COVID for Christmas 😷

[Tenaj]

My dh has been sick since Monday.  Tested negative on Tuesday morning, tested positive yesterday afternoon.

Plans were to have our traditional Christmas Eve ravioli tomorrow and then family Christmas (13 people total) on Monday.  I sent a text out to adult kids.  One couple responds "oh, we'll come anyway" - which I don't get because both were extremely sick the last time they had Covid.  My oldest dd calls and won't come unless he tests negative tomorrow - which I totally understand.  She has a 4 year son in daycare, work for herself and her son's dad just started a new job.  One son didn't respond - lol!

I haven't even included elderly relatives  in the equation.  So they will have to entertain each other I guess?

Plan right now is that he will test tomorrow morning.  If negative we will go ahead on Monday.  If positive put everything on hold until next weekend

Trying to decide what to do about meal prep.  Grrr . . .

[Kassia]

Ugh, I'm sorry.  Two of my friends just said their Christmas family get togethers have been ruined by Covid.  Hard to believe we're still dealing with this.  

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

My niece just tested positive so I don’t know if we will have family Christmas on my side or not this week.  They’re in public school and my sister has week on/week off custody of this niece plus they live four hours away, so getting together is already hard.

I frankly don’t see any way that we as a collective society won’t be dealing with this forever now, unless some super great vaccines are made that prevent transmission.

It is going to be another bad flu/Covid/RSV winter I think. Already we’ve locally had one pediatric death from RSV and multiple critically ill children, even elementary age. 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Mrs Tiggywinkle Again

[bolt.]

I just made all the texts to postpone my family Christmas events due to covid too. We're celebrating on the 29th.

I actually feel relieved.

Now we just have to eat the perishables that won't make it from now to then. (Or freeze them.)

Edited December 23, 2023 by bolt.

[Tenaj]

9 minutes ago, bolt. said:

I just made all the texts to postpone my family Christmas events due to covid too. We're celebrating on the 29th.

I actually feel relieved.

Now we just have to eat the perishables that won't make it from now to then. (Or freeze them.)

So glad you have the decision made.  I'll be fine once I know for sure what's going on.  Suspecting all will be postponed until next Saturday.

[Kanin]

3 hours ago, Tenaj said:

Plan right now is that he will test tomorrow morning.  If negative we will go ahead on Monday.  If positive put everything on hold until next weekend

Sorry about your DH, and hope the rest of the family don't get it.

If I was a guest, I'd be worried about the rest of you being pre-symptomatic, even if your DH has tested negative the day before. What are the chances that nobody else is about to test positive, too?

[Hilltopmom]

We all have it right now too so we are postponing until New Years and will try to see my parents and have my oldest come home then instead. If everyone tests negative by then.

[Tenaj]

1 hour ago, Kanin said:

Sorry about your DH, and hope the rest of the family don't get it.

If I was a guest, I'd be worried about the rest of you being pre-symptomatic, even if your DH has tested negative the day before. What are the chances that nobody else is about to test positive, too?

Right.  

[kbutton]

Ah, that’s frustrating! I hope the rest of you are fine and that anyone who gets it recovers well.

[kbutton]

7 hours ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

I frankly don’t see any way that we as a collective society won’t be dealing with this forever now, unless some super great vaccines are made that prevent transmission.

If we ever stop masking, we’ll probably still initiate masking ten days before any important events for the rest of our days. 

[MercyA]

I'm so sorry!

A man from my church has been in the hospital for over a month with COVID. At the beginning of his illness, he fell down and couldn't breathe. 😞 

The church (or the family sending the email updates?) is calling it "an infection" or "the infection"--never, ever COVID. I only know it's COVID because the pastor mentioned that it was. Wish they'd be more open to encourage more people to be vaxxed. 

[PeterPan]

I'd be a bit more chilled about it. The cdc has recommendations for how long people people should stay away from others (5 days). If he is still within that time, still symptomatic, or still unpleasantly sick, I would put him in the bedroom, wipe everything down, and have people over anyway, just like you would with any other easily treatable virus. If Christmas will be more than 5 days, he could come out and be with the others *if* his symptoms are mostly past and he is not coughing, etc. 

I wouldn't stop Christmas over something that, for most people, is now functioning like a cold. 

[KSera]

47 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

like you would with any other easily treatable virus.

It is not like “any other easily treatable virus.” It does damage throughout all organ systems in a way other viruses do not. And certainly nothing like a cold. you yourself have talked about having to get multiple rounds of hyperbaric oxygen treatment after your Covid infections. That’s not a normal thing for someone to have to do after a cold. 
 

