

How is Mushroom feeling?   I hope he tests negative soon.

He feels totally fine. But he tested positive again today. Sigh. He has a shift Thursday and he's hoping to be able to go back to work then.

[Ausmumof3]

Dh had his first night at work yesterday. He was one of two back off covid iso and another one was masked up as a household contact. His energy levels seems to be improving I think. 
 

We are all still testing negative. My throat gets a bit sore/dry most mornings so I keep RAT testing but I’m on the last RAT now. Have also done a PCR just to be sure. I’m actually wondering if I have some kind of allergy/low lying bacterial infection because of it.

[HSmomof2]

On 7/3/2022 at 5:14 AM, ktgrok said:

Those who tested positive beyond 10 days, do you know your vitamin D levels? Just curious, because DH took 12/13 days to test negative, and he has low vitamin D. Wondering if that is a factor. 

I also am wondering if this strain just tends to linger longer? 

My vitamin D levels were good when tested earlier this year, and I take a supplement. Still testing positive (day 21). I feel fine, except seem to have developed a daily headache, not sinus headache, it’s whole head.….and I rarely have headaches normally, so I think it’s Covid-related. NSAIDS do help, but I can’t take much of those on my stomach. 
 

I’m going to wait a week to test again….starting to run low on tests. 🙂

Edited July 5, 2022 by HSmomof2

[Ali in OR]

We were supposed to have a caregiver in the house tomorrow so I realized rather late that I needed to test tonight. Still positive, but improving? When I tested last Wednesday it was instantly positive and darker than the control line. This one didn't turn right away. I thought it might end up negative, but I didn't watch it the whole time. Just came back and checked at the 15 minute mark and there was the line. Lighter than the control this time, but definitely positive. No caregiver. Off to bed now, day 8 is done.

[mommyoffive]

9 hours ago, HSmomof2 said:

My vitamin D levels were good when tested earlier this year, and I take a supplement. Still testing positive (day 21). I feel fine, except seem to have developed a daily headache, not sinus headache, it’s whole head.….and I rarely have headaches normally, so I think it’s Covid-related. NSAIDS do help, but I can’t take much of those on my stomach. 
 

I’m going to wait a week to test again….starting to run low on tests. 🙂

Man 21 days.  It is so hard to know what the right thing to do is in that situation.  Are you still contagious?  Should you keep isolating? What do you do?    Hoping you get a negative soon. 

[Shelydon]

10 hours ago, Farrar said:

He feels totally fine. But he tested positive again today. Sigh. He has a shift Thursday and he's hoping to be able to go back to work then.

How many days since his first positive test? 

[Farrar]

Just now, Shelydon said:

How many days since his first positive test? 

Yesterday was his day 6 (your symptoms/positive day is day 0). So he'll test again today. And then again. And so forth.

[Roadrunner]

Same situation here. No more symptoms for DS and still testing positive. Everybody else is still negative.

Meanwhile a friend had to test for work randomly. Zero symptoms of any kind, negative Rapid  but positive PCR. If we didn’t have to drive over an hour round trip for a PCR, I would haul my entire family, but I don’t think it’s worth a drive. We will just stay put at home isolated. 

[Farrar]

BalletBoy's PCR was negative!!! So he's sticking in the basement and headed back to SI. WOOHOO.

[mommyoffive]

5 minutes ago, Farrar said:

BalletBoy's PCR was negative!!! So he's sticking in the basement and headed back to SI. WOOHOO.

Yay.    am so glad he can get back to his SI.

[Roadrunner]

My boy is still positive. It’s day 7. He hasn’t had any symptoms for four days and yet the line is very much positive. Nobody else in the family has gotten sick despite sharing one tiny bathroom and a room. 🤞

[Kassia]

3 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

My boy is still positive. It’s day 7. He hasn’t had any symptoms for four days and yet the line is very much positive. Nobody else in the family has gotten sick despite sharing one tiny bathroom and a room. 🤞

Glad he's okay and the rest of you are too.  It always baffles me how some people don't get it even being in close quarters like that and others get infected with very little exposure. 

[Farrar]

BalletBoy does not have Covid, but he totally got a cold at his SI. Sigh. At least the separation means we won't get it.

[mommyoffive]

9 minutes ago, Kassia said:

Glad he's okay and the rest of you are too.  It always baffles me how some people don't get it even being in close quarters like that and others get infected with very little exposure. 

I was just going to post that.  It is odd people are reporting that they are getting it when outside and masked, and then in situations like this nobody else does?  So odd.  My kids are at another ballet intensive that is in the 2nd week and they have had covid outbreaks each week.  Even though everyone had to pcr test negative to get in and they test weekly.  We will see what happens.  But at the first intensive they were at during summer there was an outbreak in the first 3 days and nobody else got it that we know of.  They didn't test kids unless they wanted to.  Yet they were all dorming together, eating together, and hardly anyone was masking. Although they did require masks in class once the cases came out.

It makes it really hard to know what is ok or safe and what isn't.

Edited July 8, 2022 by mommyoffive

[Ali in OR]

Woohoo! Finally a negative test on what I think is day 12 counting my first day of symptoms as day 1. My dd told me that at her school they count the day you test as day 0 (I didn't test until day 3 since I was out of town), so by that method this is day 9. My test on Wednesday was pretty faint so I was hoping this one would finally be negative. Yay! And no one else in the house got it.

[Farrar]

For those of us dealing with positive tests for what feels like forever when you feel basically fine, I found this useful in how to think about it:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/30/1108615724/positive-test-isolation

Quote

"Only about 17% of those who we looked at still had what looks like viable COVID out past five days," says Dr. Karen Jacobson, an infectious disease specialist at the Boston University School of Medicine and one of the study's authors. A very small number did have virus that could be cultured eight days after symptom onset.

Her study found that a negative rapid antigen test on day five is a "perfect" indicator of whether the virus could be cultured in a lab. In other words, anyone who had a negative test on day five or later after their initial diagnosis had no more detectable virus.

"The flip side was that if you had a positive rapid [test], about half of the people still had culturable virus and half did not," says Jacobsen. "The way that we've started to frame it, and I think many others have, is that if you're positive, you particularly need to take this very seriously."

 

[Ausmumof3]

On 7/5/2022 at 1:12 PM, HSmomof2 said:

My vitamin D levels were good when tested earlier this year, and I take a supplement. Still testing positive (day 21). I feel fine, except seem to have developed a daily headache, not sinus headache, it’s whole head.….and I rarely have headaches normally, so I think it’s Covid-related. NSAIDS do help, but I can’t take much of those on my stomach. 
 

I’m going to wait a week to test again….starting to run low on tests. 🙂

I think if I got to 21 days I would probably be doing low risk stuff and just being super careful about masking. Surely you can’t be contagious for that long!

[Ausmumof3]

23 hours ago, Farrar said:

For those of us dealing with positive tests for what feels like forever when you feel basically fine, I found this useful in how to think about it:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/30/1108615724/positive-test-isolation

 

Interesting. There was also a recent study showing possible viral persistence in some long covid people. Maybe that persistence could generate long positive RATs if it’s in the right place in the body.