It is probably nothing.

I woke up dreaming that I was coughing only to find I actually was coughing. Suddenly I went from groggy to wide awake. I had a slight itch in my chest.

“It’s probably nothing.”

But try as I might, I could not get back to sleep. My thoughts started racing....” What if.....? What if this is NOT “nothing”? What if this is SOMETHING?”

Fourteen days ago, I was still working in the office. I had an offsite meeting midday with another company that had four people in attendance. We were still in the awkward “Do we shake hands or bump elbows stage?” Two people waved, one person bumped elbows and one person shook my hand and pointed me to the hand sanitizer afterwards.

Conferences had just started to get shut down earlier in the week. The term “social distancing” had only been in the news for a few days. The government and CDC were recommending no gatherings of over 250 people. Companies were being encouraged to move to increased telework.

Both of my daughter's and their families came to the house for our regular Thursday night dinner. My older daughter concerned she might go into labor before her sister's birthday dinner brought a honey bun cake for her sister.to wish her an early happy birthday. 

Thirteen days ago my youngest daughter’s house went up for sale. Because of her medical challenges, we decided that she and her family should move in with us for the weekend. This way she could be isolated from buyers while the house was being shown. It seemed smarter than cleaning her house after every showing. We knew we needed to be careful, because of her medical issues, but even then we were debating if that was necessary. 

Twelve days ago, we held the official “birthday” dinner - Thanksgiving in March. We skipped inviting “Army family and friends,” because we were “social distancing,” but both daughter's and their families were in attendance. 

Eleven days ago, DoD halted all travel for troops. They started recommending no gatherings of more than 100 people. My daughter sold her house and moved back home. 

Ten days ago I spent a full day in the office. I made the decision to move to full time teleworking. We were not able to install my VPN that day, so I would need to go back in the next morning one more time.  

Nine days ago, I spent half a day in the office and stopped at Wegmans grocery store on the way home. I made an Irish dinner for my youngest daughters family. I learned they would induce my oldest daughter the next morning. 

Eight days ago, my first granddaughter was born. No visitors other than one support partner could go to the hospital. Recommendations for gatherings had dropped to 10 or under.

Seven days ago. I only saw my husband. Parts of the country were instituting shelter in place injunctions.

Six days ago, my oldest daughter came home with her baby. The doctors said to keep visitors down, but family could see her if they were not sick. We went for a short visit. I held the baby. We ordered in dinner from our local restaurant and two army family friends joined us. We didn’t hug as we normally would. We kept space between us.

Five days ago, I watched my granddaughter all day while my daughter was back in the ER.

Four days ago we started ordering groceries to be delivered.

Three days ago my husband moved to full time telework.

Since then we have teleworked, waved to neighbors and taken long walks outside to get fresh air and a change of scenery.

In the light of day, it became clear my cough was just my allergies, but the experience brought a different level of awareness to the issue for me.

A person can remain asymptomatic for up to fourteen days. During that period the person can shed the virus. None of us at this point can know without a test that we are not already infected. 

And that is exactly the point. Who have YOU exposed in the last fourteen days? It is probably nothing, but what if....