Elizabeth texted this morning that she has a fever and a cough and a sore throat. It’s interesting how differently this information hits post-Covid than it would have pre-Covid, when I would have thought “Yep, mix all those kids together and everyone’s going to get sick for awhile! Just like preschool!” She has put on one of the masks she brought with her, and is on a bus to a local store to buy Covid tests; she first checked at the student health center, but they no longer stock tests.
I am not going to panic or freak out! I am going to remain calm. She feels well enough to get on a bus, so it is unlikely she will be hospitalized in the next few hours. And the good news about how almost no one cares about Covid anymore is that the college will not require any action or isolation on her part! How nice! Her use of a mask will in fact be seen as paranoid overkill! How nice!
My agitation is finding its usual channels, so I have already sent several packages: one box of Covid tests from our large stash, which won’t get to her for a few days but will let her continue testing / test later in the semester if this happens again / give her some extras to give to Edward. Another package shipped directly from Amazon, with acetaminophen, goldfish crackers, a pulse oximeter, Kraft Easy Mac, Pepperidge Farm Milanos.
I can’t believe I didn’t send them with tests or pulse oximeters. I felt like I am always too Over the Top about packing, and that I was making good progress on counteracting those impulses—but now that she is FAR AWAY AND SYMPTOMATIC, I feel instead like I let WRONG FEELINGS correct my RIGHT FEELINGS. This is what can happen to those of us with anxiety: everyone says trust your gut, but then we get continual feedback that we-specifically are wrong to trust our specific guts, and so we overcorrect in an attempt to find Normal. AND THEN LOOK WHAT HAPPENS!! My gut is folding its arms and going MM-HM at me and is WELL JUSTIFIED in doing so!! I deserve EVERY POINTED LOOK!
I am not particularly worried about this particular case of Covid: she is vaccinated, which as far as I know is still pretty effective at reducing serious illness and hospitalization. (And if necessary, I could get in the car and be there in seven hours; in fourteen hours I could have her back home and at our local ER. This is the math I do to talk myself down.) I AM worried about long Covid and the long-term effects of Covid, which seem like they can happen to anyone, and which we still don’t know a whole lot about BUT DON’T SEEM GOOD AT ALL.
And of course it might not even BE Covid: put a bunch of people together and we still do get sick with all the other usual viruses.
Update: Test was positive. I have a call in to her doctor to see if they’ll send a prescription for Paxlovid to the pharmacy near her college. I don’t know if that will be covered by our insurance but I am feeling “Let’s just keep taking steps and see how it turns out” about this. Edward is going to take another test. I took a test, since I was in the car with Elizabeth for drop-off; mine was negative.
Further update: Edward’s second test was negative.
I feel every bit of this. EVERY BIT.
Is there any way to get her Paxlovid, if it is covid? My 19 yo has has covid 3 times (she is so unlucky! She is the most cautious person in our family—and she didn’t even catch it at college!), and the last 2 she took a course of Paxlovid. She tested negative in about half the time as when she didn’t take Paxlovid. And Paxlovid is supposed to be good to avoid long covid.
I hope it’s just general college dorm crud and that she feels better soon!
… it really is fine that you didn’t send them with tests and pulse oximeters. (it is less fine that the *student health center* is no longer doing tests. Y’ALL.)
(I read this week about a school in Australia that didn’t have *any* in-school outbreaks during Omicron. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-01/brisbane-school-no-covid-omicron-outbreaks-term-1/100956850 Parents were allowed to come in over the school break with a smoke machine (!!!) and CO2 meters and they set up ventilation and filtration using the smoke machine to figure out what spots needed what, and… this is brilliant, and also *WHY* is no one else doing this? Why can’t we go “oh, hey, corsi-rosenthal-cube, yeah, it’s ugly but it’s less than $100 and it lasts a *year* if it’s mostly for covid and not being plugged up with dust/smoke [it is also good for dust and wildfire smoke, but those knock it down faster], yeah, we can give a 20″*20″ piece of the floor to one of those in each classroom” and knock down airborne diseases *and pollen* in one swoop? WHY are masks seen as overkill when look, they also reduce flu transmission and it is *nice* to get sick less often with all the things? Anyway.)
