Well, this was not how I had expected to kick off the new year. We had to take an unexpected extra week off from work and an even longer break from childcare thanks to COVID. On top of managing a sick household, there’s little ‘ol me here growing a little human in a broken body with a dodgy pancreas.
First it was the gastro that started on my daughter’s first birthday. Then it was conjunctivitis and a cold from her childcare. All of these somehow skipped her and went straight to me. One weekend my husband woke up with muscle aches, a cracking headache, immense sinus pressure and loss of taste and smell. A rapid antigen test confirmed it was indeed COVID.
Not long after, my daughter and I started developing symptoms. She had a fever, which resolved after a few days and a chesty cough that hung around. I had a dry cough, congestion, headache and lost my smell and taste for a couple of days (yay to not being to smell during those pooey nappy changes!).
A PCR test confirmed that the whole family had covid and we were sent into isolation for seven days. Stupidly I thought I could try and work through this time since my husband was home. It wasn’t until we were 2 hours into waiting at the drive through line for a PCR test panicking that I wasn’t going to make a meeting that I decided work could wait.
I think I’ve been anxious about taking extra time off work because I’ve just returned from maternity leave. A small part of me feels pressured to jump back into the working community just like my pre-baby days. Maybe I feel like I have something to prove about being “that” working mum who does it all. Either way, there’s been a lot of anxiety and angst around my ability to keep up with work. Giving myself permission to be kind to myself has been incredibly difficult and I feel like I have to constantly apologise for postponing meetings and deadlines.
Thankfully all the stress, lack of appetite, and changing hormones balanced out my blood sugar levels. There were only a few days where I had to throw on a temp basal when I was at my sickest. The greatest help during this time was my CGM because there was very little chance I’d have any brain space or time to constantly check my blood sugars manually.
👏🏻 Make. CGM. Available. To. All. People. With. Diabetes. Who. Need. It. 👏🏻
A few people had been asking about how bub is doing. To which I honestly replied “I have no idea”. I’m 17 weeks pregnant now and it’s still a bit early to feel any kicks. The biggest reassurance I was given was that my body will tell me if something is wrong and so far nothing seems out of the ordinary. So don’t worry until you have something to worry about. But it is hard not to have the heart flicker in panic when you hear “has COVID impacted your baby”.
We’ve also been so lucky to have an amazing support network with friends and family dropping off food and supplies to keep us going. The regular check-in’s has been really comforting to not feel so isolated. Looking on the bright side, we were able to spend a bit more time with the family and my little girl practising her first solo steps! It’s not quite the family holiday I had envisioned but I’ll take what I can get at this point in time.
HangryPancreas 
Congratulations, I had not heard the news.