 

49 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

If Christmas will be more than 5 days, he could come out and be with the others *if* his symptoms are mostly past and he is not coughing, etc. 

They are doing the right thing by making sure he is testing negative as well. The majority of people are contagious longer than five days. There’s a difference between what current recommendations are, which is about the most they felt they could expect people to follow, and what is actually kind and loving and considerate to other people.

[wathe]

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

The cdc has recommendations for how long people people should stay away from others (5 days)

It's more complicated than that.  And includes masking for 10 days.

@Tenaj, I'm sorry that your DH is sick.  I hope that he has a mild case and that he recovers quickly.

Edited December 24, 2023 by wathe

[Drama Llama]

1 minute ago, wathe said:

It's more complicated than that.  And includes masking for 10 days.

@Tenaj, I'm sorry that your DH is sick.  I hope that he has a mild case and that he recovers quickly.

Did you mean to link to this thread?

[wathe]

7 minutes ago, Drama Llama said:

Did you mean to link to this thread?

No, I did not!  I've fixed the link to the CDC isolation recommendations page.  Thanks.

Also, taking the opportunity to add:  I wish that covid were an "easily treatable virus", but it's not.  We've had 644 deaths and 4212 hospitalizations in my province in the past 4 months (since Aug 27, 2023). And counting.  

[Ausmumof3]

I just want to say it’s totally ok to make the call early if you want to. Just say “dh has Covid and we aren’t sure if he will be better, so we’re calling it off to give people time to make other plans”. I also hate the indecision around sickness so much. It’s one of the things I like about masking, less times questioning whether or not we’re ok to host people etc.

[Tenaj]

8 hours ago, PeterPan said:

I'd be a bit more chilled about it. The cdc has recommendations for how long people people should stay away from others (5 days). If he is still within that time, still symptomatic, or still unpleasantly sick, I would put him in the bedroom, wipe everything down, and have people over anyway, just like you would with any other easily treatable virus. If Christmas will be more than 5 days, he could come out and be with the others *if* his symptoms are mostly past and he is not coughing, etc. 

I wouldn't stop Christmas over something that, for most people, is now functioning like a cold. 

Sorry but what he has is way more than a cold.  It has been more than five days but yesterday he felt worse than he had all week.  I cannot allow others in the family - especially the elders  to be purposefully exposed just for a family gathering.  If he wakes up still sick this morning we will cancel everything until Saturday which makes me sad but that's the way it is 

[bolt.]

I think society is reacting is two ways to the covid-with-us phenomenon, and we've seen both in this thread.

One is that some folks take it like the sniffles and 'don't ask / don't tell' about which virus a person is actually sniffling from. This has some functionality in allowing society to function fairly normally. It does mean that people who are mildly symptomatic are spreading the virus in their daily life, but this virus spreads pre-symptomatically and robustly in any scenario other than a lock down. Mild symptomatic spreaders are part of that, but I don't think they are making a statistically huge differentiation, compared to how it would be spreading anyways. In general people are finding covid less scary to get, and therefore less significant to pass -- at least among populations that don't have known vulnerable members. I, personally, wish they would isolate for even mild symptoms and test if they can... but I don't think they are changing the course of the disease by much (except that they are specifically directing it towards their circles of acquaintances and loved ones.)

The other one is that people are much more comfortable with their freedom to delay, reschedule, cancel things, or find digital substitutes. I can think back and remember a time where postponing Christmas for an illness would have been a catastrophe -- with tears and guilt and maybe even recrimination: a genuine tragedy. And, in more minor ways, cancelling on someone, calling in sick to work, rescheduling an appointment all used to be fairly significant events of inconvenience, personal failure, or letting people down. Now, when we have to do that (when out symptoms are more-than-mild, when we choose to take tests and abide by the results, etc.) nobody bats an eye. When it happens to us, and we get a message, "Sorry, this-or-that event is cancelled. So-and-so has covid right now." -- we don't even feel very disappointed or put out. We know that sometimes stuff, even important stuff, just doesn't happen, often at the last minute, and we don't mind. We're used to that new feature of life too!

[PeterPan]

9 hours ago, bolt. said:

postponing Christmas for an illness would have been a catastroph

Exactly. It's not that I'm blowing off how serious it is, because I've had it multiple times this year, ended up on long courses of antibiotics and inhalers dealing with it, etc. I just think we have to find a way to go on, and Christmas for EVERYONE should not stop because one person got sick. If you do, you'll never win as someone else will get sick and someone else. It just depends on the size of the family, the size of meeting place and options. We've had events at our house when I was very sick. I just holed up in my room and they did their thing. The show goes on. 