Hooray for care package being on its way! And for her already having masks on hand!
(and yes, she will likely be just fine – healthy, young, etc., and although yes, not getting covid at all is, as it turns out, a really good method for not getting long covid, the odds are on her side more than against her.)
Oh no, I’m sorry her college experience has to start off this way! I am crossing all my fingers and toes that it’s Just A Virus, and that she feels better very soon so she can do all the fun parts of college life.
….and I just saw your update. I hope it’s a mild case and that you and Edward continue to test negative. Is Edward at the same college?
Yes, the same college. Elizabeth bought several tests, happily, so she had an extra for Edward.
AAAAHHHHHHH. WTF with the college not stocking tests? Why are we like this?!?!?
I’m sending the good thoughts, healing vibes! Be well Elizabeth. And breathe in, breathe out, Swistle.
My son is in the same boat this weekend. Trying to get to urgent care on the bus because Ole Miss student health was too overrun yesterday to see him. I didn’t send a thermometer or plain Tylenol. And yes, at 10:30 last night I was about to get in the car for 8 hours to bring Gatorade, tests, and Tylenol.
I’m a mother, and while I also hate post-covid nonchalance, I resonate more with the sentiment of being 7 hours away from my sick child.
I DON’T think you are Southern, but this scenario deserves a “Ah, BLESS” which is kind of like a “ Ah! F—k that is bad and sad.”
Ugh, I am having a flashback to when Angus got Covid before vaccination, across a border that we couldn’t cross – not at all being dismissive, this happening far away is a terrible feeling, especially right at the beginning of the year. I think you’re doing all the right things, and I sympathize and empathize with the “see, I KNEW I should have gone with my overdoing-it impulse!” I am wondering if I can order that pulse oximeter also, less for Covid than for sleep apnea – all the ones I found on Amazon Canada were insanely expensive.
Oh, Swistle, I am sorry. It is — Elizabeth will be — probably totally fine. Kudos to you on getting on the getting Paxlovid task, and significant demerits to student health for not providing tests, good grief.
Oh noooo!! I’m so sorry you’re fretting long distance and that Elizabeth is starting her year like this. The gut-vs-overkill packing situation is real, but who could have predicted!?! Hope everyone is feeling better soon, both physically and emotionally!
One comfort I would take from this is that Elizabeth is doing the right steps: masking to protect others, checking with health services, navigating the bus system (which I find intimidating when new), getting tested, etc. You have taught her well!
Aw man, I’m so sorry, Swistle. Hopefully Elizabeth’s case will continue to be mild in symptoms and its duration will be short. I’m glad that yours and Edward’s tests have been negative.
My youngest came home (early) from camp with covid about a week ago. It was the first year the camp didn’t make anyone test beforehand and the first year they had a small breakout. (Five campers out of about a hundred.)
Oh no! What a thing to have happen right at the beginning of college. I hope she feels better very soon and that you and Edward continue to be negative.
It is the height of insanity that the student health center doesn’t have any tests! COVID is NOT over; the general population can pretend that it is but it’s not. And as a department the student health center should acknowledge that and be prepared.
I’m so sorry about all this. I know it is maddening to be seven hours away when your child is ill.
It sounds like she’s handling this situation really responsibly! Also my parents (68) finally caught Covid this May and say Paxlovid made a significant positive difference basically overnight.
Argh!! I am so sorry for Elizabeth. And I want to jump on the “WTF, Student Health???” bandwagon.
My husband is just finishing paxlovid after testing positive for Covid on Monday. He tested negative on Friday (so only four days later), and Paxlovid had him feeling MUCH better within 24 hours. Also, we have pretty terrible health insurance and it only cost about $8. Some things to note: it is three pills, taken twice a day. They make your mouth have a metallic taste. There is about a 14% chance of a rebound covid event. Which means my husband will continue to test for the next five days.
FWIW, we live in SoCal and my kid started high school two weeks ago. Cases are exploding there. My theory is that our boosters from last fall have expired, and whatever new variant is around is making the rounds.
We just got the same call: out of state college kid tested positive for COVID. Something that has made *me* feel better is sending them Jason’s Deli soup via Uber Eats.
