THE MOM STOP: Keeping a positive attitude after testing positive for COVID

I’ve taken more than a handful of COVID tests since the pandemic first began.

In the early months of the pandemic, and through 2020, I did it out of precaution. My family largely stayed at home and wore masks in public, but before we saw the grandparents, we’d get a COVID test. If one of us had cold-like symptoms, we’d get a COVID test. When I had to fly to California to close on the sale of my grandmother’s home — and after I got back — I had a COVID test.

Admittedly, I haven’t been tested as much since I became vaccinated or boosted. And while being tested is definitely not pleasant or something I looked forward to, I understood I could be careful and try to protect others. Thankfully, those tests were always negative — until last week.

It was late at night as I was sitting in my sister’s driveway, more than an hour away from my home, when I ripped open a home test, read the directions from the dim dome light of my minivan, and proceeded to swab my nose, causing tears to run down my face and to sneeze afterward.

After New Year's, people at work started to pop up positive for COVID. Because we were mostly masked at work and because I had limited exposure to them, I figured I was fine. But when I started to have some cold-like head congestion, I wondered if I should get tested, too.

It was a very small chance, I told myself. Especially since I was vaccinated and mostly masked. But, also having recently gotten back from a New Year's weekend at the beach with my family and my sister’s family, I knew I had been around more people.

The clinic where I’ve been tested previously wasn’t booking appointments for a couple of days, and the drive-up testing at some of the local pharmacies had no available appointments.

I drove to a few of those pharmacies to find at-home tests, after my sister told me that she had picked some up at a Walgreens, just in case. But after visiting three different Walgreens stores and a CVS Pharmacy, I realized I was going to have to wait for a couple of days to get tested.

Or, my sister suggested, I could drive two hours roundtrip to her house and use one of her tests.

I thought about how I could further be exposing my husband, my kids, about the people I’m around at work. I called my husband, who was expecting me to be home soon from the pharmacy.

“I’m going to Birmingham to get a test,” I told him over the phone. “I’ll be back around midnight.”

My sister left the at-home test in her mailbox, and while I waited for the test — which looks eerily similar to a pregnancy test — to finish, I started to drive back home. Ten minutes into my return trip, the timer on my phone dinged. I looked at the swab by the light of the interstate street lamps, and there were two, very clear lines, one pink and one blue. Positive for COVID.

My stomach sank.

As I write this, I have spent the last four days quarantined in my bedroom as my husband has cooked, cleaned and taken care of the kids. My days have primarily included folding laundry as the basket is dropped by my bedroom door, eating food that is delivered, and taking a shower and making the bed — because I simply must make my bed every single day.

I have to count my blessings. I am one of more than 57 million Americans who have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. But unlike the 830,000 Americans who have died from the virus, I had very few symptoms to even tell I was sick. I was congested for about 24 hours. I noticed that I lost my sense of smell, which has yet to return, but I can still taste. And that is it. Thank God for the vaccine.

I’m also thankful that none of my family members seemed to have contracted COVID. After I tested positive, my husband and three kids were tested, twice, and we are still distancing ourselves in the house. We’ll likely wear masks for another five days inside our home once I leave the bedroom.

I did not expect to test positive, and thought I was being careful. But it goes to show that any of us can get COVID-19. All the more reason to test, if you think you might have been exposed.

Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at momstopcolumn@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: THE MOM STOP: Keeping a positive attitude after a positive COVID test