My stepfather just got covid because they let someone come to their early Christmas who was actively sick who claimed it was "just allergies". THAT to me is so just upsetting. Now my mother is at risk and my stepfather, who nearly died his last round, is sick again. He's on paxlovid and I'm calling repeatedly, frequently, to MAKE SURE they are complying and not letting things go. I don't know what the clinical word is for this lack of urgency in seniors is, but oh my. Like she let him go multiple days with symptoms before she tested and then was not AGGRESSIVE getting the paxlovid filled. Now he's on it, but we DO have to be so cautious.

So I'm just right in the middle of all that. 

[PeterPan]

20 hours ago, wathe said:

includes masking for 10 days.

Yeah I think for the program where I volunteer they said something about hole up 5 days, mask the remainder, etc. I end up so messed up so long and on antibiotics so long it really doesn't matter, like basically I'm waiting multiple weeks (3-4 or more) before I go around vulnerable people. I think one time I waited 6 weeks because I was being extra careful. But the program people were saying that it's actually more fungible, like wear a mask if you're past x amount and don't worry. Me, I worry and like my people and don't want to kill them, so I just don't go if there's at all a likelihood I'm still coughing/contagious. And I don't want to wear masks around them because I'm there to visit and want them to see my joyous smile.

I went to visit my mother (exposed, not currently testing positive) but I just said hi through the door and handed her a gift and left. It's just tricky stuff where we all find our comfort zone and pick our amount of risk. I find myself pissy cautious when I *know* there's a reasonable likelihood someone is contagious. And I don't think I've had her variant and don't want it, sigh. 

Edited December 25, 2023 by PeterPan

[Tenaj]

My 14 yodd just tested positive.  She's in tears 

[kbutton]

51 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

 Christmas for EVERYONE should not stop because one person got sick. If you do, you'll never win as someone else will get sick and someone else. 

I know some people won’t believe this, but not everyone gets sick easily or has kids who are sick all the time, and it can vary even in one household.

[mommyoffive]

34 minutes ago, Tenaj said:

My 14 yodd just tested positive.  She's in tears 

Oh man I am sorry, that really sucks. I hope she has an easy time with it.

[Lady Florida.]

Oh I'm sorry. Dh had Covid last Christmas so I know how it is. Family dropped off presents on our porch (and we left theirs to pick up). It was not fun but better than exposing others to the virus. ((hugs))

Edited December 25, 2023 by Lady Florida.

[Tenaj]

We've cancelled tomorrow except for those of us who live here and are hoping we can all get together sometime over next weekend. I think everyone has somewhere else to go so that's nice.

It was already a weird  Christmas as my eldest and his family are out of the country this year and my 20 yods left last week to spend Christmas with them (first Christmas he'll be gone).  

I stuffed the stockings by myself (dh is in bed early); kids are watching a Spiderman movie and we will have a very different holiday.  Last year we had 20 people here (8 kids under 7).  This year only 5 of us and youngest is 14!  

[KSera]

5 hours ago, Tenaj said:

My 14 yodd just tested positive.  She's in tears 

Oh, poor kiddo! Im sorry. I hope she doesn’t feel too badly and you all end up having an enjoyable, peaceful holiday together. Healthy wishes to your family. 

[Ausmumof3]

I’m sorry. Hopefully you can find some joy with immediate family and she has an easy recovery.

[bolt.]

We just had our low-key "just us" Christmas morning, with 3 folks okay and unmasked. DH masked and was seated at a distance that was 2m, but still felt included. Now he's resting again. It's restful, and feels very 'together' -- no sense that Christmas is something we are doing for our guests. This year the morning is just for us.

Later my mom is doing an afternoon turkey dinner. DH may or may not attend (masked, seated at a distance, no hugs). DD19, recently recovered, (on day 8 right now, no symptoms since day 4) might also be willing to mask; but I will feel okay even if she isn't willing to. I'm not going to pressure her because I don't think she's highly contagious in the 'very dangerous' sense. And at 19, it's not my decision; advice is good, pressure is bad.

DD19 has already said that she is *absolutely* masking on the plane back. Which is a little bit of 'closing the barn door after the horse has left' because she'll be highly immune, having recently recovered. But it's a good practice, and a good lesson, and I was very glad to hear that she is now on 'team masking for air travel'. Hopefully she will be willing to do that from now on. (And maybe even 'for all crowds' -- that's where I am on the masking scale.)

