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Simon on the bridge over the Douro River in Porto, Portugal

Almost two weeks ago, for whatever reason, I happened to wake up at 3am and noticed that Simon was also awake. "I have a fever and I'm achey" was all he said to me. Knowing what we know, I was filled with a sense of dread. Despite all our efforts, our social distancing, our staying at home, our precautions at work, the coronavirus had somehow come home with us.

Out for a snowy adventure with Amy in Mountainaire

Simon was tested on April 13th, and on April 15th he got the results of his swab back. Positive. By this time he had already been sick for a few days, so the positive result wasn't really all that surprising to us, but it still stung a bit. I feel like I've been walking on egg shells around him since then; not as a result of his behavior towards me, but because I don't want to let my mind wander to the dark places that are a direct result of working with patients infected with the coronavirus in the hospital setting. I'm also being cautious in the highly unlikely event that I've somehow managed to avoid exposure while living here with him.

Minnesota State Fair with Jenny D and Feather

Simon's symptoms have been mostly atypical; he's had fevers and fatigue, which are pretty consistent with Covid-19, the illness caused by the virus, but he's also had pretty intense body aches. Thankfully he hasn't had much for respiratory symptoms, outside of some random chest tightness that comes and goes. His oxygen saturation has been in the mid-low 90's, which isn't too concerning at this point; people tend to have lower oxygen saturations when living at higher altitudes. I don't think my oxygen saturation gets much above 97% these days. His temperature has consistently been under 101 degrees, and he doesn't have fevers everyday. Funny story (kind of), given all the hoarding of medical supplies in town, I have been unable through multiple trips to multiple stores to find a thermometer, so we've been using a meat thermometer to take his temp. It's kind of ironic that as healthcare providers, we can't find medical equipment to care for ourselves at home. Funny not funny. **Update** Our buddy Branwyn brought us a human thermometer, so the meat thermometer can go back in the drawer...after being sanitized, of course. Simon did a quality control measure (of course) on both thermometers and the meat thermometer was accurate. So for those of you in a similar boat of not being able to find a thermometer for people, a digital meat thermometer will do in a pinch! :) Thanks to all of you who offered us thermometers, I should have asked sooner!

Hiking Camelback Mountain in Phoenix

The progress of Simon's symptoms also has seemed to be a little atypical as well. He was feeling pretty poorly for about 4-5 days after he first got the symptoms, started to feel better for a few days, and then on day 8 from the onset of symptoms, he got really sick again, worse than he had initially. The body aches came back along with the fevers and the fatigue. He was down like that for about 2 days, and over the past couple days he's started to gradually feel a little bit better. He's still tired and achey, but no fevers today. I made a pretty baller pot of homemade chicken noodle soup the other day, so I'm assuming that is having a direct result on his symptoms improving...hahaha! Check out the recipe here. Definitely take the time to make the bone broth...so much good flavor! I also added the juice of one lime and a splash of fish sauce just for fun. My "pinch" of cayenne also ended up being an entire teaspoon...whoops. Good thing we like things spicy around here. I also, as per usual, added too many noodles so the soup turned out more like a stew, but it's still pretty dang good.

Sunset on the beach in Lagos, Portugal with Jo and Dana

How have I been feeling since he got sick? Pretty good, to be honest. For the past few weeks I've had a random cough here and there, and also a little bit of chest tightness, but I'm an asthmatic with seasonal allergies and it's the windy season here in Flagstaff. Coughing, shortness of breath and being wheezy is part of the deal for me this time of year. I haven't had any fevers, body aches, or unusual fatigue. I will say that when I'm out and about wearing my mask I have shortness of breath, but I think that's psychological...being out and about around other people right now gives me anxiety, which causes shortness of breath, etc. Plus it's difficult and downright uncomfortable to do deep breathing grounding exercises with a mask on. Ick.

