“Oh snap,” I muttered as I walked into the kitchen where my daughter and husband were conversing.
“What?” My daughter asked.
“You’re positive,” I said, staring down at her PCR results, rereading them to make sure I didn’t misread them.
“Will I be able to go to prom?” she asked anxiously, horror filling her eyes.
We had just returned from a week in Hawaii, a trip that was postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic – a trip that I wasn’t fully sure we should take given the BA.2 surge outside the US. But I knew of many families, including families of medical professionals, going on spring break, flying hours to various destinations including Hawaii. So we went, knowing we were taking a chance. The result: my teenage daughter contracted COVID just 5 days before her junior prom. Needless to say, she was distraught when we told her of her test results. As I hugged her and wiped her tears away, I simultaneously wondered what I could do to make this better and thought, “Oh my god! What did I do wrong?”
Externally, I went about taking the next steps: notify school, notify any close contacts (thankfully almost all in our household), notify close family and friends, schedule PCR tests for our household, etc. Internally, guilt and anxiety plagued me and I began overthinking everything.
“We shouldn’t have gone. It’s too soon.”
“What if we all get sick?”
“She says she’s a little short of breath after going upstairs. Should I take her to the ED...