The million dollar question on our minds during this quarantine is whether Jackson had Covid-19 when he was hospitalized earlier this year. Despite countless tests, he never came up positive for anything and no one was testing for Covid-19 when he was in the hospital. We’ve had a few telemedicine visits over the last few weeks and his doctors have told us the same thing: it’s possible but not likely.

Some articles have come out recently describing Covid-19 symptoms in children, many of which Jackson exhibited while he was in the hospital: persistent fevers, swelling and redness, rapid heart rate and breathing, weak pulse, and cardiac issues. However, these symptoms are also associated with septic shock, which Jackson definitely went into in February. Another factor against Covid-19 is that we live in the Midwest and not on either coast, which makes the possibility of him having Covid-19 weaker as it came to the Midwest after New York and California.

We also asked if Jackson could get the antibody test and were told that the antibody tests have up to a 20% error rate and they test for all the coronaviruses, not specifically for Covid-19. Therefore, an antibody test wouldn’t lead to any conclusive results.

What does this mean for our family? It means that we continue quarantining as best as we can as Jackson is high risk and there is not currently a treatment or vaccine. I have established all of our home delivery services and we have become well versed in no contact pickup. We only go out to get Jackson’s medicine through the pharmacy drive through or to get groceries via Click List.

Because we are home 24/7, we have been able to work with Jackson more and he’s stronger than when he was discharged from the hospital in March. For example, we get him in the stander everyday for 45-60 minutes. He also has remote school, PT and music therapy every week.

His hips got really tight while he was inpatient because he was always on his back. His hips got so tight that it was hard to straighten out his legs. We did not give him tummy time when we first got home because we were preoccupied with the bipap and taking care of Jackson in general. But, thanks to the suggestion of his physical therapist, we are now giving him tummy time during his afternoon naps and active tummy time while awake, which has helped loosen up the hips and increase his range of motion. When we first came home, he could not hold his head up at all while on his tummy. However, he’s now able to lift his head by himself, look around and hold his head up unassisted for a few minutes.

For now, we continue to quarantine. It is hard at times to stay in, but we have to do what’s best for our family as I hope to never go through what we did during Jackson’s last hospital stay. To say that I’m a bit traumatized would be an understatement. We also continue to read all of the Covid-19 articles and hope that a vaccine comes out sooner rather than later.