Page Text: Life in isolation: My family’s story of a positive COVID test
By: Corbin Stewart
Hudson (right), Terri (middle), and Corbin (right) sit down for a family photo after quarantine. Photo by Corbin Stewart.
Election night 2020 left the world in suspense. There was no clear winner between Biden and Trump – it would take four days for Biden to be declared the president-elect. But that night left my family and I in suspense for different reasons. We were expecting the results of our COVID tests.
On that Tuesday night, my mom and I watched the election together. We decided to order pizza because we were glued to our TV screens, watching the outcomes state by state. My family’s go-to is usually Papa John’s, but election night changed something in us and we decided to switch it up. Domino’s Pizza it is. With three slices of meat lovers pizza in one hand and a big glass of wine in the other, we prepared ourselves for the grueling night.
Kentucky and Indiana to Trump. New York and the entire northeast to Biden.
“CNN projects Donald Trump will carry the state of Florida.”
BZZZ. BZZZ.
My younger brother hops out of his room.
He just received his text message result about his COVID test.
The first quarantine
Let me backtrack a bit. Like many others, this wasn’t my family's first quarantine. When the pandemic hit North America in the middle of March, fear and uncertainty began to take a hold. It was significant on a personal level for myself. On Saturday March 14, my mom, Terri Stewart, returned from her vacation in Palm Springs.
She walked through the front door and my brother Hudson and I were wearing latex gloves and surgical masks. We were acting like she was patient zero.
“I thought you were honestly crazy,” my mom recalls.
The day before she came home I called her and told her that we would have to quarantine until it was safe. My mom scoffed at me and told me I was overreacting. In hindsight, I see that that was true. But nobody knew what the hell was going on in those early months. On March 15, the provincial government announced the cancellation of all schools and daycares. This directly affected my mom, who works for a non-profit in St. Albert dedicated to helping families.
Notwithstanding a government-mandated lockdown, I never thought that my family and I would have to self-isolate again. I was wrong.
The day of the test
My mom sauntered into my room on Sunday, Nov. 1, and told me the news. “My co-worker tested positive. We have to go get tested today,” she said. But her calm demeanour was overshadowed by the nervousness gleaming from her eyes. My mom explained she was in close contact with her co-worker all of last week and how she began developing a dry, hacking cough the night before.
“I was very panic-stricken because I knew I was in such close proximity with her,” my mom said.
We hadn’t known anybody personally who had contracted the virus until then. My mind started spinning. The pessimist in me began working out every negative scenario in my head.
On Friday night, my friend group went to Central Social Hall to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Minimal social distancing protocols were followed – lots of hugging and drunken embracing ensued.
Saturday was Halloween. My mom was out for dinner while my brother had friends over in the garage to celebrate. I handed candy out to all the kids who came by. Admittedly, I rarely wore a mask to greet them.
The giant pit in my stomach started to grow. Fear started to take over my brain. Fear of contacting my friends and telling them that I may have unknowingly gave them all COVID. Fear of giving innocent trick or treaters the virus. Fear of the repercussions of a positive test.
Around 2:45 p.m., we headed to Northlands Expo centre to get tested. This was my second COVID test and my family was peppering me with questions. “Does it hurt at all?” my mom asked. “How weird does it feel?” my brother wondered aloud. I told them that the nasal swab emulates a slight drowning sensation, but it quickly goes away. “It’s probably not that bad,” my brother replied.
The test was quick and easy. After the swab, my brother and I were told we had to isolate for 14 days, while my mom had to isolate for 10. We got in the car and my family sarcastically remarked how the test was fine and I made it out to be much worse. I guess my brother was right. It wasn’t that bad.
We arrived home, then the waiting began.
Isolation: Round two
We knew it would take some time but my family was itching to know our test results – except my mom. Her cough worsened and she developed a sinus headache along with the loss of taste and smell. She knew that her test was going to come back positive.
“Once the initial thought of having it set in I was more at ease,” she said.
My mom then informed us that all of her other co-workers got tested.
BZZZZ. BZZZZ. The sound of my mom’s phone text notifications kept popping up every hour. Texts and calls came in a flurry from her co-workers. Positive test after positive test. Her workplace had been deemed an outbreak. In total, 10 of 14 of her co-workers tested positive for the virus.
My mom’s co-worker texts her about COVID results from her workplace. Names have been blurred for confidentiality reasons. Photo by Corbin Stewart.
The calls and texts from Alberta Health Services (AHS) seemed to be at random. For some of her co-workers, it was only one day until they heard their results. For us, it was two days – in isolation that can feel like two weeks.
“I thought it was likely we were getting it. If we got it we would just have to deal with it and go from there,” said my brother.
On the morning of the US election, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, announced the total number of cases for the past four days. Sunday’s number was 592 confirmed cases, the day my family got tested. It was the highest number of cases from the four-day period.
Sitting at the table eating burnt grilled cheese and tomato soup, I jokingly asked my mom how it felt to be a potential COVID statistic on the news.
“Part of me feels shocked, but it was bound to happen sometime I guess,” was her reply.
The election night numbers started to roll in and the same panic from four years ago started to grip me. Trump was again out-performing the polls. Then, that surge of early panic was stopped in its tracks. My mind was on something else entirely.
