Just Drainage
A couple of weeks ago, I looked down at my daughter’s face and noticed a glistening drip coming from her right nostril. Oh no. I thought. Here we go.
The drip turned into a full-on flow and low-grade fever. Soon enough all of us were blowing our noses and losing sleep because of a niggling cough. In ordinary times, such an occurrence would be no big deal, but now… Could it be the Delta variant? The adults in our family are all vaccinated, but still my anxiety got the better of me. I researched and found the most accurate at-home test, which thankfully proved to be negative.
Then, last weekend (feeling much better) we went to an open house at my kids’ preschool. It’s my son’s first time in the care of someone aside from his parents or grandparents, so I thought it would be good for him to check out his new environment. The first kid who greeted us had a huge gob of snot engulfing the lower third of his face. I kindly brought it to the attention of his mother who said, “It’s just drainage.”
Hmm, I thought to myself. Unless he’s been tested, there’s no way of knowing if that's "just drainage."
All I can say is that I am so sick of this. I am sick of being angry about others’ actions or inaction in the face of this disease. I am sick of worrying about my children getting COVID. I am sick of being a germaphobe. I am sick of worrying about every runny nose, sneeze, cough, or headache. I am sick of having to change our plans ALL THE TIME.
After I thought about it for a while, I found that I had compassion for this mother. Each decision each of us makes about going out in the world these days seems so fraught with risk. Could we get infected? Could we infect someone else? Maybe her son really does just have bad allergies (I don’t really think anyone has allergies that bad).
How do I come to a place of acceptance with COVID sticking around? How can I look at this situation with some kind of equanimity? I have no answers to these questions, but my feeling is that it’s best to stay curious and talk to other people about it.
Becca Perry-Hill
