ADA, Mich. — Monica Pierce has been entertaining her three-year-old son these last few days by playing Hot Wheels with him in the house or by allowing him to run around outside with a mask on.
However, it’s been challenging, she said, because he misses his family.
“It’s hard with a three-year-old to isolate,” Monica said while laughing during a Zoom interview with FOX 17 on Monday. “He wants to be with his sisters and he wants to be with his dad. It’s hard for him to have enough things to do. We’re a very active family.”
But lately, little Graham has been quarantining because he tested positive for COVID on News Years Day. The next day Monica got it.
“We’ve been isolating from my daughters who are both vaccinated, and my husband who is vaccinated and boosted,” said Monica, whose girls are 5 years old and 8 years old. “For the past three days they’re living in the basement staying safe and if they have to come upstairs for anything we’re all immediately masked. I get a text saying they’re coming up or a knock at the door and we get our masks on. They come up and get what they need and go back down.”
Monica, who is also vaccinated, said that it’ll be this way for 10 days. That's how long they’re isolating for, which is the recommendation by the state.
“It was hard for me to come to the realization or know that that we had COVID because I worked so darn hard to keep us safe for two years, or almost two years,” Monica said. “So, it was bit soul-crushing to find out that we did have COVID, that there was a breakthrough virus for me and that my son had it despite all the masking that we had done.”
“I’ve been worried about him. I’ve been worried about all my kids, especially before my girls got the vaccine and what it can mean for them if they did contract COVID,” Monica said. “My youngest daughter and my son both have been on a nebulizer before when they’ve been sick. And, I have asthma and so I worried about what that might mean as an underlying condition.”
Monica said since having COVID the first time she’s used her inhaler more. This time around she’s coughed a lot, which is the main symptom Graham had.
However, she said so far they’re faring well. She believes the vaccine is what kept the rest of her family safe, and recommends other parents vaccinate their kids when they are of age.
“And also to continue to wear a mask. I think that’s important too,” she said. “But if you did get COVID or your kids do, at this point in the pandemic I’m hoping that the strain is mild enough that you won’t end up in the hospital. Just hang in there because we’re going to get through this.”
