COVID Strikes!

 

We got home late Saturday night, May 21st.  Our friend, Dean, picked us up at the airport. By Sunday afternoon, Ken was not feeling too well.  He felt like he was coming down with a cold.  If you have been following this blog, you know we have been extremely careful about COVID.  And we were very cautious on this trip.  We wore masks in public, used lots of sanitizers and avoided crowds when we could.

On Friday morning on the ship, before we left for our excursion to Paris at 7:00am, we had to go down to a lounge at 6:00am to to stand in a very long line to be tested for COVID in order to fly into the US the next day.  We both tested negative.  So, we know Ken didn't have COVID then, but by Sunday afternoon, he was not feeling well.  We had a home test kit so he tested himself.   It came back negative.  So, we assumed he had a common cold.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, he did not feel well.  There was so much to be done on those days.  He worked hard, despite not feeling well.  He mowed, trimmed, and cleaned the yard.   He also went to the doctor to get a much needed and anticipated epidural treatment on his back.  We slept together, ate together, lived together.  

On Thursday morning, he tested again.  This time the test was positive.  Oh dear.  I tested as well.  My test was negative.

So, we separated.  We had made a plan a couple of years ago of what we would do if this happened.  We put our plan into place.  Ken moved downstairs; I stayed upstairs.  He came upstairs in the mornings while I stayed in the bedroom.  He shaved, etc in his bathroom (which was off limits to me) and ate breakfast. He then sanitized everything he touched and headed downstairs for the rest of the day.  He also spent a lot of time outside.  I prepared his other meals and left them on a chair at the top of the stairs and called him when they were ready. We talked on the phone frequently.  We did this for two weeks.  In the evenings, we set out two deck chairs far apart and visited and did our Come, Follow Me study out there.

We were supposed to travel to Logan for Hannah's baptism on the weekend of June 4th.  We both went to a testing center to have a PCR test the Wednesday before we were to leave.  I was negative, but Ken was still positive.  It was a no go.  It was sad to miss the baptism, but we didn't want to infect others, and Ken didn't want to infect me.  It wasn't until the next week that Ken finally got a negative test.

It was a difficult time, but we are so very grateful it wasn't worse.  Ken was pretty sick those first few days, but then felt it was pretty much like a cold.  I was blessed to never get it.  Cross your fingers, or better yet, pray, that we are through our COVID experience.