Hey! What did I do in July of 2020? Oh, tested positive for the Coronavirus, NO BIGGIE.

I was tested for Rona at work on the 17th of July, and on the 20th of July I received a text message that I was positive. This was my third test overall, since the beginning of this pandemic–two negatives and then a positive.

I’d had a few symptoms leading up to the weekend that I waited to get my test back–daily headaches, which are unusual for me, a couple days of nausea. The day that I got the test I started to have a little chest congestion and a dry cough, but I figured I just had a cold.

Josh had been tested at his work earlier in the same week, and was negative. The evening that we received my positive test confirmation, my mother immediately went out to the walk-in clinic and was tested. Negative.

As soon as we heard of my diagnosis , I immediately went into quarantine at the house. I slept by myself, used a different toilet than the rest of the family. I followed the 10 day guidelines and didn’t touch my children, husband or mother during that entire time. There was lots of disinfecting of surfaces and laundry done.

Josh and my mother had to quarantine at the house along with me during those 10 days. I didn’t leave the house at all. I had multiple symptoms during that time–diarrhea, muscle aches, feeling exhausted, mild loss of taste (food was unappealing), daily headaches.

Mostly what I felt during that time was ANXIETY. I was so frightened that I was going to make my family sick. I didn’t enjoy my Rona Holiday one bit.

During that awful time period, we experienced a lot of love from our family and friends–little gifts in the mail, casseroles from Brenna, uplifting texts and phone calls. That helped. When Josh and my mother tested negative again during the last week of our quarantine, that helped relieve a lot of my anxiety as well. And the boys never had any symptoms–although Mr. Chunks has grown 6 new teeth in the past month, and teething symptoms are similar to Rona! Yowch!

Now that it’s been nearly a month, I’m feeling a lot better. I gave up coffee during the Rona in order to manage my anxiety, and I haven’t re-introduced it back in. I’m still having trouble sleeping, but that’s not unusual for me. I’m not 100%, but I’m getting back there.

Going back to work was incredibly hard, but I also knew that the longer I waited to go back, the harder it would be.

Josh and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on August 3rd…and it was memorably bizarre. We went out for ice cream cones, gazed at the sunset, and had a romantic drive…all while wearing masks and socially distancing. Going out into public after Rona is very surreal.

I will say this for having Rona: it really made me slow down and and realize what’s important in life. Family and friends. Surviving this crappy virus made me extremely grateful.

As my body and mind heal from Rona, I’m doing my best, every single day, to focus on the positive. It can be so easy to get bogged down in depression, especially this year. But I refuse. I’m a wife, a mother, a daughter, and dammit I’m a Rona survivor! And this Rona survivor is signing off…for now. Ta ta blog.