I consider that my world shut down on March 13, 2020, and it took 835 days for me to test positive for COVID.

Everyone I told basically said the same thing: “But you’re so careful!” and I’m like, “I know! This is why I’m so mad!” But it seems so much harder now to know where you got it if you actually get it. It’s not like the early months when places weren’t open and you weren’t really seeing people and you could pinpoint where you picked it up from. I also think the shame of getting it has gone away, but that doesn’t mean I still wasn’t ashamed I got it.

For the most part, I am really careful and I wore my mask again up until and throughout our trips to Cooperstown and Maine to ensure we’d be able to go. I’m not 100% sure where I got it from, but the week I did get it, I had this weird feeling that this was going to be my time. (And I guess the only good (?) thing is that this was the best time for me to get it since Josh and I had already gone on our trips and I didn’t have much planned around this time. Besides a 4 mile race that I had to miss 😕)

I woke up Saturday, June 25 a bit stuffy and had a weird throat thing going on. I got up and made breakfast and had a bunch of water, hoping that’d help. My mom texted and invited me home for burgers that night, and I said I wasn’t feeling too well and I’d get back to her. I texted Josh, too, and I ended up taking a rapid COVID test in my bathroom. It came back negative but might have had a slightly faint positive line if you squinted and looked at it in the light at a certain angle. About 20 minutes later, I took another one, and it came back super super positive.

Great.

And I’ve been home ever since then.

My worst days were that Monday and Tuesday, and my symptoms were body aches (although those were the first few days and thankfully went away), a stuffy/runny nose, and a sore and scratchy throat. Plus I was tired. Overall, nothing worse than mild cold symptoms, which I thank in part to being vaccinated and boosted. But I was nervous that it was going to get worse, and that I was quarantined alone in my condo.

My mom was in constant contact with me via text and calls, and my parents did a few grocery drop-offs so that I had food since I couldn’t go to the store on my own. I think the best thing that got dropped off was a box of popsicles for when I had my scratchy throat. (I was also drinking a ton of tea and basically eating honey off a spoon.)

Ironically, I had gone to the town library the day before my positive test and got 8 books, but I just didn’t have the brain power to read while I was home for the first week. So I just watched a lot of random TV: Parks & Rec, Law & Order, QVC, The Lincoln Lawyer, Snowflake Mountain, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Selling Sunset. I took some naps, and I built a puzzle (real old-school quarantine). Toward the end, I was able to sit and read 2 books.

I took Monday through Wednesday off from work using COVID sick time and then worked from home Thursday (we have Fridays off this summer). I just wanted to have a few days to just rest and take care of myself to ensure that it didn’t get worse. I’m glad I took the time and listened to my body.

By Wednesday and Thursday, I could start rapid testing, but both came back positive. I took the weekend off from testing because it’s not like I was going to go anywhere, so I didn’t test again until this morning. And it came back negative!!!!! I did the test and then went in the other room while it was doing its things or else I was just going to stand there and stare at it. I was convinced I was just going to keep testing positive and never be able to leave, but it’s a relief now to know I’m negative. To celebrate, I ordered this bag in white from Target, along with a few other things I needed.

It was not everything I hoped and dreamed COVID would be, but I’m glad that it was just a mild case and that I was able to take some time off to rest and take care of myself. Hey, at least I had a good run. Stay safe out there, folks.