Testing Negative

Hope you had a fun 4th of July!

It started last weekend when we noticed that our son had a rash all over his stomach and back. It wasn’t itchy. He didn’t have a fever or any other symptoms, other than possibly a little headache. We had just had our first distanced visits with other families since coming in CA and were outside all day playing, so we figured he was reacting to something and maybe dehydrated. 

The following days the rash got worse and so did his headache. His appetite decreased. Then on Tuesday morning he woke up with a high fever. Now the symptoms of rash and fever are present in a number of non-COVID illnesses, but in the middle of this pandemic we had to consider COVID as a possibility, which pushed us to action. We isolated our son to his room (moving our other son to live with our daughter) and decided only one person would enter the sick room being careful to disinfect afterwards. We got our sick son comfortable with medicine and some books. We dutifully notified the families we had seen over the weekend about our son’s fever.

We weren’t really worried about it actually being COVID. While a possibility, the likelihood was very low. But as long as it was a possibility we had to react appropriately for the sake of our friends, family, and parents. We knew isolating our son was going to be difficult but necessary in our multi-generational household (especially with Megan’s dad being a working doctor).

Water Balloon Fun for the Fourth

So how to rule out COVID? All the drive-by testing places that were nearby could take up to a week to give back results. Working in Megan’s dad’s hospital network, we could get results quickly but at first glance it looked like you had to get an in-house doctor’s referral. 

We waited on hold for a long time on the network’s COVID line (remember we’re in the middle of an upsurge) to be told that the first tele-visit we could have to get a testing referral would be in two days! Fast forward through a couple more times waiting on hold and we were told that we could go to the testing site without an appointment and with just a hard-copy outside referral and they would test us (a fact they don’t advertise). But we could have him tested that day, if we could get a doctor’s referral. So we ended up getting a virtual appointment with the pediatrician all the way back in the Boston area whom we had just seen. She was able to see us within hours!

By the time we got the emailed referral from the Boston-area doctor and bundled up our sick son into the car, it was the afternoon. The testing site didn’t know what to do with us at first- not only did we have an outside referral but from over 3,000 miles away! But eventually we got the test (our son didn’t appreciate the swab up the nose much).

Getting to hug again!!

Next there was the wait for the results— up to two business days. We hoped it would be less. Two days of keeping our son at 6 ft away while he started to feel better and wanted to leave his room, play, interact with everyone, was hard! Sometimes it felt like he was being punished for having gotten sick.

We were all expecting a negative result and so part of us felt like the cautiousness was going overboard, but it wasn’t just about us. It was for others. If it did end up being COVID, we needed to be able to say that we had acted responsibly. We had to consider not only our comfort level, not only the comfort level of our household, but the greater community.

This pandemic has really highlighted the need to think as a group, the need to put others’ needs and comfort levels above our own, even if that means sacrificing our own freedoms. There are lots of situations where we may be called to place our freedoms aside for the sake of someone else- just like Paul talks about in 1 Cor 8. On the islands that means we lay aside the freedom to dress as we might want or to eat/drink what we enjoy. In the US it has been all about following guidelines for social distancing and wearing masks. For our son it meant laying aside the freedom to touch things outside his room or give anyone hugs. We shouldn’t deny that these are indeed sacrifices and sometimes difficult, but the needs of others and the health of the community make it worth it.

About thirty-six hours after my son’s swab test, we got the test results— NEGATIVE! The first thing we did was give lots of hugs.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are very thankful that our son is feeling almost completely better (still some tummy troubles) and was negative for COVID. We are thankful that Megan’s brother made it safely from southern California and has joined the household. We are thankful that from all reports COVID hasn’t been hitting the islands as hard as feared— what an answer to prayer! Our colleagues’ meeting with expats on the French Island went well. An island sister on the small island gathered other island sisters together at her own initiative and expense—a very encouraging development. We’ve heard that Ma Imani continues to share openly and that a children’s group she is helping with is reaching out to lots of island children.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Today is independence day on the islands— we continue to hear rumblings of instability and indications that the president has been using the health crisis to shore up his power. Continue to pray for freedom from injustice and corruption on the islands. A colleague couple on the small island has had to make the hard decision to have their first baby on the islands. They had been hoping to go to one of their home countries but flights haven’t opened up and she is too far along now. Pray for a safe and health delivery, with no complications. Pray for peace for them and for their families off-island who are worried for them and sad to miss this event. Pray for us as we continue to talk and pray with one woman who has been interested in our team— pray that it would be clear to all of us whether we are a good fit for each other.  Pray for our son’s full healing— not sure what he had but he was pretty sick for a few days and his tummy hasn’t settled yet.  Pray for us as we start looking at our timeline— our flights back to Africa were canceled and we are now having to reconsider our original dates and plans. Pray that we would have wisdom about what decisions to make now and what to hold off on.