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The issues with testing have been so crazy. Places by us are so overwhelmed. I was going to write out our whole saga from this past week, but I think it's too long and boring But, basically, DD tested positive on the 31st even though we are struggling to think of how she could have been exposed. Regardless, the testing place dropped the ball and didn't tell us (in our schools no news means a negative test), so we saw friends on the 1st and also she spent the day with her older grandparents on the 3rd when I went back to work. We didn't find out until the afternoon of the 3rd. We've all had multiple negative at home tests before and after her positive result, plus we all had negative rapid tests at a clinic on the 4th.
But then, one of the friends we were with on the 1st was told on the 3rd that her rapid test from 12/30 was positive, even though initially she was told it was negative. She still hasn't gotten the PCR results. So did we have another exposure on the 1st? Who knows?!
I'm *very* nervous to send DD back to daycare on Monday, but I've had to take days off this week and work from home, so I really need to get back to work. And DS is at least vaccinated, but I'm still nervous for him to go back. Cases here are very high. And there's a good chance his district will go remote. Plus I work as an instructional coach, so I rotate around to different classrooms and teachers all day long. And staffing at my school (and everywhere) is very difficult right now, so I really need to be in different classrooms helping each day. We're doing as much as possible to stay healthy, but it still feels a little inevitable that we're bound to get covid.

@Chuckles: your testing issue sounds maddening, I would have been so upset, I'm sorry! The testing situation overall is just unacceptable. It should not be this difficult, this far in the pandemic, to access testing that is clear, quick, and affordable. I got really lucky on the Walmart website at about 7 am one day last week when Binax tests *briefly* reappeared and I was able to order a few boxes. Of course they still haven't arrived but are supposed to today or tomorrow... I could seriously write a novel about the mishandling of testing (but I will spare everyone lol).

We’re at home waiting for results from DD’s PCR test yesterday. She woke up yesterday with a sore throat, heavy congestion, slightly elevated temp, and chills. Her temp went much higher yesterday afternoon and evening. DH started having the same symptoms later yesterday morning. He went to a different testing site yesterday and his results have already come back negative.

DD does pooled testing at school - her test day was Monday. But thanks to the labs being slow we still don’t have results from that. She had a negative rapid test yesterday but her doctor’s office highly recommended a PCR because of how many false negatives they are seeing with rapid tests.

I’m, obviously, hoping she is negative but also know that if it is negative we will likely have to go through this again next week or the week after. I’m worried how much school she’ll be missing.

@MrsSCB: Testing is such a nightmare. DD’s doctor’s office has a testing site but only for their patients, so we had to look elsewhere for DH. I spent over two hours looking for a location for a PCR test for him. Originally the closest date was going to be the 12th, which would have been useless. Thankfully I refreshed a site at the exact right moment and snagged him a spot that had been cancelled. Rapids are so hard to find or the ones that are in stores locally are random ones with horrible reviews. You are right - at this point in the pandemic testing should be in a much better place.

@catgirl: I'm sorry, it is SO frustrating that kids have to be out of school even longer than necessary just waiting on results. I hope they're negative for you!

@ChitownRo: wow, weekly testing of every student is impressive. Do you know how many students that is? How does it work? Do they provide the tests and do it at school? How long do the results take? (Hope you don't mind the questions, I'm just really interested! I wish they could do it at our schools.)

@MrsSCB: thanks! Also, even though you didn’t ask me, my DD’s school also does weekly testing. It’s technically for Pre k - 6th grade and any staff that work with or around those grades. It’s optional but we have about 95% of eligible people participating, which is about 1000 people. They do pooled testing on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday - each grade has an assigned day. Results are supposed to come back within 48 hours, but lately it’s been closer to 72. If a pool is positive than everyone in that pool is given a rapid test at school when results come in. Whoever tests positive from the rapid is sent home right away. Our state implemented it and any district is able to offer it.

@catgirl: wow, that's amazing! It sounds similar to my work, where we have to test once a week. Our school system only does randomized testing, and you have to opt in. I believe not many people have done so at this point.

@periwinklebee: my daughter's preschool is following the new CDC guidelines. After exposure, they can return after five days with a negative test. If they contract Covid, they can return after five days if they are symptom-free at that point. Personally I'd prefer a negative test to be required as well, but it's not at the moment. They also keep the classes very separate, so only the immediate class has to quarantine when a positive occurs. My daughter's class has never had to quarantine. I do expect that may change, though. I know we had covid, and another family did over the holiday break. But we and they weren't in the classroom when positive luckily. Feels like only a matter of time at this point...ETA: for reference, we're in a highly vaccinated area and masks are required at school for age 2+.

