Case in point: our afternoon sitter's friend. Our sitter herself is very cautious. But, on Tuesday she ran into a friend while she was at the grocery store. Thankfully, she was wearing a mask. Because, on Thursday, the friend contacted her to say, "Oh, by the way, I wasn't feeling well Monday or Tuesday when I saw you and so I got a COVID test and it came back positive." Yikes. Luckily, even though the friend had the highly questionable judgement to leave home while not feeling well, at least the friend was also wearing a mask. So, instead of coming to work on Friday, the sitter went to our local testing site and got tested, and very luckily, the test was negative. So, we most likely dodged a bullet there, but that one definitely felt a little too close to home for comfort. And makes me dread to think what will happen when an additional 30,000 18- to 22-year-olds roll back into town come fall. Assuming they come back, of course.
Some other interesting COVID-adjacent happenings: I went into my healthcare account to check to see when Lime's 5-year-old check-up was. Since I was there, I figured I'd check Lemon's too, but didn't see anything, so I called the pediatrician's office to see if they had it. I thus learned that not only did they not have anything on the books for Lemon, but that I couldn't actually schedule anything, and that they were canceling Lime's appointment also. I am to call back in August to see if they are making new appointments at that point. So, that's interesting. I mean I suppose overall the chances of something major being caught at any individual well-child visit are low, but we do them for a reason (right?). So, all the kids with birthdays between March and September will be starting the school year without their annual check-ups? Ok.
Meanwhile I had the opposite experience on my own checkup. The doctor's office called me to let me know that due to COVID the doctor was only doing clinic visits 1-2 days per week, and they only found out a week or two in advance which days. So, they gave me the choice of keeping my original appointment, knowing it could be cancelled at the last minute, or rescheduling it to two weeks from today, when the doctor was now booked to have a clinic day. I like certainty, or at least the illusion of it, so I went with the latter.
We do have a clinic visit coming up for Lemon next month as well. Our last one was virtual, and my understanding was that this one was to be in person since he is due for his big annual appointment with x-rays and lab draws and everything. I guess we'll see what the situation is like in a few weeks. At the moment COVID is definitely spreading in our community, and if that trend continues, I won't be eager to head over to Children's Hospital to spend a few quality hours monkeying around, seeing a dozen different care providers. Not when things are going so well for Lemon, who finally hit a massive 60lb earlier this week. I guess at some point we will have to take him in for something, but I am in no rush whatsoever, and feel very lucky to be in that position.
Given everything that's going on, I can totally relate to Lemon's fantasy of building himself a houseboat and sailing away to explore England!
