This is my 19 year old daughter Rosie. Today marks 2 weeks that she has been the sickest in her entire life. She is positive for Covid-19. We haven’t seen a many experiences shared of what this illness has been like for healthy young adults, so here’s a thread

Her only underlying disease/condition is/was childhood asthma. She is excellent with handwashing hygiene, social distancing, and always wearing a mask in public. But she still got it.

The unknown factor is where she was exposed because she had traveled. In the 14 days prior to her first symptom, she had been to Michigan (to move her stuff to Utah where the family recently moved, and drive her car back), 4 days in Utah, then she drove to LA for vacation.

Her first symptom was ear pain. She went swimming in her grandma’s pool, and thought it was swimmer’s ear. Headache, body aches, scratchy throat, low-grade fever and GI symptoms followed in the next few days. Because her main complaint was her ears, we didn’t expect Covid

She was about to leave my in-law’s house for a family reunion with us. But we wanted to be really careful with any symptoms with a pandemic brewing, so she camped out at grandma’s while we headed south.

While we were trying to enjoy being with extended family, she was in misery. That’s when cough and shortness of breath began. Her fever never went above 99.8, but her ears continued to ache like crazy.

We left California, drove home with as few stops (wearing a mask) as possible, and she proceeded to spend the next few days in bed. I had her check her temperature and pulse ox a few times a day, which has remained normal.

Thursday (one week ago), I told her to download the Healthy Utah app, which is their Covid tracking app. We both answered the questions, and were both told to get tested. We were on hold with the Intermountian Covid hotline for 45 minutes to register for the test

We were in line at Cottonwoood Medical Tower Instacare’s line about an hour to get out swabs. It was more painful/unfcomfortable than we expected. Pro tip: call the testing site number as soon as you arrive, not when your car is at the front of the line.

We were told 24-72 hours for results. We began our home quarantine. Rosie’s symptoms hadn’t really changed - same complaints, same severity. Saturday morning, we got a call from Intermountain’s nurse - Rosie was Covid positive.

We had the opportunity to ask a lot of questions about to expect. The nurse said she only needed to quarantine for 10 days from when symptoms started, and that day was day 10. But with how a sick Rosie has been, there was no way she would feel good enough to leave the house.

The nurse didn’t have my result yet, but told me to proceed as if I was positive. And the rest of our family should get tested. Next, the super awkward part - let all the family is recently been with at the reunion of a possible Covid exposure.

I never got a call about my result. Since I’m newly returned to Utah, I had to reset my online health record account to be able to check for results. And then it was there. Negative. I was surprised because by that point, I was having some Covid symptoms myself.

On Monday morning, my toddler Lucy had a fever of 103 and was acting lethargic. We were able to get my husband’s test ordered in the Healthy Together app, but children under 2 require a pediatrician’s order. So we got a telemed appointment for Monday afternoon.

My husband got his test as early in the morning as he could, and his wait was only 10 minutes (since he called as soon as he arrived). When he was done, he texted me “Well THAT was highly uncomfortable.”

Lucy had her telemed visit with the pediatrician, and he agreed that she should also be tested. So we were to the office’s drive-through respiratory clinic. And man, seeing my baby have to endure that swab was totally heartbreaking.

Strangely enough, my husband and Lucy were also negative. Three days later, Lucy is back to her active toddler self. My husband hasn’t had any symptoms yet. I’m still feeling headache, body aches, and some major fatigue, but since my test was negative...am I still negative now?

Rosie, on day 15 of this junk, said she’s feeling “maybe 5% better.” She is taking naps or lounging all day. Her cough sounds awful, and her heart rate shoots up when she walks upstairs. Having her self-isolate is tough, because her little sister wants to spend time with her.

One interesting thing: her sense of smell only diminished on Tuesday. 13 days after her first symptom. She still tastes thing normally, but she also doesn’t have much appetite. And when she does eat, she feels sick after almost everything.

So now...it’s just a waiting game. Rosie’s job is to rest and have plenty of fluids, and take Tylenol for symptoms. We still are quarantining while we wait to see if any of the rest of us get really sick. The county health department nurse will call Saturday or Monday to check in

When we talked to the county health nurse for our contact tracing, it was a 30 minute call. Talked about all potential points of time that Rosie was in contact with others. She will be okay to go back into public with 3 days symptom and medication free. With a mask, of course.

She is anxious to get back to work. It’s hard for a college kid to miss a month (or more?) of work when you’re trying to save up for the next school year. But she knows home is exactly where she needs to be while recovering.

She gets so upset as she sees news report of people who oppose masks, or care more about the economy than the lives of people. She has taken it seriously since early March when she decided to hop on Amazon and get a pack of masks.

As a mom, I’m still nervous of her taking a turn for the worse. I’ve read about the dreaded cytokine storms that can happen just as patients are turning the corner on their recovery and suddenly are in the ICU. Praying that it will not be her fate.

As a side note, I was in the ICU on a ventilator for 3 weeks, 5 days after Rosie was born. I was septic and went into Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. I wasn’t much older than she is. I was a healthy young woman fighting for my life. So my anxiety is high thinking about it

It seems like Covid-19 can feel like a very abstract thing until it’s personal to you. A sick child is as personal as it gets. I hope that government leaders and individuals do all they can to slow the spread of coronavirus. It doesn’t go away just because you’re bored of it