Jennifer Groft

So yes, we had covid – and it happened on such a week!!!

Starting on October 11, no, let me back up a few days… On Saturday the 9th, Jay came down with a cold. He was still feeling pretty rotten the next day, so we stayed home from church. On Monday (11th) the kids started their fall break and Jay had the day off work. He rested some more, feeling a little better but still really crumby. Max went and helped my dad with his yard. In the process, a wasp stung him on the hand multiple times. My dad brought him home because Max’s hand was swollen up to, well, a lot. The next morning (12th, Gus’s 10th birthday) his hand was even worse, so I was hovering over him and feeding him Benadryl, while also tending to Jay. At this point Jay was trying to find a place to get tested for covid, but he couldn’t get an appointment anywhere. He had to go out of town the next day, so he set up a testing appointment in Las Vegas for the morning of the 13th.

Back to the 12th – Elliot (my grandson, age 6) was staying with us since his mom had to work late. Gwenny came to me and nonchalantly asked what chemicals do to hair. I was distracted, focusing on loading the dishwasher and trying to make lunches for everyone. I kind of brushed her off at first, but once I thought about it, I called her back. It took a few clarifying questions to get the complete story of what happened. Elliot had gotten into the (locked!) shed and found an aerosol spray adhesive that Jay uses for work and had sprayed it in Gwenny’s hair! In Gwenny’s waist length, super thick, already tangled, long hair.

Jay took over with lunch while I did everything I could to get the glue out of her hair. I was also fielding texts from Gus’s best friend’s mom, trying to get them together for Gus’s birthday.

I doused Gwenny’s hair in olive oil and then washed it repeatedly with dish soap. Thankfully, her hair was salvageable – I don’t think Elliot’s finger was strong enough to push the button on the adhesive for very long. BUT — in the process of carefully combing all the stuff out of her hair, I found head lice. Oh boy.

Since we still had to celebrate Gus’s birthday, I braided her hair tightly and coated it with hairspray. I checked Max’s hand – still so swollen and red, but only his hand seemed to be affected. Then I took Gwenny and Elliot and Gus to pick up Adam, Gus’s best friend, and take them to a trampoline and skate park. (I know, unwise since Jay had been feeling bad. But at least he stayed home.)

At the trampoline park, Adam’s waiver had expired. His mom filled out a new one online, but it took almost a half hour for it to go through. Meanwhile, Gwenny and Elliot ran around the entry area like banshees. Finally, we got in and they had a couple of hours to jump.

We had cake and ice cream for Gus that evening, and Jay packed up to go out of town. He left early the next morning. I dealt with head lice all day and all that entails – combing, braiding, washing everything. (Thankfully, only Gwenny had it.)

Meanwhile – all the house construction is still going on and we still didn’t have a front door. We had to go from the driveway all the way into the backyard and go in the back door for everything. And the construction noise (and our dog barking at the construction noise) was non-stop. Then in the afternoon, Jay called and told me that the crew was coming to finish up the inside of the windows in our living room. Which meant that I had to pack up all the books on the bookshelf. So first I fed the kids dinner, then I got to work. 10 boxes of books later, I had a pounding headache and went to bed.

Thursday was more of the same – washing all the linens, lice combing everyone again. But I was feeling tired and achy. In the afternoon, I started to cough, and it was that covid cough we have heard so much about – completely dry, even though my head was stuffy. I was able to get an appointment at an urgent care to get tested for Covid. (They didn’t take insurance, so it was expensive!) Sure enough, it was positive. I came home, told Max the news, texted Jay, and climbed into bed.

Of course, that meant that Jay’s test would be positive too. He got his results on Friday, came home and climbed into bed. We quarantined while our kids had unlimited screen time and pizza for the rest of their fall break. And we wore a mask anytime we had to go out of our room.

Thankfully, the kids had the next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off school as well. The school had those days designated for teacher conferences. We missed all their conferences. (Gwenny’s teacher was sympathetic enough to meet us by FaceTime.) I pretty much slept through my birthday.

My fever broke on the following Friday (October 22), but I still got out of breath and achy if I tried to do very much for the rest of October. Even after that, it has been kind of a slow return to normal. I think I’m still not all the way back to regular speed and energy.