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By Jennie Guido

Well, this past week, this Guido family of four went through COVID together. While Mom may have been the first to show symptoms, we quickly all followed suit and ended up positive by Tuesday morning.

Throughout the entirety of the pandemic, we have all successfully kept the virus at bay. We’ve all been vaccinated, boosted, masked, and sanitized. Aimee has been in more meetings than you can shake a stick at, and I’ve traveled all over the state and met visitors from far and wide. Luckily, we’ve been healthy and stayed virus free. Until this week.

Like everyone else, we are battling seasonal allergies and sinus issues. I have personally had a sinus headache since March. It’s normal for this time of year. However, when we all started to feel the same ailments and could not cure it with a daily Zyrtec and extra Mentholatum, it was time to head to South Star Urgent Care.

What a family outing, huh? Three out of four listing symptoms and ailments. Three out of four lined up for our COVID tests. Three out of four were sent home with cough syrup and a quarantine notice. The fourth followed in the days to come, which rounded out our happy little positive family.

The first couple of days were tough. I barely slept, burned off several fevers, and wanted to wrap my head in a heating pad to help with the pain in my ears. Mom couldn’t make it a full minute without a coughing fit. Dad, well, he mowed the grass and tended to the garden in between naps and cough meds. 

We were all sickly but also started feeling better after the first couple of days. Each of us found what helped our symptoms. For me, Ricola’s Lemon Mint cough drops and warm compresses numbed by ears between rounds of medications. I drank more hot tea than I thought possible in a 24-hour window, which probably added to my sleeplessness. Kraft mac and cheese is also a Godsend, and I will always keep it stocked in the pantry in case times get tough again. 

I can tell you though there are no other three people I’d rather quarantine, share my cough drops, or not fully taste my food with. We were thankfully able to joke about all four of us coming down with COVID together for the first time two years into the pandemic. We’re also thankful for our neighbors that dropped off casseroles, coffee fairies from Natchez Coffee who dropped what they were doing to deliver lunch goodies to each of us, and all of the offers of help made over the week.

COVID sucks, but going through it as a family didn’t.