[Navymom]

I tested positive this morning, after hosting 17 others yesterday. 😢

As the day went on, I felt slightly unwell (really just thought I was stressed out and had been on my feet all day) and overnight began to feel terrible and tested first thing this morning.

I have informed everyone, a few are not happy with me, but I don't know how I could have done differently. 

The worst part is my son is here for a week with his family, they are going to stay elsewhere now until Friday, and hopefully we can have dinner Friday night before they head back home. They only make it to Christmas every 5 years or so.

[bolt.]

40 minutes ago, Navymom said:

I tested positive this morning, after hosting 17 others yesterday. 😢

As the day went on, I felt slightly unwell (really just thought I was stressed out and had been on my feet all day) and overnight began to feel terrible and tested first thing this morning.

I have informed everyone, a few are not happy with me, but I don't know how I could have done differently. 

The worst part is my son is here for a week with his family, they are going to stay elsewhere now until Friday, and hopefully we can have dinner Friday night before they head back home. They only make it to Christmas every 5 years or so.

Oh, that's really a hard situation.

No one should be mad at you that you hosted -- because you did it before you had any noticeable symptoms and had no reason to be concerned. That's the tricky thing about covid, and it's why covid is so successful. Covid "changed things " because it's the only generally transmitted disease (to my knowledge) where you are contagious for a significant period of time before your first noticeable symptom. It means we need to change how we think about the responsibility not to spread germs... we are still responsible not to spread germs *that we know we have* but it's old-fashioned thinking about disease to think a person always knows about their germs. It's symptoms that tell us when to stop socializing. We aren't mind readers. Covid is it's own thing.

Missing a once per 5 years visit is a big blow! It must hurt a lot -- plus covid makes most of our people extra emotional. Hugs to you!

[wathe]

1 hour ago, bolt. said:

Oh, that's really a hard situation.

No one should be mad at you that you hosted -- because you did it before you had any noticeable symptoms and had no reason to be concerned. That's the tricky thing about covid, and it's why covid is so successful. Covid "changed things " because it's the only generally transmitted disease (to my knowledge) where you are contagious for a significant period of time before your first noticeable symptom. It means we need to change how we think about the responsibility not to spread germs... we are still responsible not to spread germs *that we know we have* but it's old-fashioned thinking about disease to think a person always knows about their germs. It's symptoms that tell us when to stop socializing. We aren't mind readers. Covid is it's own thing.

Missing a once per 5 years visit is a big blow! It must hurt a lot -- plus covid makes most of our people extra emotional. Hugs to you!

Presymptomatic and asymptomatic transmission happens for just about all viral infections.  RSV and influenza and chicken pox and measles (and probably dozens of other respiratory viruses for which we just don't have the data, and others I just haven't bothered to specifically look up).  Lots of other viruses can be transmitted while asymptomatic and presymptomatic too: HIV, Hepatitis A and B, Epstein-Barr (mono), polio, mpox, and on and on.  

A nice, short review article on asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission of various pathogens.

Covid is just really, really, really good at it.   And really, really good at transmission in general.

Edited December 25, 2023 by wathe

[Matryoshka]

2 hours ago, wathe said:

Presymptomatic and asymptomatic transmission happens for just about all viral infections.  RSV and influenza and chicken pox and measles (and probably dozens of other respiratory viruses for which we just don't have the data, and others I just haven't bothered to specifically look up).  Lots of other viruses can be transmitted while asymptomatic and presymptomatic too: HIV, Hepatitis A and B, Epstein-Barr (mono), polio, mpox, and on and on.  

A nice, short review article on asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission of various pathogens.

Covid is just really, really, really good at it.   And really, really good at transmission in general.

Yeah, many things transmit pre- or asymptomatic.  The big difference is how much more transmissable Covid is (has now passed measles as most contagious pathogen), *and* unlike measles, smallpox, or chicken pox, you can get it over and over and over, so the population isn't immune for long after a spike, so round and round it goes...

Edited December 26, 2023 by Matryoshka

[Tenaj]

Continuing our Covid Christmas Saga, so we rescheduled to the 30th for our family Christmas then I got sick on Tuesday so we decided to have it on New Year's Day and then the last of us - my 16yods tested positive tonight.  So we will celebrate next weekend.  My dear 84 year old Aunt just laughed and said we should maybe schedule it for Halloween 🤣. You have to laugh or you'll cry. 

My dh probably had it the worst and is still exhausted and headachy once in a while a full two weeks after getting sick. He tends to get sicker than others with everything.   The rest of us had one or two miserable days and then ok.  The current sick one seems ok for now.  We can't figure out if he's at the beginning or at the end.  He's had a cough for a while but today said he felt worse so that's why I tested him and he had a strong, dark positive so it must be new.

