rona moved in: ilx0rs with the bug report on their progress

I don't have it, but my luck may run out.

one of my best friends got it, and I had close contact with them Saturday (they are the same person who I mentioned whose father got beat up and sent to the hospital). had that not happened I probably wouldn't have seen her that day. Oi. she probably got it through her vent, as one of the roommates in the unit next door had it, and they share a vent. these scenarios just make things impossible. she avoided going in that house but because it's airborne, probably came thru the vent.

as a result, I'm now masking in the house and trying to stay in my room, have a HEPA air purifier running in the living room. but I have to help mom with dad so there's only so far I can go with this. Bro gets two days of FMLA per month to help, we might have to have him use them.

I have tested negative twice, but it's far too early to be in the clear.

as a result, now after making rent last month by skin of teeth, the friend gets to be out of work for 5-10 days. i am helping them out with some tide over money simply because I have the means and want to (they didn't ask, I offered). but how many other people are gonna be ass-out being out of work that long? this country is fucked.

part of me really just wants to get it myself and beat it so I don't have to worry about it for a little while, but it's very hard for me to get it without my folks to. both are boosted, but boy will that be a hell week if we all get it.

the play I'm in opens in a few weeks. obviously I'm not going to rehearsal until I'm sure whether I'm in the clear or not. I have a feeling this thing gets shuttered as other people are gonna have similar issues soon. It's everywhere in FL. I don't even care tbh because I've been convinced this production isn't gonna actually go up. we began rehearsing in much quieter times back in November.

She suspects that it's viral conjunctivitis, which I've found has been connected to COVID in some cases.

yep, this has been spotted in many Omicron cases, along with other not-previously usual symptoms, all of which my friend had and which she used to accurately surmise she had it before testing positive:

*back pain
*change in voice (not like loss of voice like laryngitis so much as the timbre changes - hers was unrecognizable yesterday)

those of you that caught it and were trying to prevent family members from catching it, what precautions did you take to try and avoid spreading? I've mostly quarantined to my room until I know I'm inthe clear, wearing an N95, and running air purifiers in multiple rooms.

but sadly mom can't move dad on her own so I have to make minimal contact, which might obliterate all of my efforts (if I'm positive).

eating also difficult as we have only one room to eat in.

getting an AirBNB/hotel out of the question cos ethically I can't justify infecting strangers and people have infected each other across the hall.

however, my close friend's daughter just had the Cron and nobody else in the family got it and they used isolation methods like I'm doing.

Inevitably, woke up this morning to one of my kids saying she thinks she has a cold ... about 8 hours after we got a late night notice that one of the friends she was with on Saturday just tested positive yesterday. Now, she and her friend both took tests before Saturday, and were both negative, so it's possible her friend wasn't exposed or contagious just yet. It's also possible, though, my kid caught it somewhere else. Or hell, it's possible she has a cold. She brushed her teeth getting ready, so we have to wait a few before we can give her a home test. Fingers crossed, it'd be a bummer to miss a bunch of school. Though I have a feeling these schools being open are a temporary thing.

Not direct personal experience (yet) Neaderthal and this is purely anecdotal, as all kinds of factors and a massive degree of chance play in of course, but, like you say about your friends, a number of couples we know have had one partner test positive and the other avoid it while still living together in small one bedroom flats by maintaining some degree of isolation within the home and wearing masks (most likely just cotton ones). This is in current omicron times and I think all were at least double jabbed.

My mum and partner also continued living with my step-brother who was covid positive and managed to avoid it by him confining upstairs for the most part (they have a slightly bigger house luckily, so could easily stay on different floors, except for when using the kitchen) and opening windows when they were together.

All the best to you and your parents.

I managed to avoid it despite not being able to isolate from my other half (with whom I shared a bed throughout) or 7-year-old son. Our flat is so small it just wasn't feasible to isolate from each other. I was twice-jabbed at the time (thrice now).

And ... daughter is positive. Let the fun begin.

Sorry Josh.

Not as sorry as she is, lol. Right before the booster for her age group, too, though I guess this is certainly one way to get boosted.