@Corduroy: OMG thank you for this, I just sent it to everybody I know.

@Jess1483: we just went through something similar. My husband (vax and boosted) exposed at work and immediately quarantined. Older 2 kids are vax and cleared for school but I choose not to send them, because I know it’s so contagious. On day 6, my oldest has negative rapid, negative home test, positive PCR (got results on day 7). If she had gone to school, she would have exposed everyone! The rest of us all get it within 2 days after that. So basically my husband’s total isolation did nothing except delay our overall quarantine by almost a week. My 4 year old I was worried about since she’s too young for vaccine but she had 2 days of congestion and low grade fever and was fine. It was stressful at the time since we had been so careful for so long but it’s a bit of a relief to have it over with.

@Jess1483: I feel the same way. Out of our friends and family we have been one of the most careful in terms of what we do. No indoor dining, no flights or other travel. Masked everywhere in public. But somehow we're the ones who caught it? It definitely feels unfair, but right now I'm just trying to be grateful that we seem to have caught this milder variant and as many of us are vaxxed as possible.

@MommySLP: @JennyPenny: @erinbaderin: I just ran a rapid test on my other kiddos, mostly for timeline, and my littlest is positive. My vaxxed 9 yo is negative (so far).

Last night DS2 woke at 3 with a croup-y cough and a 102.6 fever. It went down with Tylenol and he’s much better, but it’s definitely not nothing. We will keep using his typical breathing treatments.

@Jess1483: It sucks getting it and having to worry about your family.

When we got it I was exposed through a friend (who was vac'd and boosted). I quarantined myself, cancelled Thanksgiving with our immediate family to be safe, and took 2 tests at home 2 days apart, both negative. Come to find out 3 days after my exposure, that our kids were exposed at daycare and they both got it. My parents had come over for DS's birthday so were around him 2 days before he had symptoms, luckily they were fine. (I was most worried about exposing them!)

In the end the kids and I just had very mild colds. DS had a slight fever and was slightly croupy but oddly half his face swelled up which ended us in the ER. DD was very slightly croupy one night with a fever of 99.3. I had a bad 2 day cold. We have had lingering coughs, mostly at night, but nothing terrible.
DH quarantined away from us after I tested positive, the 3 of us stayed upstairs (him downstairs) and he never got it, despite being around all 3 of us while we had symptoms.

@MrsSCB: thanks for linking that article. It really captured exactly how I’m feeling and it definitely makes me feel less embarrassed that obviously enough people are in the same position for them to write this article. I think the part about recognizing that for some being diligent about precautions was a way of exerting control over the craziness and unpredictability of the past 2 years was a particularly salient point for me.

It feels like it is just a when not if situation at this point. They extended winter break by a week where I am. My kids were both at daycare this week and the oldest goes back to school Monday. They schools are supposed to be distributing two packs of 5 at home rapid tests and an 8 week supply of masks to each kid by the end of the week. We are also to be prepared for a switch to online learning with little to no notice. Luckily I work from home still so it won’t be too big of a disruption.

We have been doing everything we can to boost our immune systems with healthy food and extra vitamins.

Okay, fully aware no one can give real medical advice but looking for thoughts/insight. Here is a timeline for background:
Monday - DD had pooled testing at school, took days to get results but her pool was negative.
Tuesday - DH took a rapid test before we had dinner with my mom/stepdad and it was negative.
Wednesday - DD woke up feeling sick, DH started showing symptoms late morning. They both had a PCR test that afternoon.
Thursday - Woke up to DH’s test results - negative. DD’s doctor called in the evening with results - negative.
Friday - DH was feeling worse so his doctor scheduled a second PCR for Saturday afternoon, they were worried he tested too early (even though he was symptomatic)
Saturday - DH took PCR test.
Today, Sunday - his results are positive. He hasn’t talked to anyone yet just saw them on the online portal.

When is his day 0? Should we also assume DD is positive? When would her day 0 be? Of course it’s a Sunday so I called her doctor and left a message with the answering service, waiting to hear back.

DD was home sick Wednesday and Thursday. And then was home Friday technically because it was a snow day.

I feel like I am spinning. We have taken so many precautions and I am so annoyed we are getting it at the same time as people who haven’t cared.

@catgirl: I recently spoke to my school districts covid coordinator about this. According to her, and I really trust that they are doing a good job understanding guidelines, the first day is when you start having symptoms. So that students and staff can return to school 10 days after symptoms start, as long as they are no longer having any symptoms. But honestly, at this point, I'm not sure if our state's guidelines (IL) would be the same as other states, even though there should be only one answer. And, yes, I'd assume that DD is positive.

