Corona - what does help you? Your fears, thoughts, everything

[Front-Ranger]

Oh no! I'll be sending healing thoughts for Tina. Great strides have been made in the treatment of cancer for humans as well as animals. No one I know who has had cancer has died in the past 10 years or so. If you have a diagnosis back before your son's exam, my opinion is you should go ahead and tell him. He's already thinking the worst as it is. Young people don't have the same ideas as we older ones do about illnesses. Although this is just a hunch...but maybe your son is reflecting back to the previous pet's demise. I believe you had a dog before Tina, correct?

[Penthesilea]

And your poor son, preparing for his final exams while your dog is sick 
If you do get bad news on the 6th, can you instead tell him that the vet still doesn't know any specifics?
I don't mean that lying is a good thing in general, but in this case it would be just to help him keep focused on the 7th.

Holding back the news is not an option. Jan 7th is just his first of three final exams (in his three advanced subjects). They stretch out from 7th to 17th, with an additional oral exam in March.
So it's not only about one day, but from 6th to 17th would be eleven days.

Good luck to all of you 

Thank you.

Oh no! I'll be sending healing thoughts for Tina. Great strides have been made in the treatment of cancer for humans as well as animals. No one I know who has had cancer has died in the past 10 years or so. If you have a diagnosis back before your son's exam, my opinion is you should go ahead and tell him. He's already thinking the worst as it is. Young people don't have the same ideas as we older ones do about illnesses. Although this is just a hunch...but maybe your son is reflecting back to the previous pet's demise. I believe you had a dog before Tina, correct?

Yes, we had a dog before Tina. My son was 7 when our first dog died very suddenly.
Like I already explained to Sonja, I have to tell him before the exam, there's no way around it. But I will try to soften the blow as much as I can and still stay truthful.
Today I focused on telling my children that most mammal tumors in dogs are of the less bad kind, and they metastatize relatively late in the game. Which is true, so nothing is "too late" as of yet.




One small positive news, and even on topic: these days I'm testing regularly for Covid and so far all is negative. The contact to my cowerker is four days back now.
We had two children with Covid last week and so far said coworker is the only one infected. He is one of two unvaccinated coworkers I have.

[serious crayons]

Our family celebrated a split Christmas this year. My son and my ex-husband tested positive. Jack and I had recently tested negative. So the two sides stayed in different apartments and celebrated separately. Cy's and Mike's COVID so far has been like a bad cold. They're up and about. They felt good enough on Saturday to go to a friend of Mike's who also has COVID, also feels pretty good. They ate Christmas dinner and watched a movie.

Meanwhile, Jack and I enjoyed a really nice quiet Christmas. I bought a bunch of fun appetizers -- smoked salmon spread, pate, salami, cheeses, crackers, etc. I had supplies for a fancy but simple dinner but instead we decided to honor our nonexistent Jewish heritage and get takeout Chinese. Because I so rarely see Jack, in some ways it was nicer than having a whole family thing. The next day we went out to a nice brunch and then Jack drove back to Chicago.



Chrissi, I'm so sorry to hear about Tina! Sending healing thoughts! I still often walk into my apartment and expect to have Charlie run out and greet me. His ashes arrived in the mail the other day. I have a few ideas of where to scatter them when spring comes.

[CellarDweller]

Chrissi, I'm so sorry to hear about the news of Tina.  fingers crossed and prayers sent.

[Sason]

Holding back the news is not an option. Jan 7th is just his first of three final exams (in his three advanced subjects). They stretch out from 7th to 17th, with an additional oral exam in March.
So it's not only about one day, but from 6th to 17th would be eleven days.

I see. Well, in that case I wish him best of luck and that he'll be able to focus on the exams no matter the result from the vet.

And best of luck to Tina too, that the tumor is benign.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I just checked, and I cannot believe my employer is still going forward with the plan to reopen our offices on Monday, but there has been no announcement to the contrary on the company intranet homepage.

My mind is made up. I'm not going back, even though I said I would. Maybe once the omicron surge passes, but not now.

[CellarDweller]

We were supposed to be going back to 'hybrid' (two days in office, the rest from home) and we were told that is not happening now.

[Penthesilea]

Thank you all for your thoughts on Tina and my son (I know it's the wrong thread here).


Re my contact to a Covid-positive coworker: I'm through with that. I tested every other day for a week and am now in the clear.

[Penthesilea]

I just checked, and I cannot believe my employer is still going forward with the plan to reopen our offices on Monday, but there has been no announcement to the contrary on the company intranet homepage.

Hm. "reopen the offices" - does that mean you have to go back into the office, or that you can go back to the office, if you choose to?

My mind is made up. I'm not going back, even though I said I would. Maybe once the omicron surge passes, but not now.

Sounds like the latter (can go, don't have to). Then it's all good, isn't it? Or do you think coworkers will head into the offices in droves?
As you know I have a job that can't be done from home. But if I could, I would totally work from home, especially now with the omicron surge on the horizon, like you said.

The omicron wave is not yet fully here, we're some weeks behind the US.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Hm. "reopen the offices" - does that mean you have to go back into the office, or that you can go back to the office, if you choose to?

Sounds like the latter (can go, don't have to). Then it's all good, isn't it? Or do you think coworkers will head into the offices in droves?
As you know I have a job that can't be done from home. But if I could, I would totally work from home, especially now with the omicron surge on the horizon, like you said.

We were given the opportunity of returning to the office full time, continuing to work at home full time, or doing some combination of office and home. This morning I notified my supervisor that I will not be returning to the office on Monday.

I still can't believe they're not deferring the reopening. I made it clear that I'm changing my plan because I'd have to take public transportation during rush hour.

Incidentally, I did a home test a few hours ago, and the result was negative. (My God, that sounds like talking about an HIV test. ...)