Symptomatic of this Pandemic
Sep. 8th, 2020 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kauaiooMy daughter had symptoms. Oh. No.
She is prone to chesty coughs and chest infections, she has been queried for childhood asthma and has been treated with inhalers in the past. She was sick on Sunday, with an elevated temperature that wasn’t quite fever, and she deteriorated into a really bad cough at night. I knew-but-didn’t-“know” it wasn’t Covid. I know how this goes for her, and it seemed exactly like any other time she came down with a dose. However, in the midst of a pandemic, I cannot make that determination on my own and so off I went.
You can’t visit a GP if you are symptomatic, so I had to request a phone consultation. My biggest fear was that the GP would be trigger happy and insist on sending her for a Covid test just to be sure to be sure. If the test was non-invasive, I would have no problems with that, however a swab test for a three year old who is already terrified of doctors sent chills down my spine. Fortunately, our family GP is great and he knows my daughter well and her medical history to date, so he agreed that it seemed like her usual chesty cough so he told me to continue with the over-the-counter remedies, along with her usual inhaler, and he left a prescription for me to fill at my own discretion if she got worse and it sounded like a chest infection. Super.
While I remained calm and was reasonably certain things would work out alright in this case, one big anxiety is that the power to make decisions and the control of my children’s wellbeing was no longer with me. If that GP had told me we needed to rule out Covid, I would have to either comply and take her for testing, or be one of those reported no-show statistics on the news that I was giving out about! The up-side of this minor brush with Covid testing is that I was able to think through all of my options without it being high-stakes. I would seek help to try to ensure that the test is carried out by someone competent, preferably with a paediatric background, or (even better) that a different type of test was done. I’m not sure if the HSE does this for kids, but I would certainly find out before going anywhere! Anyways, thankfully for now it was a fleeting brush with it all and my daughter is already on the mend.
The only disruption for us was that we had to restrict movements for a day while we waited for the GP call-back, however my friend was contact traced after someone she works with tested positive. Thankfully she tested negative, but the ripples are a bit of a pain. She had family who stayed overnight with her that weekend, so her niece was not allowed to start school (first day of the new year!) until my friend’s test results came back. She had to work from home, of course, which was fine for her. She couldn’t go to the shops or anything, the only thing she was allowed to do was go for a walk by herself. And she had to have two tests - they are testing everyone so quickly now that the viral load may not yet present in the tests, so she had to have a second test one week later. The test is unpleasant. I loved the lockdown, and would happily revert to that although I am aware that is a selfish desire given that our economy is now in the toilet. Being put into isolation or restricted movements though when it’s just you and the rest of the world is getting on with life, that was a bit harder for my friend. Anyways, all is well, her second test was negative so she can return to socially distant meetings and her niece can return to school, woo hoo! Drama over, until next time.
She is prone to chesty coughs and chest infections, she has been queried for childhood asthma and has been treated with inhalers in the past. She was sick on Sunday, with an elevated temperature that wasn’t quite fever, and she deteriorated into a really bad cough at night. I knew-but-didn’t-“know” it wasn’t Covid. I know how this goes for her, and it seemed exactly like any other time she came down with a dose. However, in the midst of a pandemic, I cannot make that determination on my own and so off I went.
You can’t visit a GP if you are symptomatic, so I had to request a phone consultation. My biggest fear was that the GP would be trigger happy and insist on sending her for a Covid test just to be sure to be sure. If the test was non-invasive, I would have no problems with that, however a swab test for a three year old who is already terrified of doctors sent chills down my spine. Fortunately, our family GP is great and he knows my daughter well and her medical history to date, so he agreed that it seemed like her usual chesty cough so he told me to continue with the over-the-counter remedies, along with her usual inhaler, and he left a prescription for me to fill at my own discretion if she got worse and it sounded like a chest infection. Super.
While I remained calm and was reasonably certain things would work out alright in this case, one big anxiety is that the power to make decisions and the control of my children’s wellbeing was no longer with me. If that GP had told me we needed to rule out Covid, I would have to either comply and take her for testing, or be one of those reported no-show statistics on the news that I was giving out about! The up-side of this minor brush with Covid testing is that I was able to think through all of my options without it being high-stakes. I would seek help to try to ensure that the test is carried out by someone competent, preferably with a paediatric background, or (even better) that a different type of test was done. I’m not sure if the HSE does this for kids, but I would certainly find out before going anywhere! Anyways, thankfully for now it was a fleeting brush with it all and my daughter is already on the mend.
The only disruption for us was that we had to restrict movements for a day while we waited for the GP call-back, however my friend was contact traced after someone she works with tested positive. Thankfully she tested negative, but the ripples are a bit of a pain. She had family who stayed overnight with her that weekend, so her niece was not allowed to start school (first day of the new year!) until my friend’s test results came back. She had to work from home, of course, which was fine for her. She couldn’t go to the shops or anything, the only thing she was allowed to do was go for a walk by herself. And she had to have two tests - they are testing everyone so quickly now that the viral load may not yet present in the tests, so she had to have a second test one week later. The test is unpleasant. I loved the lockdown, and would happily revert to that although I am aware that is a selfish desire given that our economy is now in the toilet. Being put into isolation or restricted movements though when it’s just you and the rest of the world is getting on with life, that was a bit harder for my friend. Anyways, all is well, her second test was negative so she can return to socially distant meetings and her niece can return to school, woo hoo! Drama over, until next time.