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I shared this on my personal facebook page, and it brought about so many comments with good suggestions for battling the symptoms. I wanted to bring up the conversation here on the blog because I’m interested in your perspective too.
One of the most interesting things was that by bringing it up, I found out a lot of my friends have been or are currently going through the same thing. Hopefully these problems will resolve themselves any day and testing will become more available. š¤
Please don’t read anything political into this and I’m not dispersing any medical advice, I’m just sharing what’s going on at my house. This was the post I shared last night…
As of April 20th in the Johanson household:
Izzy started with a fever on Tuesday night. She has a cough and it hurts to breathe. She also has body aches and a constant nagging headache. We did an e-visit and a screening for a test, but she didnāt qualify.
Iām also sick, similar to Izzy. Other family members feel blah and headachy, but no other symptoms.
Iām frustrated that we canāt get a test for Izzy. When my in-laws were both sick in Vegas, they would only test my father-in-law after he was admitted to the hospital. My mother-in-law could never get a test, though because my father-in-law tested positive, we can deduce thatās what she had too.
All Iām saying is the stats donāt mean anything yet and I believe this thing has already spread more than we comprehend. I canāt say itās what we have here, but I can tell you Izzy has never needed an inhaler before this week when sheās had colds and flus in the past. Iāve never felt this way either. Izzy and I are the only ones in this house that are immune-compromised, so itās logical to think that IF this is it, then weād be the ones with symptoms while others may present a-systematically.
I think you have to be ready to be admitted to the hospital or a celebrity to get a test for the virus. We canāt be the only ones suffering at home wondering what weāre dealing with.
And just because: a picture of Izzyās remembrance butterfly she made. (This sweet girl has seen too much loss recently, her grandpa this month and her uncle, aunt, and cousin last year.)
After Thoughts
Here are some things that came up in my comment discussions with my friends and family on my personal post.
Just so you know, I feel like we’ve been as cautious as anyone. I’ve been the only one to go to the store for groceries, I was very careful and I wore a mask. I re-applied hand sanitizer several times during every shopping trip. We even wiped down groceries.
We are following the sage advice of family and friends. We are trying to stay as up and moving as much as we possibly can before needing to rest, we do breathing exercises, we take extra vitamin c and d, and some other homeopathic things.
I AM NOT AFRAID FOR OUR LIVES. I think we will pull through this. I know other people are getting more extreme symptoms, like my in-laws. It’s been one week of symptoms, and it hasn’t escalated yet, just stayed pretty much the same. We’re taking it day-by-day, but we feel peace that it will all be okay.
We are joking and keeping things light when we can. Matt still makes Izzy do the dishes if she isn’t actively coughing and she doesn’t have a high fever at the moment. (He’s mean cop and I’m nice cop if anyone ever wondered. Except about bedtime, then we reverse rolls. š)
Yes, we are strictly quarantined right now.
I am extremely grateful for the overwhelming number of friends and family who have given offers of help and support. We will get through this and then we will be ready to turn around and help our friends and family as others go through this. I think this is the new normal for a while.
*I did find out there is a drive-thru testing center nearby that just barely changed qualifications to get tested. Izzy’s fever has been low grade the last few days, which makes her still not qualify (by .3 degrees), but if that fever spikes again then we will drive her right over.
So, that’s what’s going on over here.
How is your family doing?
From my home to yours,
Mary
Praying you all come through this quickly! I’ve read that doing breathing exercises helps – and definitely couldn’t hurt!
Thank you so much. And we’ve been doing those breathing exercises because I’m hoping this doesn’t escalate. Honestly today we both agreed that it feels like we’re taking a turn towards feeling better!
We just started drive up testing last week in southern Indiana. They said anyone with symptoms could be tested. I hope this is nationwide soon. I doubt I have anything to add that you haven’t already considered. I will be praying for you, Mary, and your daughter. God bless you.
Sending you all the quick and complete recovery vibes I can find. You and your family are in my thoughts.
Everyone in my household is doing well so far though our seasonal allergies cause me more concern than usual and I have really thought about my daughter’s (college senior, now back at home) thyroid disorder and asthma way more than I usually do. We wipe down all of our groceries too and spray the mail down with vodka (which we jokingly call getting the mail drunk, then let it sober up for 24 hours before we open it). What a weird time we live in.
I hope this can pass right over your household!
And I couldn’t have said it better – what a weird time …
Count on my prayers, dear friend! You probably already know all this but I figured I would write it anyway! To boost the immune system you may want to buy a truckload of berries, raspberries, blueberries, etc all sorts that are high in antioxidants and can help fight off illness. I have been giving my kids a smoothie with berries spinach and fruit juice every day to boost their immune system . I am not sure if this is why they are fine. It could be just luck. But this is what we are doing , along with eating tons of oranges. I heard kids are pretty resilient when it comes to this sickness so be encouraged and again count on my prayers. Also the vitamin D from the sun is great for the immune system. … Sending you and your beautiful family a big warm mental hug.
Oh, thank you so much. We’ve been following so many of the tips I’ve heard about and already doing some of these too. It’s been my full time job trying to get us healthy again and we’re starting to feel better.
Prayers for all of you! Was already thinking about you today because New Baby Pasta is on our Meal Plan for tonight – and then oddly I saw the Dishcloth post and this post.
Prayers that you beat this and that if it is COVID you will at least have antibodies and can have less fear/worry about at least one thing.
So sorry that after continued losses you have yet another potentially scary concern.
-Angela
Thank you so much! And we actually had New Baby Pasta last night, as it is in our regular rotation too. Mmm… so good!
We are already feeling so much better. I can definitely tell we are recovering and it isn’t escalating.
I hope you all feel better soon. That’s super frustrating. It really depends on the state (not sure where you are located). Here in RI, we have a few testing sites that are drive up (and some walk up), you don’t need an order from a doctor, but you do need to go online and make an appointment there. That’s made an incredible difference in the amount of testing being done here, we are really lucky our state has made it such a priority. My parents went to one of them right after they opened, their doctor suggested it, my mom has had breathing trouble for a while, their doctor just wanted to rule it out (they were both negative) Just a note, however, that those sites use a ‘quick test’ methodology (15 minute turn around time), but to get an accurate result, you should be showing symptoms, which I think most of you have . Regardless of all of this, there are no real good treatments, so the best thing to do is assume you all have it and do what you are doing. Take it easy, stay hydrated, get well soon.
We are actually feeling better and not showing symptoms anymore, so coincidentally they just made testing easier here (when we don’t need it anymore). It was definitely frustrating to not know for sure, but the more I hear about the symptoms, the more I feel confident it is what we had.
Thank you so much for your well wishes!