We were wrong.  Sure we were careful but not in the strict sense.  Wearing our masks, not venturing out too much.  Eating at home.  That is until our middle son woke up Saturday morning asking to be taken to the Emergency Room.  His mother was at his apartment checking how he was doing and noticed he was laboring to breathe while he was sleeping.  He woke up and requested to be taken to ER.

Before this even happened, at 4:00 a.m. that morning his girlfriend had to call an ambulance because he had been throwing up for almost 24 hours.  The EMT checked him out and said “you have no fever, no cough, no Covid symptoms, you must have a stomach virus”.

Upon arrival at the ER, he was checked again, and again, no fever, with only symptom being labored breathing.  They took him back and ran tests.  Then we waited for the dreaded results.

He tested positive for Covid.  What?  Are you sure?  He’s been diligent about masks and staying home.  Yep the Scarlet C.  Once he tested positive he was moved into ICU and we could no longer see him.

He spent a day and night in ICU, then improved enough for them to move him into a CCU (critical care unit) room on Monday.  And a day later he was downgraded to a regular Covid room.  We’ve not seen him since Saturday morning.

It is now late Thursday night, he is doing better but his White Blood Cell (WBC) count was low on Wednesday and so they’ve been monitoring him.  This afternoons report was his WBC was trending upward.  So that is good.

HOWEVER.  As if Covid wasn’t enough, they diagnosed him as diabetic, type 2.  WTF?  What do you mean a 25 year old who is in good health, not overweight contracts diabetes?  So another issue he’s been fighting in the hospital is his insulin level.  It took 2 days to stabilize that.  Then on Tuesday they started teaching him how to test his blood and give himself a shot.  This got us worried because diabetes is a near death sentence if you have Covid.

Everything came crashing down on him and he was crying when we finally got to talk to him over the phone.  I can’t tell you how bad it feels to hear your 25 year old son cry because he is overwhelmed with what is happening to him.  Why is this happening?  How could this happen?

Hopefully Friday brings more positive news and he can look forward to getting released.  Meanwhile those of us who had contact with him in the few days leading up to his ER visit are in self quarantine.  14 days.  And we are monitoring our temperature and oxygen content daily.  Working from home.  Every cough, sore throat or headache is suspect now.  I’m finding it difficult to get a good night sleep.  Worrying about my other sons, my grandson, my wife and myself.  I’ll feel better when these next 8 days of quarantine pass uneventful.