I have decided to write a diary of our time through the Coronavirus pandemic. To keep for the future. It’s such an unprecedented time and full of so many mixed feelings and events we have never encountered before it is hard to process it all.
Another 2 months have passed since I last wrote an update. The pandemic carries on, as does life. A new variant has surged its way through the population. Despite our fears, we did not spend another Christmas in lockdown and the actual measures brought in with Omicron were quite minimal despite how contagious it is. Bo caught covid off Aria so as a family we had someone in isolation until the 22nd December. But on the 23rd we made it to see Santa and were fortunate enough to spend Christmas with family which was amazing after last year. Bo had entirely different symptoms than Aria – just a very mild cold and if Aria had not have been positive I doubt I would have tested him as it really was nothing more than a sniffy nose. My husband, Logan and I all managed to avoid catching it.
Face masks came back in for a while, but have now been removed again. Although a lot of places are still asking people to wear them and I know I will choose to for a little while yet.
Naively, I thought that because my husband and I have avoided catching covid at Christmas we had good immunity. So it was with surprise that when my niece tested positive the day after we had a family lunch on the 29th of January, my husband tested positive 3 days later. I still held on hope that I was going to get through having looked after a very snotty toddler at Christmas, especially as I was booked in for a procedure on my back which I had been counting down the days to, but alas 4 days later I was also positive and my procedure cancelled.
My husband seemed to be the hardest hit by covid, bearing in mind we are both triple vaxed. With all-over body aches and flu-like symptoms along with a big cough. It’s very rare for him to take any time off work, but by day 3 he called in sick and didn’t go back until nearly a week later. He also had some loss of taste. The rules are if you test negative for days 5 and 6 or two days negative in a row you can come out of isolation, my husband spent the whole 10 days in isolation.
My first days I had shivers and aches and the aches and fatigue were my worst symptoms, I didn’t get cold-like symptoms and only a mild cough. But so far I have found the aches come and go, as does the fatigue. Covid has also irritated my back too and for a few days it’s been really painful. However, it’s day 8 today and in myself, I feel loads better even if I am still testing positive, the line was at least fainter. I’m hoping for a negative tomorrow but we will see. Logan has so far managed to stay negative through this bout.
It’s quite tricky when both adults in the house are positive as you’re not able to take your children to school/nursery, to clubs, go to the pharmacy or shop for food. We have been able to get online shops for food, but for everything else we have been reliant and grateful for the kindness of friends. Friends have taken and collected the children for school, for a lot of the days Bo was unable to go to nursery and had to stay home with us until another friend was able to drive him. Friends have kindly dropped cakes and activities and gifts on the doorstep and we have been genuinely humbled by their kindness. I know I will be carrying it forwards when it happens to others.
As the two year anniversary approaches for the pandemic, I don’t think at the time when we were told the schools were going to close any of us had any idea it would go on for this long. And no one can really predict how long it’s going to run for. I think before Omicron there was a bit of a false sense of security with the vaccines, that perhaps just maybe life was going to go back to normal. But a new variant showed us how quickly that can be whisked away. This is not going to be over until the whole world is vaccinated and that unfortunately is going to take a while.
The government is now talking about getting rid of all self-isolation rules as early as the end of the month and I just can’t fathom it to be honest. I actually think masks should still be in place. Schools in particular have been the hardest hit by Omicron. At the end of January, my children’s school had nearly 25% of their teachers out and a large number of children too. I of course would love to be proven wrong, I really would. I long for normality, even more for my children.
My opinion of the government continues to go downhill as more news of lockdown parties is revealed as well as billions of pounds worth of PPE contracts which were useless needing to be written off. As Boris’s public opinion continues to fall, I can’t help but believe the very fast reduction in restrictions is more of a PR exercise than what is the right thing to do. And while we may be ok through the warmer months, I wonder if we will be back in the mess again next autumn/winter. For now having just recovered for it, I would hope my family have immunity for while at least.