I hope Elizabeth feels better soon.
I am so sorry. It’s hard enough when they get regular-sick, but COVID-sick is a different animal.
My younger daughter caught it her first semester too, in the fall of 2020. You would have thought the school would have been prepared for ill students and isolation by that point but you would be wrong. The whole story ends with her being sent to a gross motel and given one (1) Gatorade, two cans of soup (no bowls/spoon/can opener), and a ziploc bag of hard-boiled eggs. That was the point at which I called Housing Services and gave them what was left of my mind.
She survived with no ill effects and now we have A Story. Hope Elizabeth gets well very quickly and that you & Edward stay well.
Holy moly – you indeed have A Story. Two cans of soup and no can opener (!).
This inspired me to have Tarjay ship my youngest a five-pack of COVID test, then text him to say that package is not birthday-related and he should open it as soon as it arrives.
I was going to send tests with him, but then I thought, “Oh, surely student health will be have tests!”
Seriously, Swistle. This line here: My gut is folding its arms and going MM-HM at me and is WELL JUSTIFIED in doing so!!
I feel this in my soul.
Anywho, I have a box to send to my out of state college frosh that I haven’t closed up yet. So I am off to check the expiration dates of the Covid tests we have. And I’ll toss in a few masks. I did send them with a first aid kit and ibuprofen. And I will look around at the various pharmacies near them to see who has Covid vaccines or if the Uni health office will be offering them. And then make a very strong recommendation that they get a Covid vaccine.
The covid vaccine was one of the things I was dithering about before we left for Uni. Do we do it now or wait until the newest vaccine is available? Obvs I went with wait. Yeah, yeah, gut. I know, I know.
PSA! for you and others: When you investigate the covid test expiration, look it up online. They’ve extended a bunch of them. And I think it’s more a case of lack of foresight (of course we’ll be out of this in 6 months and don’t want people using the test in 6 years and also we have no idea how long this will work) than a “this might be dicey but who cares?” We have more knowledge and real world data on the tests, is what I’m saying, and they remain viable beyond the initial, very cautious and also ridiculously optimistic, window.
Well, what a start to the college year for you all! Does the college want the COVID positive kids to quarantine, e.g. stay away from others for 5 days? That’d be tricky with dorm roommates. It’s such a bizarre mind-set now that we’ve swung to the extreme side of it all, the thinking that COVID-is-a-non-issue. I don’t think our local school district is tracking cases anymore or promoting the message of staying home if you’re sick. We have plenty of head-in-the-sand COVID deniers around here, who are probably feeling happily vindicated and who won’t test their sick kids anyway. Hmmph. On the other hand, I’m sure Elizabeth will be FINE, just inconvienced by it all.
The college isn’t having them quarantine, and in fact when she told her R.A., her R.A. said she should just go to class as usual. It seems as if it’s been decided that covid is just a cold now or something. One reason this whole thing is particularly discouraging to me is imagining Elizabeth missing out, while other kids with covid go to class as usual—so, like, her disappointment doesn’t even HELP anything, everyone’s going to get exposed ANYway!
This is the same policy at my son’s college! I probably should not be shocked, but I am shocked.
We were almost absolutely sure he had covid last week (similar situation, 1st year college student in the dorms, friends had been sick with something but never tested, forgot to send tests with him). He used one of his graduation Target gift cards to buy a covid test 3 days into symptoms, but was negative. The college could care less…
I am not convinced your gut should be giving you pointed looks. Sure, it might have been handy to have a test on hand, but I’m not sure the lack of a pulse oximeter is a huge oversight – it seems like their main function is to reassure people they don’t have to go to emergency, and I don’t know anyone who owns one, including me and I’m on the more cautious end of the spectrum of people I know.
Also, I’m not sure if this makes you feel better or not but I’m hoping it will: if Elizabeth needs to go to emergency she can cab or uber or get a lift to her local ER. So while in fourteen hours you could have her back home and at your local ER, in a true emergency she could get help much faster and you could join her in 7 hours.
So yeah, i guess I’m saying you can tell your gut to pipe down – you didn’t make any grave errors, you did just fine.