My brother ran to the living room like he was the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland announcing the Queen of Hearts’ arrival.
TOO-TOO-TOO-TOOOOM!
“URGENT from AHS…” the text on his phone read. “HUDSON is NEGATIVE for COVID-19.”
A swell of relief washed over us.
“I don’t know what I was expecting but I was pumped [to be negative],” he later said.
Text message from AHS letting my brother know the result of his COVID test. Photo by Corbin Stewart.
For a moment, we felt some positivity creep back. Even though my mom was convinced she would test positive this was still a great sign. Maybe, just maybe, she would test negative.
Then roughly half an hour later both our phones started to ring. AHS was calling us simultaneously. My heart was beating a thousand miles a minute. The automated call only lasted around a minute but it felt much longer.
My test came back negative.
My mom’s came back positive.
Everything felt so surreal. You see the rising case numbers in Alberta but we thought that COVID would never directly affect us.
“I was very concerned because I thought I would never get it,” said my mom. “I started calling people right away and let them know I tested positive.”
My mom went straight from the living room into her bedroom. The first call was to her boyfriend Bill Rosychuck, who she had dinner with on the weekend. On the following Friday, he tested positive. He was experiencing the same symptoms my mom was. But like my mom, Rosychuk went into it with a positive attitude.
“It is what it is,” he said. “Hopefully you get through it and don’t get too sick. You just have to deal with it the best you can.”
My mom also noticed how people started treating her differently after she tested positive.
“When you tell people you have it it’s like saying you have the plague,” she said. “People are obviously shocked and concerned even if they haven’t been around you [recently].”
Her friends knew it wasn’t her fault. They were more angry at the process of having to isolate. For many people isolation is a burden, not a two-week staycation.
“Being isolated and not allowed to leave my house even after I tested negative didn’t make sense,” said Tracy Leslie, my mom’s friend who was in close contact with her.
Leslie (along with her daughter) had to miss two weeks of work and her anniversary trip to Banff because of the 14 day close contact isolation policy.
“I wasn’t too happy about that,” she later said.
For others, keeping your mind preoccupied is part of the battle.
“I feel caged and a bit bored,” said Rosychuk. “You get in one of those mental funks where you feel like you’re a gerbil on a wheel.”
My mom’s biggest fear was spreading the virus to my brother and I – her children. We’re young and healthy, but healthy people have died from COVID.
“I was more concerned with passing it off to my children,” she said. “Being in the same house as them worried me.”
We never mentioned what the worst-case scenario would entail, but just the thought of stepping foot in a hospital radiates trauma through my bones. Luckily, it didn’t come to that.
Post-results
Even though my mom’s test came back positive she seemed to get over the virus like it was nothing. Her symptoms left as quickly as they came. We didn’t know what to expect at the start, but we’ve heard so many stories on the news of how much of a battle the coronavirus can be. The only thing still lingering is her loss of taste and smell.
“I was more sick from having the stomach flu than the symptoms of COVID,” she said. “I expected it to be a lot worse than it was.”
My mom is only one person though. Her minor symptoms could be much more frightening for others who contract the virus. Isolation forces you to take things one step at a time.
“The days all blur together in quarantine,” said my brother. “You get a lot of time to yourself so you can hang around or be productive.”
The former applied to myself. Round two of quarantine was spent doing homework, binging Netflix, and practicing my golf swing in the backyard. It did not improve.
Finding the motivation to do work was the most challenging for myself – but the biggest positive of it all is that it allows you to spend more time bonding with your family. We spent most of our time watching movies and cooking dinner with any random ingredients we could find in the pantry. Our favourite was Italian sausage mixed with baked potato and cloves upon cloves of garlic.
After the results, AHS advised us to keep my mom distanced from my brother and I. Use separate bathrooms, don’t be in the same room together. We followed their advice for maybe a day.
Our line of thinking was that she had to have passed on the virus to us so there was no point in social distancing in our own home. I’m not saying what we did here was the best course of action (especially if a member of your family is immunocompromised) but we handled our isolation with a group mentality, battling it together.
I asked my mom if she had any advice for people who test positive for the virus. She listed three keys that she believes allowed her to quickly get over COVID: vitamins, water, and lots of rest.
Our quarantine “Holy Grail” of vitamins. Omega-3, B6, Vitamin C and D sit on the shelf. Photo by Corbin Stewart.
In the grand scheme of things, my family’s story is a mild one compared to the millions of families around the world dealing with COVID-19. The UCP recently announced new health measures to lower rising case numbers, but they are still surging. With cases rising every day many more Albertan families will have to go through another self-isolation period like my family has.
Our quarantine has given me lots of time to reflect and put things in perspective. Over the past few months I wasn’t as concerned as the virus as I once had been. I followed general protocols but became ignorant in how I was living my life during a pandemic. My brother shared the same sentiment.
“Your fear decreases over time. I think I just got used to it,” he said.
It’s not my place to say what the best course of action is to take to limit infection rates. All I know is that the virus is very real and it likely won’t end in the near future.
For my family our next steps are to keep our worlds very small. We now know that the pandemic really does affect everyone. It took my mom testing positive for us to realize that. But through all the reflection, I find myself thinking back to the words my mom echoed during isolation.
“You have to spin everything in a positive light. Take a deep breath and remember to take care of yourself.”