Sunday Post with Berls | The one with the mask

The one with the mask

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kim @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

News at Home

Sunday

Dante slept in today, I actually finally woke him at about 9:15 because we had a play date to go to! And then he guzzled his milk and threw up. I started to think I should cancel the play date, but he was playing and happy and ate his breakfast without throwing up, so I just went light on the milk/dairy.

And I’m glad we went because Dante had a great time. They setup the pool and I got in with Dante. He’s been pretty hesitant about water but ending up having a lot of fun and I even was able to get out and let him play on his own with floats on (and me an arm reach away, of course).

When we got home, we did bath time and got ready for bed. So glad I got everything done yesterday because I’m just tired and ready for bed.

Monday

Today was FANTASTIC. Dante had his evaluation with the Early Childhood Intervention group and he qualified for services. He’ll be getting play therapy once a week for 1 hour at his daycare. They are supposed to call me Wednesday with everything finalized to setup his first appointment.

The appointment took longer than expected, so I did a quick McDonald’s Happy Meal for Dante’s lunch and then dropped him off at daycare (with it half eaten). Then I was off to my brother’s to “work” for the rest of the afternoon. He was pretty busy with meetings, so I didn’t really get to see him much, but I hung with Zach most the day.

Tuesday

Today was ANXIETY. After dropping Dante off at school, I headed to my friend Melissa’s (same as play date Sunday) because I took today off form work to help her with her classroom setup. She’s changing grade levels from Kinder to 2nd so there’s even more than the normal amount of work to do. As I was there helping her sort books, I got a message from Zach (my brother’s partner). Phil had been having what he thought were allergies, but he woke up feeling especially awful today. He decided to get a COVID test, even though he’s vaccinated and masks up whenever not around vaccinated people (or crowded areas… which he avoids for the most part). Well he tested positive. And I saw him yesterday, briefly, but still.

So here I am in the middle of my friend’s classroom, unmasked because we’re both vaccinated and I’ve just found out I could have been exposed. I tell her and we both just sat down for a minute. I’ve been ridiculously careful this whole pandemic. My brother has been. She has been. But because of this variant and the number of people who flat our refuse for SELFISH, DUMB, ASSHOLE reasons or are misinformed because of SELFISH, DUMB, ASSHOLES… my brother is sick. His partner is at risk. I’m at risk. My husband is at risk. My SON, who is not vaccinated is at risk. My friend is at risk. Her kids are at risk. And so on and so on.

We decided that we’d been together for too long, there was no undoing the past. But she locked her classroom door so no one else could come in and pulled down the blinds so people would think we had left. And then we kept working. And when we left, we wore masks. And beyond that, I don’t know what to do. I’m vaccinated, so in theory I should be okay. But so was my brother. This breakthrough cases are scary because we can’t protect our kids yet. I feel fine and had very limited exposure. Zach, who obviously has tons of exposure, also feels fine and got a negative test.

Phil has a bad cough, chills, and fever, but as of this evening is not having any trouble breathing. Just a really bad flu basically. Fingers crossed he doesn’t get worse AND no one else gets sick. In the meantime, I’m going to follow the CDC’s guidelines and mask up anytime I’m around anyone for the next 14 days. I filled out the Occupational Health survey for work (required every time there’s a COVID exposure) and should hear from them tomorrow.

On the plus, Dante’s therapist called already and he has his first therapy appointment setup for Thursday morning!

Wednesday

I had an appointment scheduled to take my car into the shop this morning. So I sat there, in my mask, working from the almost empty waiting room. Occupational Health called while I was waiting and said that I had what’s called a high risk exposure, but that since I’m vaccinated, I’m categorized as immune. What that means is that if I had a job where it was essential for me to be on site (like a nurse), I could continue coming in while masked, as long as don’t have any symptoms. However, I do not have an essential on site job, so I will be working from home for 14 days from the exposure. So until August 17th. I have a 14 day health tracker I have to maintain and submit to them at the end to get return to work clearance. And I have a COVID test on Friday. They recommended that anytime I’m around anyone who is unvaccinated or high-risk, I keep my mask on. So I’ll be masking up anytime I’m not alone until the 17th as well. The good news? From time of exposure it takes usually 2+ days to have enough viral load to become contagious. So at the earliest, this afternoon. And I’ve been in a mask around everyone since yesterday when I found out Phil was sick. So IF I am contagious, I SHOULD have managed to keep from spreading it.

They ordered the parts and will call me when they’re ready to start working on the car, but what I thought would take 1 hour took 2 so I was scrambling to get back home in time for a meeting. Thankfully I made it. And then around 5 they called and said all the parts would be there first thing in the morning, so if I could drop the car off overnight they could start when they open and be done by closing. Kiko didn’t want to leave keys in the drop box, so we rushed to get there before they close at 6 and then to get back to pick up Dante from daycare (they close at 6 but I normally get him at 5:30/5:45 and I don’t like to be super late).

