On Thursday 12th March, the UK government told the public to self isolate for 7 days with a persistent cough or fever. All of us have a cough, G and I and baby O have had a temperature in the last few days and the cough is still going.
G was already working from home starting from Thursday because he works with ill and vulnerable people. We decided when we heard the announcement that we should all self-isolate for a week. Today is Friday 13th March and day one of our self-isolation.
Symptoms started as a cold, with a temperature, most noticeable at night, and then a runny nose developed and then a cough. We don’t know if we have a cold, flu or COVID-19. However, we do not want to risk passing it on. Even if it’s a cold or a flu, with the health service preparing for serious numbers of patients, we can do our bit to not spread any infectious disease right now.
We’re not going to be allowed testing unless symptoms get worse or were no better after the 7 days. Many people wonder why they aren’t testing more people. From what I’ve seen on the internet there are many possible reasons, such as test availability, funding, accuracy of tests and false negatives.
We aren’t really worried. G is 38, I’m about to turn 29, the kids are 9,8 and almost 1. None of us are in the high risk groups. I have terrible health anxiety and worry about the tiniest illness in my babies but this time (after much panic to begin with) I am reassured that they will be ok.
In December, I fell ill with the flu, which started off appearing to be just a cold. After the flu, I developed pneumonia, though the doctors would only confirm a ‘chest infection’ and I was sent home to recover with antibiotics in case it was bacterial instead of viral. Baby O was also ill then but nowhere near as bad as me.
I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t really eat. I had to try to sleep sitting up. Constant coughing up mucus. I was so tired I couldn’t stand to shower and had to sit down and have G shower me because I couldn’t keep my arm above my head to hold the shower up or even wash my own hair. It was absolutely horrible. But after a few weeks of illness I recovered. And I recovered pretty quickly and got back to normal with school runs and looking after the kids. G was doing everything while I was ill. Luckily the worst part was during the school’s Christmas break so G was off work and the kids were home. He was single parenting and caring for me!
Christmas was no fun for me. I barely registered it. Baby O’s first Christmas! But that’s the way it goes. Illness does not wait to be convenient. COVID-19 won’t either. It’s time we all took some precautions.
Day One of our family self-isolation has gone pretty well. I made sure to make a schedule for the kids. Weekend days will be more relaxed but generally I’m aiming to use this as a guide for us. (Might not work for others, and having a baby involved makes it tougher!)
9am writing – one page of a4, on any subject, character, story, setting or whatever they want. That takes them about half an hour and is similar to what they often do at school in year three and four.
9.30 maths. I wrote out some sums, times, divide etc and another sheet of questions on time, money, shapes, angles and parallel lines which are all things I know they’ve been doing at school too.
After that we had a snack and then all got dressed up warm to go run about in the garden. We’re very lucky that we can still get outside to exercise and get fresh air in our garden. Many other people don’t have that option. Baby O came out to play in the garden too, now that he is walking confidently. G had a break from working from home to come and get some fresh air too.
The boys had some free play time which they spent some of on their games phones (our old phones with no SIM card but wifi and games!). Then we all had lunch. Baby O went for his nap, G went back to work and me and the big boys started doing some art.
Our plan for the rest of the day is to have some screen time on the Xbox, have dinner and do some reading together. I’m hoping to make the most of our time together and not fuss or panic and keep everyone happy and calm.
Natural Causes 