Called the school's covid line and I guess today marks Day 0 of a mandatory 10-day stay-at-home quarantine, even if she tests negative on a near-future PCR test. FWIW they told me to be patient when it comes to getting information about remote learning because they've been overwhelmed with phone calls and emails about positive tests. When I said I was surprised the school is even open she said she was, too.

FWIW, while I don't know how avoidable this was, imo it was definitely *more* avoidable, based on her activity, but that can't be quantified, and at this rate not sure what degree of caution would even be effective.

every one of us does something that falls short of being 100% cautious at all times. It doesn't make sense to dwell on potential lapses too much as Omicron is one of the most infectious viruses ever seen, and most likely the majority of us will get it or something similar before this is all over.

sorry to hear about your daughter, Josh. hoping it's a mild case.

my friend with it says she already feels better, and the degradation to her voice is already improving.

I'm negative again. I've been wearing KN95s/N95s in the house (even while I slept - I'm that paranoid) and running HEPA filters. but I've been near my dad cos mom can't lift him alone, but always masked.

fingers crossed I have an amazing immune system!

Sorry, Josh, but every adolescent/early adult case I know of can boast of asymptomatic or even milder symptoms than the rest of us.

Thanks everyone. Yeah, she's got a stuffy nose, sore throat and very low fever, so that's not too bad. She's more upset at having the miss school (and some other stuff). We're trying to figure out when the rest of us should burn through a test, given no one else has any symptoms yet. Though we kind of assume that should we suddenly develop suspicious symptoms that it is likely covid, so maybe it makes more sense to do it sooner rather than later.

So my 6 year old got it just before Christmas, most likely from school. We were kind of dumb about it since just before that, I was sick and got tested and that was negative so we just assumed she caught my cold and so we made minimal effort to isolate from each other. We did a test for my daughter at home that came up positive on the 23rd and then got her PCR tested for which we also got a positive result on the 24th. On the 25th my son and wife both start getting a runny nose so they get PCR tested on the the 26th (at this point we just assume we all have it). I decide to also book an appointment for a PCR test for myself and my other 8 year old daughter even though we don't have any symptoms, but can't get an appointment before the 29th. We get the result for our my son pretty quickly: positive. We wait a while for my wife's result and she eventually does a rapid test at home which comes out positive (she is the most sick among all of us, though nothing worse than a typical cold). She finally gets her PCR result a week later, which is negative, at this point she does another rapid test which is positive again. We figure at this point that she probably got her PCR test too soon. Later that same day me and my 8 year old daughter get our results: negative. This morning my wife went and got a PCR test again, we assume it is going to be positive.

We figure we probably had a regular cold (the one I had originally a week before this all started) and COVID going around our family at the same time, which made it difficult to figure where our symptoms were coming from and when to get tested.

Anyway, what a fun two weeks, assuming nobody gets sick in the next couple of days we should be ok to get out of the house sometime near the end of the week, though I will make sure to have minimal contact with anyone for a while after that.

Neanderthal i understand the need for caution around your dad but what on earth would masking as you sleep accomplish?? Unless the ghosts that live under your bed have COVID?

my friend probably got it from a shared vent, and some folk in hotels have infected people in rooms across the hall.

it's probably more than I need to do but if I don't do it and he gets it i'll keep asking myself "should I have masked in my room"

i'm going to go out on a limb and say your friend doesn't have any more idea how she got it than i did, either time i got it. everybody has their own thresholds of comfortableness of course but i have literally never heard of anyone masking while they sleep and i worry that you're driving yourself crazy with activities that make no difference. you are going to end up wrapped in plastic!

We were kind of dumb about it since just before that, I was sick and got tested and that was negative so we just assumed she caught my cold and so we made minimal effort to isolate from each other.

this sounds sensible, not dumb. you're right it's pretty hard to know what's going on. you can only go by what the tests show. if you guys are vaccinated and not 'eating, meeting and greeting' around vulnerable people the overwhelming likelihood is that everything will be fine.

well, the reason we theorize is because her roommate tested positive last week in the unit next door with the shared vent, and that was the closest contact. could be wrong.

