Sunday: largest indoor track meet in the world

The weekend before Christmas break, I drove out to the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island to watch one of my daughters compete in the Bishop Loughlin Games. I didn’t know it at the time, but these games are the largest high school indoor track meet in the world. At Sunday’s meet, there were runners coming in from six states. My daughter and I were both masked, from the moment we approached the building, to the moment we left. When we got inside, she split off from me to go warm up with her team. I spent most of my time avoiding people. I found a place up in the highest section, a bit above and behind the top of the bleachers, in a concrete alcove. It was a good spot to take photos. There was one other dad who eventually sat down in that area. He wore a mask, and the two of us sat about ten feet away from each other.

Monday: beginnings of a sore throat

Totally normal day. In the evening, my daughter began complaining about a mild sore throat.

Tuesday: body aches

I had taken the day off of work, and used that time to run some errands in preparation for Christmas eve dinner. My daughter returned from school, complaining that her throat was worse, and that she was also feeling achey.

Wednesday: home from school

We kept my daughter out of school. My wife called up several places to schedule a Covid test, but they were all booked. Apparently, a ton of New Yorkers were getting tested right before Christmas. At 7:55am that morning, I decided to stand in line at the pop-up testing site around the corner from our house. Testing normally begins at 8am, but already, there were 25 people waiting in line. I called my daughter to come join me. We waited in that line for 2 hours, and saw exactly 1 person get tested. The outside temperature was in the thirties, so we decided to go back home. Throughout the day, I kept tabs on her temperature, and made her do warm salt water gargles. The highest she got was 99.6.

Thursday: improvement

We sent her back to school. Her symptoms seemed to be improving, and her temperature hadn’t broken 100°. She was walking around the house, going up and down stairs, texting her friends, and watching tv. It’s hard to say if it was confirmation bias on my part, but the way I grew up, you weren’t allowed to stay home from school unless you were vomiting. Nobody gave a shit about a temperature of 100°, a stomach ache, a headache, or any kind of ache unless there were gushing rivers of blood.

Friday: christmas eve

A small subset of our family came over to celebrate. Because there were fewer of us, there was a slightly smaller menu – still varied though – Burmese mohinga, Korean galbi, grilled skirt steak, Chinese watercress, Indonesian Squid, South American veggie and beef empanadas, chocolate and pecan pie from Four & Twenty Blackbirds. It was the first time we had been together since 2019. The cousins played hide and seek; the grownups hung out in the parlor; and we opened presents after dinner.

Saturday: bad news, followed by a headache

Christmas day – my wife called me from work to tell me that one of the cousins tested positive for Covid in the morning. My daughter’s symptoms are no different than yesterday. No one else in our family (immediate or extended) was reporting any symptoms. But I was starting to develop a headache. That afternoon, I conked out on the couch, and woke up with a worse headache. When my wife gets home from work around 9pm, I’m squinting.

Sunday: chills + paralyzing body aches

My headache becomes worse, and I now have body aches. My daughter’s symptoms are about the same. I go to bed at 9pm, then wake up shivering around midnight. I get up, put on two sets of long johns, plus a sweater, and hobble back to bed. It is an extremely uncomfortable night. At some point during that evening, I go to the bathroom, open a tube of toothpaste, and squeeze a little bit out – just enough to poke up out of the hole – then take in a deep whiff. I can still smell the mint. I

Monday: PCR Test

I stay in bed the entire morning and afternoon. My wife calls me at 1:30 or 2pm. I can barely hear the phone. She says she just signed us up for a PCR test at a different pop-up testing site, and is waiting in line – can I make it over to her with my daughter to get tested? I think hard with my eyes closed. I know for a fact that the distance is .3 miles. I tell my wife to give me a 20 minute heads up. I go back under the covers, ball up on my side, and clench my toes. I received a call later on, got out of bed, and exited the house at a brisk 2.7mph pace with my daughter.

tuesday: real quarantine begins

At this point, no one knew if anyone of us had Covid or not. My symptoms were the worst, so I assumed that if anyone should isolate, it should be me. So I moved into our ground floor apartment. In pre-covid times, we’d rent it out to short term airbnb travelers. We’ve kept it empty since January 2020. In the morning, I did a load of laundry to get some fresh bedding down – even walked to the laundromat to wash and dry the blankets in one of the industrial sized machines. I was feeling much better than I had on Sunday night, but was convinced I should stay downstairs until the results of my test came back.

Wednesday: Confirmation

I can’t remember when I acknowledged this text message, but I was relieved to know that the result was positive. At least now, the threat of getting infected was neutralized. I had it. And to be honest, it wasn’t bad.

What happened next

Turns out, both of my daughters tested positive. One of them had no idea she was sick. The other one – the track athlete – assumed she only had a sore throat. My wife, who bikes to and from work at a hospital, and spends her entire day surrounded by infected people, is the only one who came out clean – which is amazing. Of everyone who had it, I felt the worst. Within that group, I also happened to be the only one who received a booster shot. I’m also a lot older than my daughters.

Out of a family of 4 mask-wearing vaccinated individuals…

• 3 got Covid, 1 did not, all got tested

• It’s reasonable to believe that we got exposed at the Sunday track meet (12/19/2021) right before Christmas – but we’ll never really know

• I felt really bad for one night, but at no point coughed or felt short of breath

• One daughter (the track athlete) had a sore throat and some body aches

• One daughter (the runner’s twin) had no idea she was sick

• My wife, who has spent the entire pandemic working overtime in a hospital among the sick, (not missing a day of work) was the only one to not test positive