My daughter has a cold, so we kept her home from camp today. Actually, she had a sore throat on Tuesday afternoon, but we assumed it was the heat and her mask and the exertion at camp after so many months home (she is a loud talker like her mom). Also, her allergies have been bad, so we chalked it up to all of that.
Wednesday she had a bit of a stuffy nose, but the sore throat was gone and we again assumed allergies, gave her an extra dose of antihistamines and sent her on her way.
But this morning she really didn’t feel good. Her stuffy nose had gotten a lot worse and she had a cough. So we decided to keep her home. She was super bummed because they were going ride the new Ferris Wheel in Golden Gate Park today, but you can’t send your kid to camp with a cold during Covid.
It’s our first brush with mild illness since all of this started, and it was a reminder that it’s going to be really complicated once school starts and more viruses are making the rounds. I’ll be teaching in person so it’s not like I can just work from home if my kids have symptoms that normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but now required don’t show up at school. My husband will have more flexibility, and hopefully with a kid home who isn’t very sick (not requiring constant care), the whole day won’t have to be considered a wash (which used to be the case – if he wasn’t at his office he couldn’t count the hours, even if he really did do work).
I snagged an appointment through Kaiser this morning to get her tested so we’ll have some piece of mind by Monday when we plan to send her back (assuming she feels well enough by then, which I think she will). In the meantime, I’m glad we didn’t have much planned for this weekend.
I didn’t go down to work today like I had planned, because the Covid test was across town and by the time we went there and back it didn’t make sense to drive down to work. Instead I’m getting some of tomorrow’s errands run and deciding if I want to drive down tomorrow to finish packing or just spend all of Saturday down there, so I can push through until I’m done. Saturday is probably the better move but I’m loathe to do it. I just want to get it done and put it behind me but it’s taking longer than I thought, and it’s totally depleting me in ways I didn’t expect.
I’m honestly not quite sure why I’m having such a hard time with it… I’m just trying to plod through and not think too much about why I leave every day feeling so bummed out. (I’m not against exploring the feelings but I’m honestly not sure where to start – I think it’s a lot of things, like a the reminder of how long my commute is and how wiped I am after spending the day away from home, about how frequently I’ve been asked to move rooms, how much stuff I’ve purchased that I really didn’t need, how isolated I sometimes feel at work being the only foreign language teacher, how isolating teaching is in general, how I’m so relieved and even excited to be teaching back in my classroom next year but how complicated those feelings of relief are when taken in the broader context). So I guess I have some ideas of why it’s bumming me out but I think they are so complex and multifaceted that just letting time manage most of them is probably the best course of action. It probably doesn’t help that I’m coming out of one of those more depleting 16 months of my life.
Exhaustion.
Heat, fire, water worries underlying.
A lack of belief of hope in positive change.
Reality of germs and contagion and implications.
EXHAUSTION.
Hope you get room packed. I am always impressed by how you accomplish more than I think is possible. Lifts my spirits. Will you have only one room and one school this fall or are you repeating chaos?
Just popping in to say, I’m not surprised you’re wrung out. I really don’t know how so many of you have coped the last 18 months or so. There’s an end in sight. And a summer of rest before then. Hang in there.