I'm not doing this indefinitely. in a few days I would probably know if I'm ok or not.

now y'all got me freaked out about office infection from people several rooms away.

don't let my neuroticism scare you all.

I got poisoned by the cult that is #COVIDisAirborne online where you can get Omicron just by watching Free Willy (it comes through the blu-ray!)

nothing I am doing am I suggesting for anybody else. :)

Friends of ours wore masks when sleeping as one had covid and one didn't and their flat was so small that there was no choice but to continue sleeping in the same bed. I thought it sounded a bit pointless if they were lying next to each other all night, but the one who didn't have covid never caught it, so there you go.

We all went in for combo rapid/PCR tests, including the person that already tested positive, just to get it into the public record. We all just got our rapid results: negative, including the person that already tested positive.

I take it back, I guess my wife tested positive on the rapid test (though I and the one that already tested positive tested negative). I think we'll try again tomorrow and see if we get different results.

now y'all got me freaked out about office infection from people several rooms away.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, January 4, 2022 11:46 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

If it helps at all I work in a hospital and have had several coworkers come down with it over the last several months in our open plan office and nobody had gotten it from a co-worker. That said, because it’s a hospital we’re still socially distanced etc but I really wouldnt worry too much about that.

Thanks, ENBB. That's what I mean, though: if I work in an office, door shut, unmasked, must I worry about COVID aerosols coming through the A/C vents?

I mean distance does often dilute the impact of aerosolized virus (meaning lower, but still some risk), but I've seen virologists and aerosol experts threaten each other's families over this concept so idk.

i'm sealed in a bubble rn

Just got the news that my 82 year old Mom who lives in a memory care facility in Indianapolis has tested positive, along with many other residents and staff. Double Moderna vaxxed and we think boosted (permission given but weren't notified when it was administered).

Oh Jaq, that’s not news anyone would want to hear. Hope it’s mild and she recovers quickly.

Same, Jaq. ❤️

ugh Jaq

Thanks folks - I had resigned myself that she would no doubt catch this and all we could do was hope for mild symptoms. Sucks being so far away.

aww shit Jaq. echoing everybody's sentiments - hoping for a mild case and that all is well. terrible to be at a distance at a time like this :(

jaq <3 im so sorry

Posted this on the other thread yesterday:

Almost a week ago, I came down with a sore throat and cough. For two days in a row, my at-home (nasal swab) test was negative, so I figured it was just a cold. I've mostly shaken those symptoms, but now I'm super-congested and have a weird bitter taste in my mouth. Of course, it could still be a cold, but given that my wife just had COVID, it wouldn't be crazy that I would have it now, too.

― jaymc, Tuesday, January 4, 2022 8:57 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

So I decided to take another at-home rapid test, and...now it's positive. I guess I'm not too surprised. But I do find it interesting that both my wife and I tested negative even after experiencing symptoms. (I actually misremembered when I posted yesterday: I tested negative only once, not twice, after developing the scratchy throat, but it was at least 36 hours into it.)

On one hand, it feels weirdly significant that COVID finally caught me after trying my best to avoid it for so long. (On the whole, I think I've been more cautious than most people I know.)

On the other, the illness itself has been mostly a mild nuisance. I've been working full days this week (at home) and feel a little run-down and stuffed up but it otherwise hasn't affected me much. In terms of energy, the booster hit me harder (though for a shorter period of time).

And testing positive won't really change my day-to-day. Since my wife just recovered from it, we don't need to isolate from one another. And I wasn't really planning to leave the house much anyhow, given the cold weather here in Chicago.

So, hopefully I just have to wait it out for a few more days.

Huh that's interesting jaymc because it corroborates* what someone else told me today, that a lot of people he knows didn't test positive until day 9.

I had the same symptoms, PCR tested on day 5 and it came back negative, so I assumed it was a cold. A lot of other people I know a lot of other people with cold symptoms who tested negative in the first week as well.