We're very thankful that we've been able to keep it inside the house and not spread it especially to the elderly generation.   Used my last test tonight . . .

[KSera]

40 minutes ago, Tenaj said:

We're very thankful that we've been able to keep it inside the house and not spread it especially to the elderly generation.   Used my last test tonight . . .

I’m sorry it ended up going through all of you, but also grateful for people who are careful of others as you are. Have you already gotten all your federal tests that you can, including the most recent ones you could order in November?

[Tenaj]

51 minutes ago, KSera said:

I’m sorry it ended up going through all of you, but also grateful for people who are careful of others as you are. Have you already gotten all your federal tests that you can, including the most recent ones you could order in November?

Yes, we are all caught up.  Our local library has them available so we'll stock up again after the holiday.

[mommyoffive]

Ugh, sorry it wrecked your holidays.  I am glad your family is able to just do it next weekend and you guys will all hopefully be feeling well.  And good for you for not giving it to anyone else.  You made the right call. I am glad you can get more tests at your library.  I have tons of tests still, but I will have to check and see if the library does it if we ever need them.  We got tons of free ones from the doctor the last well child visits for all my kids.  She gave us all they had.

[PeterPan]

17 hours ago, Tenaj said:

My dh probably had it the worst and is still exhausted and headachy once in a while a full two weeks after getting sick. He tends to get sicker than others with everything.   The rest of us had one or two miserable days and then ok.  The current sick one seems ok for now.  We can't figure out if he's at the beginning or at the end.  He's had a cough for a while but today said he felt worse so that's why I tested him and he had a strong, dark positive so it must be new.

It sounds like your dh needs to see the doctor. At this point they'd probably give him antibiotics, etc. to help him through. And yes, covid drains methyls, B1, zinc, iron, etc. big time. Do you have a pulse oximeter? How are his oxygen levels? Is it possible it has gone to pneumonia or bronchitis? 

I tend up *tripling* my zinc when I have covid. For the methyls, you can drink orange juice. For B1, that's just a pill you swallow. For the iron, that helps with the low energy by getting oxygen into the cells. I don't know why it is some people are more prone than others, but it's definitely a thing. I usually do covid the hard way (30 days of antibiotics, long recovery), but taking EVERYTHING helps it go better.

[Acadie]

18 hours ago, Tenaj said:

My dh probably had it the worst and is still exhausted and headachy once in a while a full two weeks after getting sick. He tends to get sicker than others with everything.   The rest of us had one or two miserable days and then ok.  The current sick one seems ok for now.  We can't figure out if he's at the beginning or at the end.  He's had a cough for a while but today said he felt worse so that's why I tested him and he had a strong, dark positive so it must be new.

We're very thankful that we've been able to keep it inside the house and not spread it especially to the elderly generation.   Used my last test tonight . . .

Thanks so much for everything your family has done to contain transmission!

Dh took Pax and was negative and feeling better for 6 days, then started having mild symptoms again (sniffles, raspy throat, more fatigued) and tested positive again for 4 days. Today is the first day he's negative after rebound, and he's planning to continue to rest, not resume working out and keep up with really healthy eating and supplements for another month or two to support full recovery and reduce risk of Long Covid. He doesn't drink but avoiding alcohol is another way to support immune function in the recovery phase, which I've come to think takes longer than we realize, even for the common cold. 

Hoping your whole family is feeling better soon and has a healthy spring! 

[PeterPan]

Oh I forgot, did op's dh take paxlovid? When I used it, I had a rebound too. Wasn't as bad but still it just dragged the stupid virus out forever. And you never know if you'll be lucky and kick it with pax or rebound, sigh. After that rebound experience, we just gave up on it. I take a mound of other things from the doc and get through it.

[Tenaj]

44 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Oh I forgot, did op's dh take paxlovid? When I used it, I had a rebound too. Wasn't as bad but still it just dragged the stupid virus out forever. And you never know if you'll be lucky and kick it with pax or rebound, sigh. After that rebound experience, we just gave up on it. I take a mound of other things from the doc and get through it.

No, my dh did not take paxlovid.  We never considered it because he was never that sick just tired and now it's dragging on and on and headaches have returned.  He's not even really coughing 

[KSera]

Did anyone already share this post from a pharmacist with OTC medication and supplement recommendations that may be helpful in recovery? https://pharmd.substack.com/p/i-have-covid-what-should-my-kids