Heard from Zach this evening, he started not feeling so well and went for second COVID test. He’s positive. I’m getting so anxious. They were both vaccinated and incredibly careful. Seriously, even if you’re vaccinated, wear a mask right now. Delta is no joke.

Thursday

I’m sleeping on the couch – did I mention that? – and I’m not sleeping well. But I’m still symptom free thank goodness! Kiko is irritable, I know it’s nerves about COVID and seeing me in the mask all the time just exacerbates his nerves. But we do what we have to do.

Dante had his first therapy session today and it was really good. I also observed a lot of things about his classmates that reinforced that something just isn’t quite right with our baby. All the other kids were drinking their milk out of the open cup, Dante refuses (he used to drink milk out of it for me, but stopped and will only take a straw cup now). Also all the other kids were super interested in the therapist – they saw a new person to interact with. Dante ran away to play on his own. She observed that he tends to come up, socialize, and run away again. So I’ll be working on keeping him engaged in social interactions longer. We’re also working on cups and spoons with some strategies she gave me. And I’m working on sign language for “more” – the main thing is trying to get him to imitate me. He has so little interest in imitation. So I’ll also just be mimicking every sound he makes to model imitation. I’ve done a lot of this in the past, but now I have some guidance to make it a more concentrated effort.

Phil and Zach are worse tonight. Phil has bad vertigo and vomiting. Zach (asthmatic) is needing to use his inhaler more and just lots of coughing. I hate that I can’t go take of my brother, I’ve always been like a mom to him. At least he has Zach and isn’t alone.

Friday

Woke up still feeling good today, yay! I had COVID test at 8:50 a.m. and should have results within 24 hours. The waiting is torture. Not that much will change, in terms of my mask usage and sleeping arrangements. But perhaps I’ll be a little less anxious.

I heard back for my COVID test this afternoon – NEGATIVE ! Yay! But Zach was also negative at first… though he didn’t know when he was exposed so may not have waited the full 3-5 days they recommend. I’m still going to be super cautious but I feel a bit better.

Oh wow, heard from a friend that, like us, is super careful, vaccinated, has a 2 year old. She found out she had COVID yesterday and it’s getting bad. She has isolated into one room of the house to try and protect her husband and daughter. This whole thing is just stressing me out so bad. I’m so scared for Dante. Maybe he won’t get it from me but from someone at daycare… even if their parents are vaccinated at this point!

On the positive, I enjoyed listening to an audiobook while I finished making the teacher toolbox I wanted to gift my friend who’s starting a new grade level this year. It turned out great. I had planned to bring it to her this weekend but now I don’t want to expose anyone, so I’m going to FedEx it to her tomorrow.

Saturday

I think the anxiety is hitting me hard. I woke up to texts I had missed over night from Zach worrying about Philip. He ended up ok but his fever spiked bad and his lungs were making a crackling noise. They are going to monitor and hopefully he’s okay. They seem to be on this see saw of who’s worse.

No wonder my stomach is in knots this morning. Which can also be a COVID symptom, but without any others they don’t recommend testing. Dante, on the other hand, was having a hard time pooping. We did some oatmeal for breakfast to (1) practice spoon work – he did ok! and (2) maybe get things moving. It worked. He was straining and crying so I held him on me in a squat position and well it worked but it also exploded out of the diaper and all over me. Yay. Mom life is so glamorous. But thanks to the mask I didn’t smell it… so bonus!

My stomach remained pretty bad all day. I did run out to send the package FedEx and she’ll get it Tuesday. Not as great as this weekend, but still plenty of time for her to set it up before school starts the following week. We took Dante to a park where he could run around (no where near anyone) – on the way we passed a drive thru COVID test center and it was so backed up, it was blocking traffic. It’s usually empty. Yay Texas and Governor Abbot 🙁

After our walk we stopped at Sonic for some drinks and I drank mine super slow and still upset my stomach a bit. But maybe it was too empty for 2 pm, so we put Dante down for a nap and Kiko made me some Ramen. I ate it slow and it semi-settled.

Heard from my friend who was sick last night… she’s headed to the hospital. She’s a diabetic and has asthma, so she’s super high risk. And her husband seems sick now. Her daughter seems fine and they’ve been masked up around her. Guys, I’m just scared. Going to bed with a BOTTLE of wine.

On a side note… the friend I mentioned has an Amazon Wish List. She really can’t afford to buy anything she needs for her classroom so if you can help out, here’s her wish list. She will be so grateful. 

How was your week? What are you Reading?

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