As I mentioned back on my Jack’s First Day of 4th Grade post, I was nervous about what this year would look like. With Jack being too young to be vaccinated and in-person school with no online option… well, it only felt like a matter of time before he was sent home to quarantine.
And I was right. Because 2 ½ weeks after school started, Jack tested positive for COVID.
He came down with symptoms on a Saturday. Super high fever, sniffles, body aches and a headache. Overnight at 2am, he came into my room and had a 103.5 degree fever. I gave him some Tylenol and an hour later, he was so sweaty that he looked like someone threw him in a pool. I changed his pillow and sheets and an hour later he couldn’t sleep because his head hurt.
Poor guy was a mess.
On Sunday morning, we took him to the local walk-in Covid testing site. I say local, but it’s 40 minutes away. And then we waited in an outdoor line for 40 more minutes. Every single person there was a parent with a school-aged child under 12. He got his swab and back home we went. Later that night, I got a text that Jack tested positive for COVID and that we were to quarantine for 10 days.
As I mentioned, there is no online school option this year for our county. So, each day, while I was working from home, we were back to checking Google Classrooms for assignments and doing them the best we could with no instruction. Thankfully, a 4th grade STEM teacher had a special hour-long tutoring session on Thursday night for any quarantined students. Only Jack and one other student showed up. Ironically, it was his friend who sits next to him in class…
As for Jack, once his fever broke on Sunday his main symptoms were body aches, lack of energy, sniffles, a headache and a cough. By Friday, he mostly just complained of feeling tired and still had a cough.
Because Jack has occasional asthma, I’ve been keeping a special close eye on his breathing. Some kids also have inflammation symptoms called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), which can include neck pain, stomach pain, vomiting, a rash, red eyes, swollen hands or feet, or swollen glands among other things (you can read more about MIS-C on the CDC website here). I received a COVID tracking call from the heath department reminding me to check for these symptoms regularly as well. They can appear several weeks after infected with COVID, so I will continue monitoring my little guy.
According to NIH, after Jack’s recovery he may be immune from reinfection for up to 8 months (source). The CDC says maybe to 3 months (source) or maybe not. Their official answer is “Research has not yet shown how long you are protected from getting COVID-19 again after you recover from COVID-19.”
Any which way, I’m hoping his immunity sticks around until vaccinations are available for his age group.
As for me, I’m just feeling exhausted and sad. And a little bit of mad too. We’ve been so careful for the past 18 months. Travis and I are both fully vaccinated. We wear masks and socially distance. We aren’t flying away to vacations or attending festivals. We’ve been careful and Jack still got COVID.
Jack’s quarantine ends on Tuesday and he returns to school on Wednesday. I’m planning to get a COVID test for myself on Tuesday before I return to the office later this week. Jack’s immune for now, which is great. I think I can breathe a sigh of relief?
This sucks, Joules, I’m sorry. Sam already had one exposure at daycare, and my husband had an exposure from a breathrough case at work. So far we’ve been lucky, but it feels inevitable. Having done all the right things and made the sacrifices, you are justifiably angry. That kids vaccine cannot come soon enough. I’m so tired of being at the mercy of other people’s bad decisions. So glad Jack bounced back but I’m sorry he had to go through it.
Thanks Katie! I just feel like I’ve been living under an umbrella of anxiety for so long trying to keep my kid protected. I hope Sam stays safe and healthy!
To basically repeat Katie…. It sucks and I’m sorry. I cannot wait until the vaccine comes out for kids. Our kids are one of the few that wear masks in the classroom. (Since it’s preschool and we get lots of photos…we actually pay the girls a penny for every photo with a mask on, haha)
That is so adorable and I can see your twins telling you to pay up for their photo evidence! =)
I’m so sorry! 🙁 The same thing happened to us just about 2 weeks after school started (our district went back masks optional, but she wore one anyway…still got sick. At one point we had nearly 800 students in our district in quarantine, including her entire classroom. Now masks are required again.). My daughter came home from school on a Thursday with a fever and had a really bad headache. That was about the extent of her symptoms, but that fever got pretty high and was scary. After about 4 days she was mostly just tired. Also hoping for that immunity to last until she can get vaccinated! Fingers crossed! Glad Jack is on the mend and I hope there are no long-term effects. Also had many days of anger…we also have been more cautious than most people we know, and the only unvaccinated person in our family still got sick. Sigh.
I’m so sorry to hear that and I hope your daughter is fully recovered! <3
This sucks a lot. I am sorry you had to have first hand experience, and I hope Jack is back to 100% soon!
Thanks Chrissy!
So sorry to hear this! It does make you mad, thinking of all we do to protect ourselves and others, and they don ‘t care. It would help if remote school was at least a few days a week. I hope you all stay healthy now!
We can’t get the vaccine for the lower ages quick enough!
Thank you Nancy!