A snowy hike with Kiki

So what have I been doing since he got sick? Staying home, mostly. I've also been sleeping on the couch every night except for one night since Simon started having symptoms. Given that we'd been sleeping together this entire time before he got sick I'm not sure that it's necessary to sleep apart, but I think it's just more comfortable for both of us. Simon made the comment the other day that his fever broke while he was in bed and his sweat smelled like chicken noodle soup...I was thankful to have missed out on that little event. The dogs are very confused as I've relegated them to the love seat...there's just not room for me and both of them on the couch at the same time. They sit over on the love seat and stare longingly at me until I just can't take it anymore and roll over to avoid their gaze. Creepers. I've gone into town a couple times to get groceries (and look for a thermometer), and I've also gone to work. I'm not quite sure what to make of my situation regarding living with a known infected person and then going into work and being around both patients and my coworkers. There doesn't seem to be a lot of concrete guidance regarding what I should or shouldn't be doing. Given the incubation period of the virus, Simon could have been infected without symptoms as early as late March. During that time we were carrying on as we always do...sharing a bed, hanging out, sitting together on the couch, going places together in the car, cooking together. I've had ample opportunity to catch this thing from him, but I've yet to show any symptoms. Have I somehow, despite all odds, managed to avoid catching it at all? That seems pretty unlikely. Or am I one of those people who gets it but doesn't show symptoms? That's probably the most likely and most ideal scenario.

The dogs on the love seat...social distancing ;)

Truth be told, I worked with Covid positive patients before he did, but who knows how long we were working with infected people prior to knowing that they were infected? How many infected patients admitted for purely unrelated ailments did we treat and send home, being none the wiser to their underlying viral infection? If I had to guess, and this is purely a guess, one or both of us had ample opportunity to be exposed at work prior to our current precautions being put in place. However, we could have just as easily caught it out and about in Flagstaff, there's really no way to accurately know. All we can do now is move forward and keep ourselves away from other people to slow the spread of the virus. I can't help but wonder how many people we could have infected these past few weeks prior to Simon showing symptoms.

Riding bikes in Mountainaire

So where do we go from here? Well, Simon is still waiting to have a day with no symptoms. Today is day 11 since the start of symptoms. We've been told a few things as far as when he can go back to work, everything from being asymptomatic for three days to having two negative swabs before going back. Given that the information on this virus and the approach to it is constantly evolving, protocols are changing daily. I guess we'll wait until he starts having asymptomatic days and go from there. In the meantime, I'm told that I can still go to work as long as I'm not having any symptoms; I'm just required to wear a mask at all times (which I've already been doing per the workplace policy), and that I'm to notify employee health immediately if I start having symptoms. I can't decide how I feel about that, knowing that I'm living with an actively symptomatic person who has tested positive. I've clearly been exposed, and I keep wondering if I should be tested, but given my lack of symptoms and the overall lack of testing availability, I'm told that I don't currently qualify to be tested. So I'm just acting as though I have it and am proceeding accordingly.

Beers with our buddy David in Colorado

In a way I'm kind of relieved that this happened (poor miserable Simon may feel differently, however); maybe now I'll have some immunity to this and can move on with my life. The fear of catching it was almost overwhelming there for a while, and now here it is in my very own house. I did have a little mini-meltdown the other day when I was in town buying groceries. I'd been to a couple stores on the hunt for flour (found it) and a thermometer (no dice) and was disheartened and pissed off at the number of people out and about in groups with no masks on. It's so infuriating to me that people aren't taking this seriously. Whether it's out of boredom, ignorance, or indifference, there's no excuse for it. At the very least, they should be wearing a goddamned mask; if they can't fathom the idea of entertaining themselves at home then at the very least they should be decent human beings and protect the general population from themselves. After my little meltdown in the car I promptly drove myself to the drive-thru at  Chik-fil-A (where all the workers were wearing masks) for some mac and cheese and nuggets; I barely made it home before I stress ate all of it. No regrets...outside of wishing that I had gotten the large mac and cheese rather than the medium. Haha!

Simon and I in Lisbon, Portugal

So Simon currently is on full quarantine and I guess I'm on full social distancing with partial quarantine. Weird times, but hopefully they'll be over soon. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. I don't know much more than most people but I've had the opportunity to observe coronavirus in multiple settings, and at this point I'm still fully on board with staying home, staying distant, and keeping this crap to yourselves.

Be well, my friends.