Mar
2021

A close contact?

Someone in my class had COVID. We have to quarantine for 2 weeks. I missed my virtual Cheer Provincial competition.

He said

No sooner had we wrapped up last week with me getting the first dose of the vaccine and feeling a lot more optimistic about a life in a post pandemic world, than had our Monday morning was thrown completely upside down. I had finished my bike ride workout, and showered and was headed to Mom & Dad’s to help them with some stuff when I got the call from Danielle—the call that no one wanted. Seems that someone in Emelia’s class had contracted COVID and the class was been sent home to self quarantine for two weeks. It basically threw our whole world into a lot of scary turmoil and this whole last year hit close to… well… our home.

Thankfully I was off work for the day and could talk Emelia through a lot of the immediate emotions as she learned that she was basically off doing anything at all and needed to stay home at all cost. The biggest dent in her universe was the realization that she would miss cheer in the week that they were doing their final filming for their virtual entry in the Provincial Championships. When that suck in I think – understandably so – I saw at least four of the five stages of grief in about thirty-nine seconds flat. There were a lot of big emotions to talk her through, but in some of it all I could offer is that I don’t understand just how much it sucked, but that I did know that it did.

Being that prior to my vaccine I had tested negative again as part of my weekly primary caregiver life, we made plans for Emelia & Danielle to get tested Monday evening to put everyone at ease. In the case of Danielle & I the public health guidelines are that we should self quarantine and only leave the house for essential things like work. We followed the guidelines very tightly — even wearing masks in the house and keeping as much distance as we could. I was tested again on Friday as part of my weekly commitment and that came up negative as well. Danielle & Emelia were tested again at the suggestion of the Health Unit Friday evening and that came up negative as well. We feel much closer to being out of the woods, but the final all-clear doesn’t happen until this Thursday and Friday Emelia can return to normal activities.

That really was our week. I mean yesterday the weather was nice enough that Danielle and I were able to get some yard work done—most notably getting the yard de-winterized and ready for Spring & Summer. We even ended the day by barbecuing some food and having an adult beverage by the fire pit in the back patio. It was the first bit of normal in what was an otherwise cruddy kind of week. We will be very happy to hit that all-clear milestone this Thursday and hoping for everything to return the other still limited kind of new normal.

She said

First I want to say we are very grateful we are all negative, second I want to say: Fuck COVID! We are all feeling the burnout, the exhaustion, and the loss of normal—no one more than Emelia! This year has been horrible for so many, so much loss, so much isolation, so much impact on mental health.

When I got the call from the school on Monday our world froze and we had to shift mental gears not only to support Emelia but to figure out what the hell to do. I told work right away. John’s told his work right away. We let the family know so we could shift our support to John’s parents and figured out testing all in about 5 minutes of shock. The call was that it was a child in Emelia’s class. We found out later it was one of her friends—a child she had been working with on a school project all week together. So we booked our testing right away as per the instruction. Emelia and I went to the testing centre right after work. The staff at the testing centre was amazing, the nurse we had was incredible, she gave Emelia so much support and information. As the nurse explained what would have to happen for isolation it hit Emelia. Even home wasn’t her safe space. She would have to isolate from us 100% if at all possible. John and I were only to leave the house for work and absolute essentials for 2 weeks.

After the test we have had two more calls from public health to review what the protocol was and that we needed to get retested 8 days post exposure to assure 100% we were not carrying the virus. What made this timing of the contact worse was the timing. For Emelia sports is her safe place and the place she feels seen and strong. It is her happy place. Today she was missing out on something she had been training for since July: the Provincial Championship. Now we are aware in the scheme of covid this might seem small but for kids who have lost so much this year this was a big gut punch for Emelia. It hurt and she was so heartbroken. All the negative Covid results couldn’t change that she had to isolate for two weeks which means she would miss the taping of her virtual competition.

So today sucked, it hurt for us to see her hurt. She knows that we are lucky to have a safe place to isolate and she will be out of this soon (for now) but we will still let her say today sucked – because it did. This time next week we are hoping she can get back to the gym and that they can get one more competition in before we are in lockdown again. Hoping this week is a better one for sure and that the last 5 days of her isolation goes by fast for her.

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