COVID is a sneaky SOB....

I do NOT have COVID-19.  (To be clear from the start.)  

Dh & I were both tested yesterday afternoon, both negative. 

But let's just say that we had a sobering scare... an encounter with COVID that was a little too close for comfort. 

Last Friday, I wrote about getting an unexpected visit from my Parents' Neighbours' Daughter and her family, on Wednesday night. 

Unfortunately, on Sunday night (four days post-visit), PND called me to say that COVID-19 might have been tagging along.  :(   They'd been spending time with her husband's cousin and his son at the family cottage in Quebec, as late as last Tuesday. They visited us on Wednesday night, and then spent all day Thursday at a local amusement park with the cousin and son, before heading home to Manitoba on Friday morning (arriving Saturday)... to the news that the cousin and son had both tested positive for COVID.  The boy was feeling under the weather by the end of day on Thursday, but everyone chalked it up to the heat, humidity and various vertigo-inducing rides they'd been on. 

By the time PND called me on Sunday night, we'd spent Saturday night with BIL & SIL, Together, we travelled across the city to visit stepMIL for the first time since early March 2020, just before the pandemic began. While there, we also saw her daughter and son (stepSIL & stepBIL), his wife and their son.  All the adults were double-vaxxed;  the boy, just turning 13, had had one shot but not both. 

PND told me they were all feeling fine. I realized I'd been having several days of annoying post-nasal drainage and a somewhat irritated throat as a result (I hesitated to call it "sore"). Granted, I've had the same or similar symptoms on & off all spring/summer, which I attributed to allergies, having the air conditioning running constantly, smoke in the air from forest fires up north and out west, etc.  

I was also exhausted when I woke up on Monday (yesterday) morning -- but needless to say, I did NOT get much sleep on Sunday night!  

As soon as the closest testing centre opened at 9 a.m. on Monday morning, I was on the phone, trying to get us both appointments. I spent half an hour listening to muzak (eyeroll) but finally got us both booked for 2:20 p.m. that afternoon. 

This was the same hospital/testing site where I'd had my first COVID test done last November, pre-d&c surgery. The weather was a whole lot hotter this time around, and the lineup a bit longer, but as in November, things moved quickly and efficiently. ("Busy these days?" dh asked the girl who took our information at the entrance. "Yes," she responded shortly.)  

En route to the testing centre, PND messaged me to see how we were feeling and to say they'd all just been tested. (She & her dh were both fully vaxxed, but the girls, at 6 & 9, are still too young.)  Younger Little Princess had endured a rough night, with vomiting and fever, but felt fine that morning. 

By the time we got to the testing site, I was over my initial feelings of panic and feeling a little calmer about it all... either we were positive, or we weren't, right? -- and even if we were, we're fully vaccinated, which meant our odds of staying out of the hospital were pretty good. I did several gargles with saltwater, took some ibuprofen, used some of my Saje Immune essential oils roll-on ( I believe it's called by a different name in the States, but I can't remember what at the moment)(I figured it wouldn't hurt -- it's mostly eucalyptus & tea tree oil) and went to bed early. I slept MUCH better, and when I got up around 7 a.m., a notification was already waiting for me about my result. 

NEGATIVE. 

(Dh's results took a little longer... 12 full hours longer (!) -- even though we had our swabs done at exactly the same time, in the same cubicle, by the same person!!  Go figure...?!)   

I messaged PND to let her know. She messaged me later that her entire family tested negative. Because they were close contacts of confirmed cases, they will still be isolating for a while, just in case. We realize it's still possible for us to develop symptoms and test positive over the next few days, so we'll continue to be careful too. She apologized for putting us through this stress and anxiety. (Appreciated.) 

As I lay awake Sunday night, tossing and turning, I thought about how this all unfolded. We'd been SO careful for SO long -- much more careful than almost anybody else we know.  While others have freely roamed around, seeing friends, eating out, shopping (within the restrictions for masking and social distancing in public places, etc.), we have mostly stayed at home, venturing out only for groceries, prescriptions and takeout on Saturday nights. We've only begun spending more time with BIL and family (unmasked) since getting vaccinated in April/July.  

I've never been much of a risk-taker. I was always the kid who was afraid to do risky or illegal things (smoke pot, for example -- although I'll admit, I did do my share of dumb stuff, growing up...!) -- because I KNEW that if anyone was going to get caught and suffer the consequences, it was going to be ME.  

And now, the very first time in 18 months that we'd let down our guard and spent time face-to-face, unmasked (just a half-hour, and partly outside, but still...), and traded hugs, with anyone outside of BIL & family, and let them into our condo, THIS happens.

The psychological burden -- the guilt -- over what we'd done -- the possibility of having infected someone else in turn, was worse than the thought of getting sick ourselves. We both thanked goodness that we'd last seen Little Great-Nephew on Wednesday morning, BEFORE getting the call from PND later that evening.  

WHY had I told PND to come over, despite my better instincts?  To be honest, her call came out of the blue, and I was caught off guard. They were on the road, less than half an hour away, en route to their hotel, 45 minutes further north of us. I had to say yes or no quickly. I knew she & her husband were fully vaccinated (although the girls were not).  I knew they'd been travelling (gas stations, motels, restaurants, public restrooms... = lots of opportunities for contact with the virus) and spent almost two weeks at the cottage, where (granted) they'd been spending a lot of time in the open air -- but also mingling with a lot of friends and relatives (vaccination status and masking habits unknown to us). Dh, despite his great affection for PND, was not enthusiastic about having them come here, even briefly. 

But the knowledge that she'd be passing within a mile or two of my front door -- the opportunity to see her -- someone from "home" who's like family, if not a blood relative -- after almost two straight years -- was too irresistible to turn down. When I was growing up, we lived in a town just off the Trans-Canada Highway (the major east-west road across the country) and always had friends and relatives passing through and dropping by to visit, and my parents always welcomed them and were gracious hosts. Despite Toronto being a major destination/travel hub, my opportunities to see distant family members and friends, let alone have them stay with me, have been far & few between, even pre-pandemic. 

Basically, my female "people-pleaser"/"good girl" instincts kicked in and drowned out the little voice inside that said, "Maybe this isn't a good idea... maybe you should just say no."  PND would no doubt have been disappointed if I'd said we weren't comfortable seeing them, but I think she would have understood. (I think.) 

We're still being cautious and watching for symptoms for the next few days, in which case we'll get retested. (We decided not to go visit Little Great-Nephew & SIL tomorrow morning as we usually do, just to be on the safe side. There is NOTHING more important to us than keeping that sweet little boy safe.) 

But for now, I AM SO RELIEVED.  

(I have absolutely no comprehension of how people can walk around without vaccinations, without masks, without concern for others, let alone their own health, while this virus rages on.)  

We dodged a bullet. It wasn't fun. 

I have no desire to go through this again.