When I visualized this blog in my head, I was going to title it “My Covid Journey – The Last Day”, but then I realized that’s sort of misleading… Because while, yes, it’s our last day of quarantine (WOO HOO!) I will never underestimate this virus, and, while I don’t believe in “jinxes” I don’t even want to take the chance of saying my “last” day of anything we still know so little about. My best friend has been sending me a song a day to keep my spirits up, and today’s song was “The Final Countdown”. Perfect. Here’s hoping we are ALL in the final countdown of dealing with Covid.

So, here’s the update: the kids both haven’t had any symptoms. Seriously, I can probably count on one hand the times they both have even sneezed this entire time. For that, I am beyond grateful. That’s the biggest blessing. My symptoms are essentially gone. I still get random bursts of fatigue when I have to sit or lay down for a bit until it passes, but I’m sure that being 25 weeks pregnant and having kids doesn’t help with the fatigue. I’d describe my smell and taste to be at 50%. I can almost always now smell and taste everything, but it’s like I’m only experiencing half of it. My brother said “nothing has an aftertaste” and that’s absolutely true. It hasn’t stopped me from eating donuts (one of my inside baby’s favorite foods), but it still is a bizarre sensation. Also, it’s strange because this whole pregnancy I have really had an aversion to vegetables, especially raw veggies. I couldn’t finish a salad if I tried. Even the idea of a smoothie with spinach (which, pre-pregnancy was my breakfast most days) turns my stomach. I’ve eaten, and finished, so many salads while not being able to taste, so…mostly healthy choices for the win? But, I’ve heard that loss of smell and taste can last months, so I’ll take that over being in the hospital any day.

Tomorrow I get to go back to work, and Vinny gets to go back to school, and Z gets to come back home! It will be nice to see my coworkers face to face, to teach my students NOT through a computer screen, and have some sense of normalcy back in our lives. I’m so excited for Vinny to get to play with his friends and be back to regular learning at school. I know it’ll be a transition for him coming back, but I’m hoping that seeing his friends and getting to play will make it easier for him. It will also be so nice to be able to play with our neighbors again.

I will say, knowing that we have the antibodies for awhile gives a sense of relief. I no longer get a crippling sense of dread every time I open an email with “Covid” in the title. I still get anxiety for the people it’s affecting because I know not everyone is as lucky as we turned out to be in this Covid journey, but there’s some comfort in knowing we can’t spread or get Covid for awhile anyway.

Thank you again for everything – the prayers, texts, food, thoughts…everything. We are so grateful for our amazing village.

Now, I have to remember how to put on real clothes, drive a car, and pack lunches…wish me luck!