@catgirl: just wanted to add another agreement—when we had Covid, the health department based our isolation periods around when symptoms started (except for the kids, who had no symptoms). If you want to be extra careful, you can do a rapid test at the end—if it’s negative you can be pretty confident he’s not infectious. But I know rapid tests are hard to find, so definitely not required! (FWIW, my husband was negative on a rapid test by day 7. But we isolated the full 10 days anyway, because this was before the CDC changed guidelines).

Saturday, DS1 tested positive, so all three of my kiddos are positive (with test dates from Thursday to Saturday). At least they're all on a similar timeline. I was tested on Friday, but still don't have results (which is fine...we aren't going anywhere). DH tested negative on a rapid Saturday morning and has had no symptoms. We'll test him (and me if my Friday test comes back negative) at the end of the week.

DD (age 2) has flown through it without skipping a beat, which has been a huge relief.

Both boys (ages 6, 9) have been down with fevers, coughs, etc. Some stomach aches as well. DS2 had two hard nights (one with breathing problems), but both woke without fevers today (still congestion and sore throats).

I'm almost relieved to get it over with. We have a huge vacation coming up and I was nervous since DD hasn't been vaccinated. So now that I'm fairly sure we're on the other side, it's a bit of a relief. Not that I'm glad it happened, and I feel terrible we may have exposed other kids at school, but I do think we're all going to get this one. While all three of my kids wear masks at school...it's definitely not good enough for Omicron.

We had Covid too—-well, presumptive positives for the rest of us. We were supposed to drive over the border to Canada to finally see DHs family for Christmas—first time in 2 years. It hasn’t been possible until now, because up until very recently, only fully vaccinated people can cross (still need a negative PCR) without a 2 week quarantine, and our kids weren’t old enough to be vaccinated.

So as soon as they could be, we got them vaccinated and felt so safe visiting DHs family because his whole family is vaccinated AND Canada’s rates have always been lower than ours. And we’d be driving, so it just seemed super safe.

So we went for our PCRs to travel, on DDs last full day of school. Non of us had any symptoms at that point—no nasal congestion, no sore throat, nothing. We all went to school the next day for a half day (I’m a teacher). Didn’t go anywhere, hung out at home doing Christmas crafts and packing for Canada. We’d originally planned to leave Christmas Day after our kids opened their presents.

Well, Christmas Eve, DD1 popped a fever. We’d been absolutely no where indoors for the last 2 weeks unmasked. Except both girls take off masks for lunch and snack at school, but are supposed to be distanced when that happens. We’d gone back to wearing masks outdoors if people were around the week before. So I was SO CONFUSED.

The test lab was backed up and we didn’t have our results back—by then, DD had been feverish all night so I just knew. The next morning I just called incessantly until I got a human on the phone and they said 3 of us were negative and DD was positive. By then we’d been together 24/7 for the 3 days we’d been waiting for results. And I had woken up with a sore throat. So I gave up on the idea of any kind of quarantine for her and we all just isolated together for 10 days.

DD1 was fully vaccinated but just out of her 2 week window when she must have been exposed. She had a fever for 5 full days and very low energy our entire Christmas break. Our district did 3 remote days this past week, so her quarantine was over by the time in person school started—but she’s still not 100%. I notice she’s super tired early every day and this Wednesday will be 3 full weeks (21 days) from her positive. So it’s definitely not just a cold.

DH and DD2 only had nasal congestion and DH said he had some mild fatigue, but I’d definitely say their symptoms were super small. DH has all 3 vaccines and DD2 is fully vaccinated as well, same dates as DD1.

I have autoimmune disease and my symptoms during the acute phase were “mild”—severe sore throat, fatigue, no fever, some dizziness. But once I felt better, I had about 1 day of feeling semi okay, and then I tried to return to work as a teacher and now I’m having all kinds of crazy post-Covid things—bouts of extreme vertigo, nausea, Headache that lasted 5 days. This post-Covid stuff has been way worse than the acute Covid phase. We are super short staffed at my school—like everywhere else in the country—because so many teachers have Covid. So I feel obligated to go in to work if I can, but also extreme vertigo doesn’t really lend itself to teaching children. I’ve missed 2 days in the last week and will probably miss more because sometimes the vertigo is so bad, I can’t drive. And if I can’t drive, I can’t really be watching over kids.

So that’s fun. Hoping all this clears up soon.