*this is not medical advice, just comparing anecdotes, etc etc

it's like Mr Blonde said

either you got Omicron
or you got a cold
or you're sick
or you're not

My wife tested positive on a rapid test at a clinic on Tuesday, but tested negative on a rapid test at home yesterday. She has no symptoms at all, feels totally fine, so is of the mind that the positive was perhaps not a sure-thing, but is continuing to isolate until the five day mark, which I think is Sunday. We're still waiting on PCR results, which should be today or tomorrow or so, and of course if they come back positive for any of us we'll adjust expectations accordingly, but a bigger flag would be if any of us symptom-free folks started getting symptoms.

My other daughter, the one whose exposure and subsequent positive test started all this, definitely has cold-like symptoms: stuffy nose, low fever, headache, occasional cough, thankfully pretty mild, though as far as school goes she's stuck at home until the end of next week no matter what. We feel pretty bad for her, but it's a lesson learned. She's pretty sure who she caught it from, a friend at her New Year's sleepover. Everyone was supposed to get a negative test beforehand, and indeed this friend did get a negative test ... but apparently a *week* beforehand! Not only did she likely get my daughter sick and another kid there sick, but apparently she went to a *second* sleepover the next night with someone who is immunocompromised, not only scaring the shit out of their parents but probably scuttling that person's older sister's already modest birthday celebration this coming weekend. My daughter is pretty pissed that this person hasn't even apologized. I don't want my kids to learn the wrong thing about trust, but we've told them from the start how precarious it gets the minute they (or we) start hanging out with friends with anything less than full masks and distancing. If each of us is a family of four, unless everyone is fully accounted for and cautious, one misstep can quickly have exponential ramifications. And with all due respect to kids, if even teenagers have to be occasionally reminded to take showers, god only knows how consistent they are with covid mitigations.

BTW, there is no more surefire way to make you suspect you are ill then to have someone close to you test positive and then wait around for symptoms that may or may not arrive. Magnifies every last thing that could be wrong in your body. Wake up with a stuffy nose? Covid! It clears up but you have a catch in your throat? Covid! Feel tired? Covid!

i've had random moments of a sneeze being on deck that has made me want to speed at 90 mph through traffic screaming "COVID, I HAVE COVID, GET OUT OF MY WAY, MOVE, THIS IS NOT A DRILL".

(in reality though I still have no symptoms post-exposure, 5 days now - which was the old incubation period, which is now apparently 3 days with Omicron)

Kid tested positive on Tuesday after an exposure on Friday night/Saturday morning. Today what few mild symptoms she had (cold, congestion, very low fever, headache) are mostly gone. The rest of us have yet to show any symptoms at all, and my wife (who had one positive rapid test and one negative) is pretty confident she does not have it. Still, we're being relatively cautious and all more or less keeping apart until Sunday, at which point we'll test again. And the one that tested positive will still have to stay at home next week and wear a mask around the house.

Still waiting on our Tuesday PCRs, btw, but a lot of good they will do us at this point.

six days after my exposure, not a symptom, and yet another negative test. appears I got lucky.

'grats Neanderthal!

Solidarity with everyone here.

I'm a few days away from '12 weeks since positive' and I'm still not right (where still not right = ongoing headaches and exhaustion). I had a few days over Christmas where I figured I was on the mend and did some long-ish walks. All good. Then Monday of this week I felt like shit again - to the point where I'm on a staggered return to work this term. I'm sure some of this is bound up with doubts about my job but there are days when I can't manage much more than a jigsaw puzzle, let alone looking after 25 14yr olds. I'm fucking sick of it, to be honest.

i’m sorry Chinaski, that sucks :( the effects are so weird and unpredictable

solidarity and aloha! here's wishing you well with my whole heart <3

same!

I hope the lingering effects resolve for you soon Chinaski.

there was an interesting chart i saw on twitter, so many long covid symptoms...

A very cool graph showing the average *onset* of these #LongCovid symptoms. 5/ pic.twitter.com/otoDqTp257

— Hannah Davis (ON HIATUS FOR JANUARY) (@ahandvanish) December 27, 2020

Well, that's cheered me up! Especially the use of TIE fighters.

Thanks for the well wishes folks. I'll kick this fucker in the end.