For the majority of the pandemic, my wife and I have been wearing masks and observing all CDC recommendations. When Moderna and Pfizer made their vaccines available for our group, we made an appointment right away to get vaccinated. We got both doses as recommended. As time went on and delta and omicron became dominant strains, I decided to get boosted on October 30, 2021. I felt this was the best move as I had just reached my 4-year tobacco-free milestone in September and getting Covid might be worse for me because of my ex-smoker status.

While I was working the Friday before I first started having symptoms, my wife had told me that our two-and-a-half-year-old daughter had a fever and was acting lethargic. I confirmed it with two different thermometers, and we decided to let her sleep it off. When I checked again the next day, her fever had gone down. My wife came home that day when she started feeling sick, and I started feeling cold-like symptoms that night as well. She then went in to work the next day but had to come home early again since she still wasn’t feeling well. I suspected something was wrong since she usually doesn’t get sick enough to go home early two days in a row. She always wears her mask while at work.

When I heard our babysitter was too sick to watch our daughter the next day, I decided to call off from work so I could stay with her. She then told us on January 17 that she lost her sense of taste. She, my wife and I had all been fully vaccinated, but they both had not been boosted. Regardless, I decided we should both get tested. When we got to Sanford Walk-In Clinic, the waiting room was very full. Likely many other people were doing what we were, so understandably the wait was very long. When it finally came time for us, they just stuck a swab into our noses. It didn’t go as deep back as early Covid tests did, so it wasn’t painful at all. Within an hour we came back positive. I had to miss five days of work, and my wife had to miss two in addition to going home early the prior two days, but we observed all quarantine requirements we were given.

My symptoms were mostly cold-like throughout the disease’s course. I did have noticeable fatigue and brain fog while infected, but I didn’t lose taste or smell, and I didn’t have any fever, aches, or chills. My wife wasn’t as lucky. Her symptoms were more flu-like along with partial loss of taste and voice. Our daughter fortunately rebounded rather quickly. By the time we got tested, she was acting normal with a little coughing here and there. All of us are doing much better right now.

I would like to close by saying that this proves that the vaccines might not completely prevent you from getting sick, but as my wife and I both came out of this with no lasting damage, I feel this shows that they definitely help keep you from getting severely sick, hospitalized, or worse.