our family tested positive for COVID-19 and this is our story with some frequently asked questions.
COVID-19. the summer of 2020 that the world will never forget… the pandemic that has caused more chaos and divide in our country than anything we’ve ever seen before. that is the source of shutdown in our economy. that’s causing mothers to give birth without their support system. people to receive medical care in hospitals without a single person they love by their side. cities and states are trying to navigate decision making it seems with data and protocol that changes quite literally by the hour. schools that will likely look very different than anything we’ve seen before.
it’s a weird time we’re living in, y’all.
before we begin, let’s lay some ground rules.
1. i am not a doctor nor will i be passing out medical advice.
2. i’m sharing our story.
3. i won’t be answering questions about any other family members…while we’ve chosen to live a lifestyle that is fairly open in hopes of supporting other people and families like us, our families did not. please respect their privacy.
so let’s start…
zach + i have both tested positive with COVID-19…and if you’re just here to see how we’re doing, the short answer is we had a rough 24-36 hours of flu-like symptoms and since have been doing fine.
if you’ve been following along for a few months, you’ve seen that we’ve had our fair share of medical complications. we’ve been in and out of hospitals. we’ve worn masks. washed our hands with the best of them and even thought our crew might have already had COVID exposure back in march when 3/4 kids had pneumonia/respiratory infections. we now are fairly certain that they did NOT have COVID-19.
we chose to go to florida on our family vacation knowing that there was risk. we’re in the midst of a pandemic but our resort is pretty isolated so we took the chance because while zach is a type 1 diabetic, he’s otherwise very healthy and the rest of us are not at high risk.
COVID-19 timeline
FRIDAY – we returned home from florida
SATURDAY – late saturday night zach became symptomatic
SUNDAY – zach wound up in the ER late morning with some diabetic complications {which also happened last time he had the flu} and needing some fluids which was where he was tested. he was home by dinner time, resting.
MONDAY – aside from being tired, zach woke up feeling much better. by monday night, i had my first symptom.
TUESDAY – tuesday/wednesday were my worst days of symptoms feeling like i had the flu.
THURSDAY – other than some hoarse voices and needing to drink a ton of water, we were back to normal…even outside gardening!
our COVID-19 symptoms
zach:
fatigue
back pain
nausea
vomiting
fever {up to 102.5
cough
lindsey:
throat tickle
headache
fatigue
mild cough
back pain
nausea
fever {up to 101.3}
loss of taste/smell
i opened it up for questions on instagram and thought it would be the most helpful to put it all together here.
COVID-19 q + a
how are the kids? have they developed any symptoms?
piper spiked a fever thursday night that was easily managed with tylenol and was otherwise acting fine. maisley has had a runny nose since wednesday and miller has coughed a total of probably 9x in the last week. the assumption would be that they all ‘have’ COVID-19 and have very mild symptoms or are totally asymptomatic.
are you going to have the kids tested?
probably not.. if you’ve had it, you know it’s not the most pleasant test in the world and we’re quarantining so there isn’t really a need to have that done. it is assumed they have it.
how was the testing?
it felt like someone was trying to tickle my eyeball through my nose. not the most pleasant thing on the planet. not the worst? i will say that the first time i was tested after my stroke, they swabbed both sides at the same time. THAT was significantly worse than the most recent one with only 1 side.
you look pretty good, how do you really feel?
it’s never fun to be sick, especially when you’re caring for young children…and especially as an adult, fevers take a lot out of you. BUT. out of all the things we’ve been through this year, this has been the easiest. i’m fully aware that this isn’t everyone’s story, but it is ours and the reality of it is that we’re just fine.
we were told that day 2 + 5-7 are the worst so we were expecting to go downhill again but we never did. we both had 1-2 days of feeling pretty crappy and then we’ve been good ever since.
how long did it take for your test to come back positive?
about 24 hours. we were advised against the ‘rapid tests’ because of the unreliability of them.
did your doctor prescribe anything?
zach received a steroid shot + muscle relaxer in the ER with nausea meds and tylneol/motrin.
i got a muscle relaxer for my back and managed just fine on tylenol/motrin.
what about Mayo Clinic? weren’t you supposed to be there?
Mayo Clinic has been rescheduled for the middle of the month… we’ve been working closely with their team to determine when we are safe to be seen there following all of their guidelines.
So sorry to hear about the family getting the virus. It happy you are recovering. It has been a difficult year for your family and we will continue to pray for all of you. Much live and hugs, Denny and Patti Spitler. ❤️
Thank you for sharing and our thoughts and prayers have been with you and your family all year. Glad your family is recovering and while not everyone has it “the same” (not that it’s been easy), sharing your story will hopefully put some minds a little more ease. I know so many have been fearful of those words “positive test results” but I also know that while normal has changed and we all need to be cautious and protective of those most vulnerable, we can’t stop living completely. We need to be careful and informed but not fearful. Take care of yourself and your babies as you always do – and as you always say, while things appear tough, we are all so very blessed.
Can you discuss what you’ve done to ensure that you won’t spread the virus? Did you alert the airline you flew so that they can let the other passengers know? Did you all go anywhere, like to see family or to the grocery store upon your return?
Hi Charlotte! The Ohio Department of Health takes care of all of that and we were in full communication with them. We also completed our quarantine in full!