Social distancing for couples

[Ronstar]

I moved to the guest room about a month ago when I was felling a little ill. I use a different bathroom than DW and generally stay at least 6' from her. But I'm thinking of moving back to the master bedroom and taking my chances.

Has anyone here moved away from their spouse/SO/partner and children? If so, when are you moving back?

 

[Midpack]

Not so far, and I hope it doesn't come to that, but I know it could be necessary. We're suffering from cabin fever more with each passing week, if we didn't have each other, it would be much worse. I can't imagine being single AND isolated.

I have a few friends who are still regularly babysitting grandkids (one friend's daughter is an ER doc, she probably couldn't manage without my friend babysitting his grandkids), though all involved know there are risks with that. We don't have kids, grandkids, so we don't have to confront that decision.

 

[Sunset]

No social distancing from my DW..... I'm worried she might get used to it and lock the door when I go out for the mail

 

[GravitySucks]

DM is living with me for a month now. She's moving back in with DS today and DGF, who I haven't seen in a month, will be visiting. Greatly increases my exposure as she works with a health care essential employee, but I'm willing to risk it.
Doing another large shopping trip before she visits to cut down exposing others.

 

[Montecfo]

We have made plans of how we would isolate if either gets sick, and even if both do. Have not had to implement them.

 

[blueskyk]

We are preparing for the possibility should one of us fall ill. The plan is one of us would retire to the RV next to the garage for a self-contained living area.

 

[jollystomper]

We have stayed healthy and have not had to consciously social distance. However, our house is large enough and our main individual interests are on different floors, so some days we might not interact very much other than some meals and and conscious joint activity.

If one of us becomes ill, we would isolate similarly to what we did when one of us got the flu in the past. DW would stay in the bedroom or her study and use the master bedroom bathroom, I would stay in man cave in basement which has a daybed and use the 1st floor bathroom. Bottled liquids to stay hydrated on each floor, and we would figure out a way to get meals without being close to each other.

 

[Aerides]

We have a plan: master bed/bath will become the isolation domain for the patient. Healthy person gets the rest of the house, and is in charge of all meals and anything else the sick person might need. Will wear one of our 2 old N95's we found under the sink during any interactions if needed for care giving.

 

[harley]

I moved to the guest room about a month ago when I was felling a little ill. I use a different bathroom than DW and generally stay at least 6' from her. But I'm thinking of moving back to the master bedroom and taking my chances.

Has anyone here moved away from their spouse/SO/partner and children? If so, when are you moving back?

We do this regularly when one of us gets a cold or the flu. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But neither of us have had any issues during the past month or so, so we haven't implemented it. I did have a minor worry about a month ago, but it just turned out to be allergies and sore muscles from yard work.

 

[REWahoo]

We have a plan: master bed/bath will become the isolation domain for the patient. Healthy person gets the rest of the house, and is in charge of all meals and anything else the sick person might need. Will wear one of our 2 old N95's we found under the sink during any interactions if needed for care giving.

That's our plan as well starting mid May. If I become ill during the next 30 days or so I'll move into the RV and turn the house over to DW. That won't work come late May when the one AC we can run in the RV can't keep up with the afternoon temp. Wish I had a 50A hook-up instead of only 30A.

 

[MRG]

No. I guess we could the upstairs is a second master. DW has had a cold for the past 9 days and I haven't kicked her out. One day, before I realized how sick she was, I joked about taking her down to a 100' cliff if she had the virus, I've since backed off.

I've been fighting her cold off and don't think I'm going to get it.

 

[ivinsfan]

Just a hypothetical question for couples only. Not a couple that has kids still at home. If one of you gets COVID and seems to be doing OK with as is not in the ICU, would your life together going forward be better if both of you got it? If not the one that doesn't get it remains stuck at home and the recovered one is de facto stuck at home as well.

Now I'm not saying you should try to catch it from your partner, but asking would it be a bad thing or a good thing in your mind? We generally go to separate beds when sick, the main reason is good sleep for both of us...

 

[youbet]

If I get COVID-19:

1. If free/cheap accommodations for quarantining are available from the county health department (two nice hotels are in use now), I'll go. I wouldn't go, if I could avoid it, to a mass housing situation like they have built at McCormick Place (temporary dividers and cots). The advantage would be having a medical professional around who might recognize if it becomes necessary for you to be moved to an inpatient status at a real hospital or even to the IC unit plus total isolation from DW who is vulnerable.

2. We have the camper set up in the driveway. I'd have the camper and the garage.

3. We have a guest bedroom and separate bath.

I'll have to chat with DW about this to see what her preferred course of action would be if she contracts the virus. I'm guessing I'd go to the camper/garage and she'd have the house.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Sometimes when sick one of us sleeps in the guest room. But since my son returned from Vietnam he is there.

 

[Aerides]

Just a hypothetical question for couples only. Not a couple that has kids still at home. If one of you gets COVID and seems to be doing OK with as is not in the ICU, would your life together going forward be better if both of you got it? If not the one that doesn't get it remains stuck at home and the recovered one is de facto stuck at home as well.

