avatarSusie Kearley

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My 100-Year-Old Mother-In-Law Tested Positive For Covid

Christmas jollies and challenges

© Susie Kearley

My husband and I visited his mum for Christmas, having tested ourselves for covid before we left. We both got negative results, and left home at 8pm for the three-hour journey. We arrived late in the evening and went straight to bed.

The following morning, I asked my mother-in-law if we could do her test. My husband has lung damage, so we’re always very careful. He doesn’t want covid because of the risk of further reduced lung capacity.

She obliged and her test returned a faint positive result. It’s the first positive I’ve seen and came as a monumental surprise. She’d had a quiet week, so we were not expecting this, especially as she had no symptoms and is very old.

The faint line suggested a low-level infection, so we decided to do another test. We’d used a nasal kit, so tried a nose and throat kit for the second test.

The nose and throat ones are trickier. She doesn’t have tonsils, so her mouth sample is a bit arbitrary and might be from the wrong place. Anyway, we took swabs and I reckoned we’d probably got a decent sample. The second test delivered a negative result.

We decided to stay and test daily. We were planning to be there for a few days and we’d driven a long way to spend Christmas with her!

If she started to show symptoms or a darker more menacing line appeared, we’d need to make some difficult decisions: stay to look after her, or run for the hills! Probably the former if there was a risk of nasty symptoms emerging, considering her age.

The following morning we all did tests. All negative. Relieved, we enjoyed Christmas as normal.

It turns out that a little blood in the sample, or too much snot, can make an incorrect result more likely. There was some blood in her first sample, so that may have been the key to the slight positive, which was probably false.

She seemed in excellent health all Christmas, which was a relief, and we had a good time.

The guinea pigs

The guinea pigs came with us and slept in my bedroom. Well, when I say slept, they actually ran around all night and caused a ruckus.

While I tried to doze off, I could hear the constant rustle of newspaper and the pitter patter of tiny feet running around. This was interjected by periods of quiet when they would rest in their igloos, before embarking on another midnight adventure.

There was the occasional squeak as they had an exchange, a lot of chomping as they ate hay and food I’d left for them, and much tearing of newspaper as they rearranged their accommodation.

I didn’t sleep well with the constant background noise from my little critters, but I suspect I’d have been lying awake anyway. They weren’t that noisy.

We left three days later with both critters, mother-in-law, and husband in good states of health. We exchanged gifts and enjoyed the festive season. I consider that a win!

Now onto entertaining my own mother, who apparently spent Christmas Eve in A&E (ED), seeking treatment for a nasty infection, before going to my sister’s house for Christmas Day.

© Susie Kearley 2023. All Rights Reserved.

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