Uh Oh – Mom’s Sick: Surviving Covid

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I spent the last two years avoiding illness but the pandemic found me. Surviving covid, as a parent, was exhausting, to say the least.

This article is in no way designed to offer any kind of medical advice. It is simply my experience, as a parent. Talk to your trusted health care provider for medical advice.

The Past Two Years…

I spent the last two years trying my best to avoid this virus… like I am sure most of us did.

I admit I was scared. Growing up, I had chronic bronchitis and asthma. Toss in POTS, severe allergies, chronic pain, and other chronic illnesses that I have been living with since I was 8 years old – I try and live a healthy life but I know I do have issues I need to be aware of. As an adult, my child caught croup from a friend which he then gave to me. It turned into the worst case of laryngitis I have ever had – I was sick for 6 weeks.

That case of croup also landed my child in the ER because he struggled to breathe.

Needless to say, that history had me experiencing stress and anxiety on another level because of Covid-19. People with lung issues and other health conditions were at an even higher risk of severe outcomes.

So I spent two years doing the best I could to protect myself and my family from the virus.

Mental Health

Throughout the whole pandemic, I tried my best to keep some level of normalcy for my children and family. Balancing what I felt were measures that could keep us safe and measures that took into consideration our mental health.

Luckily, we were already homeschoolers and online social groups have been a part of our life for a while. I am very grateful for the programs that allow my children to remain connected to and to talk to their friends who have moved all over the world.

But they missed out on so much…

No birthday parties. No visits from grandparents (who live 4000km away). Playdates with friends are few and far between – especially in the winter when no one wants to meet up at the park on a -20 degree day (I don’t blame them!).

But after 2 years, and numbers in our area being quite low, we decided it was time to celebrate birthdays. I have two children born in December, so we took the opportunity to go to an indoor play place so they could run around, play with other kids, and just experience a normal day!

We think that is where we were exposed to the virus…

But I don’t care… the laughter and noise of the children running around and having fun was worth it. They needed that for their mental health.

Surviving covid means more than just the actual virus, it’s surviving life during a pandemic as well.

But a few days later… one of my boys started showing symptoms and feeling sick…

It was not long before it had gone through the whole house.

Mama Bear Instincts

By the time the illness had gone through all 4 of my children, I was exhausted – both physically and mentally. I was starting to feel run down and knew I was going to be next.

As parents, we can unintentionally sacrifice ourselves for the needs of our family.

We neglect our own needs to care for those who need us.

That is exactly what I did. Mama bear instincts kicked in and I did what I needed to do to help my kids through this. I gave them all the snuggles they needed (even if it meant they were coughing in my face unintentionally). The kids had no appetite and their throats were so sore – so I cooked all the foods they were willing to eat. I gathered the piles of tissues that accumulated by the couch as they slept and watched tv.

Surviving Covid As A Parent

By the time the illness had run its course through all 4 of my children, it was over a week past the onset and I was exhausted – a level of exhaustion that was beyond tired, beyond the chronic fatigue I have experienced.

Exhaustion from the covid virus is intense.

I knew that the best thing I could do was to just give in and allow myself to be sick.

Have you ever fought being sick? I know I have – keep telling yourself you are not getting sick and just keep going full steam ahead?

This time, I knew it was going to win and I just had to allow it.

I was very lucky because, when I got sick, my husband was on holiday from work. He had booked the time off at the beginning of December – our original hope was to have time to spend together as a family. Instead, his whole vacation was dealing with sick people and helping me out.

Being able to take the time and allow myself to just be sick, helped with surviving covid – especially the mental aspects of it. Because of my past health history with lung issues, I was quite scared about how this virus was going to affect me.

So was my Mom. I called her every day so she could hear me breathe to know I was ok – Mama Bears dont stop caring once their cubs move out.

When I became sick, I knew I wanted to give my body the best fighting chance that it had.

My husband was amazing – he took over all of the things that I usually do to keep our household running and basically let me sleep it off for 4 days straight. I am very appreciative of that.

By listening to my body and allowing myself to do what I felt I needed to do to recover (ie. sleep!), I think I was able to recover much faster than if I had tried to fight it. Sometimes we have to give in.

It took about 2 weeks for covid to move through our house and another 3 weeks before everyone was feeling somewhat back to normal. We went through 3 boxes of tissues, numerous packs of throat losengers, many frozen – premade dinners, lots of tea with honey, and have come out on the other side.

It Is Now February…

Covid symptoms started appearing in my home Dec 24th – the odd cough or sniffle. Not too much to be concerned about. I think the excitement of Christmas kept the kids from feeling sick. Dec 26th was when it really hit – the first child down with the dreaded virus. It took about 2-3 days to go from one child to the next… I spent New Year’s Eve on the couch with a pile of tissues and all the blankets I could find.

The worst of the symptoms, for us, lasted only 24-48 hours. The cough, phlegm, and fatigue lingered for many days past that for the kids.

But for me, I am still coughing.

It is now February, over a month since I got sick and I still have a chronic cough. The fatigue and extreme exhaustion lasted about 2 weeks – then lingered at a slightly above normal level for an additional week or so. My POTS and joint pain flared after being sick and I am still experiencing an above-average level of symptoms from my chronic health issues.

But the coughing is the worst. It is not a productive cough and I can go days without coughing and then suddenly it is back again. It is exhausting on a physical and mental level. The kids are mostly over their coughs now, I just know it will take time for my lungs to heal.

It is now February, and I am only now feeling motivated and energized enough to get back to my hobbies of blogging and making content. Surviving covid got harder after the main symptoms went away – it was mostly a mental struggle of feeling like I should be able to do more but not being able to.

The guilt of Covid was probably the worst tho…

Mom Guilt

It is amazing how guilt can creep in. The guilt of exposing my children, even if unintentionally, to this virus was huge. I was just trying to protect them. I just wanted them to be kids and feel normal. They just wanted to play.

I thought I did everything right. We have been doing all of the things – Stay home, masks, washing our hands, eating healthy foods, staying home (I am a homebody and I still felt like we were isolated at home too much), etc…

Even with all the precautions, statistics were showing that this high contagious variant was getting through to all populations, including the vaccinated. We got sick right at the beginning of the wave and, at the time, had no clue how contagious it was going to be.

It wasn’t my fault we got sick but it still hurts my heart to see my tiny humans not feeling well. My anxious brain still wonders what I missed and what I could have done to prevent this.

Should we have gone to celebrate their birthday? The answer is yes. The emotional well being of the children outweighed the potential risk of infection. They had a wonderful time – they were allowed to feel normal, even if only for a few hours. And that was totally worth it.

The truth is, that we all do the best we can in the situations we experience with the knowledge we are given. We always do our best, no matter what the guilt afterwards tries to convince us of.