Now I'm not saying you should try to catch it from your partner, but asking would it be a bad thing or a good thing in your mind? We generally go to separate beds when sick, the main reason is good sleep for both of us...

If one of you gets sick, I'd recommend the other stay healthy and avoid them until it's well gone - from the reports I've read the illness can last several weeks, and ebbs/flows - you can feel like you're on the mend and then get a new wave. And even in non-hospitalized cases, it can be quite debilitating.

But I guess in theory, at the end of all this, and before a vaccine, then you do raise the interesting point - the now-potentially-immune partner can reenter life normally, which the other has to continue precautions.

Even without getting sick, I think there are going to be partners with different risk tolerance levels. Quite sure my DH will want to continue to stay home as much as physically possible, whereas I'll be open to some occasional careful outings, and probably ready to travel before he's comfortable with the idea.

 

[ivinsfan]

If one of you gets sick, I'd recommend the other stay healthy and avoid them until it's well gone - from the reports I've read the illness can last several weeks, and ebbs/flows - you can feel like you're on the mend and then get a new wave. And even in non-hospitalized cases, it can be quite debilitating.

But I guess in theory, at the end of all this, and before a vaccine, then you do raise the interesting point - the now-potentially-immune partner can reenter life normally, which the other has to continue precautions.

Even without getting sick, I think there are going to be partners with different risk tolerance levels. Quite sure my DH will want to continue to stay home as much as physically possible, whereas I'll be open to some occasional careful outings, and probably ready to travel before he's comfortable with the idea.

I'm not suggesting that someone would try catch it just if when all is said and done you can have 2 uninfected, 2 infected and one infected and one not, which would be a whole different ballgame.

 

[ivinsfan]

If I get COVID-19:

1. If free/cheap accommodations for quarantining are available from the county health department (two nice hotels are in use now), I'll go. I wouldn't go, if I could avoid it, to a mass housing situation like they have built at McCormick Place (temporary dividers and cots). The advantage would be having a medical professional around who might recognize if it becomes necessary for you to be moved to an inpatient status at a real hospital or even to the IC unit plus total isolation from DW who is vulnerable.

2. We have the camper set up in the driveway. I'd have the camper and the garage.

3. We have a guest bedroom and separate bath.

I'll have to chat with DW about this to see what her preferred course of action would be if she contracts the virus. I'm guessing I'd go to the camper/garage and she'd have the house.

But it doesn't really make sense for the infected one to say in the house, it's way easier to shut the door of the RV indefinitely when the sick one recovers.

 

[Gumby]

Our normal practice is that when either one of us gets sick, I move to the guest bedroom. We would continue that practice if the sickness were COVID-19. I suppose we would need also to consider separate bathrooms and keep the sick one out of the kitchen.

 

[Midpack]

I'm not suggesting that someone would try catch it just if when all is said and done you can have 2 uninfected, 2 infected and one infected and one not, which would be a whole different ballgame.

It was a fair question and I could argue if one gets it the other almost might as well. But you’d have to be VERY certain neither of you could get a case that requires hospitalization or worse. And I’m not sure anyone 55 or especially 65 or older can predict that? You’d have to be in very good condition, with no health issues, and even then though it’s very rare, a rare few are genetically predisposed to a life threatening case of Covid-19.

 

[ivinsfan]

It was a fair question and I could argue if one gets it the other almost might as well. But you’d have to be VERY certain neither of you could get a case that requires hospitalization or worse. And I’m not sure anyone 55 or older can predict that?

In the case of the first illness it would be an accidental exposure so if you are social distancing anyway and it that's contagious I feel like the second person is kind of SOL anyway.

As I tell my DH as we are wiping down our trunk loaded groceries, if it's this catchy we are going to get it anyway...

 

[Bigdawg]

We do this regularly when one of us gets a cold or the flu. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But neither of us have had any issues during the past month or so, so we haven't implemented it. I did have a minor worry about a month ago, but it just turned out to be allergies and sore muscles from yard work.

^
This. In Feb, prior to COVID being in my county at all, DW got sick. I slept in the guest bedroom for three nights. She was fine and so was I.

Question for the crew: If there was no COVID and your partner got sick would you sleep in the spare bedroom? No difference if you ask me.

 

[ivinsfan]

I deleted it. Even though I think it would be stupid I don't want to come across as accusing others of that sort of behavior.

I deleted mine too so I guess this means the two of us are on here too much..

 

[Bigdawg]

"Come on play nice now, I did say it was hypothetical...chances are both people are going to get it anyway no matter what."

Maybe I didn't catch the context but, do you have a source?

 

[youbet]

But it doesn't really make sense for the infected one to say in the house, it's way easier to shut the door of the RV indefinitely when the sick one recovers.

Yeah, that's a good point. It's just hard to picture DW living in the camper/garage for several weeks without me.

 

[Sojourner]

We are preparing for the possibility should one of us fall ill. The plan is one of us would retire to the RV next to the garage for a self-contained living area.

This is an ideal scenario, with the complete physical isolation of the RV.

But I wonder how any social distancing between living partners could be implemented in such a way to ensure there was no virus transmission during the asymptomatic phase, which, from what I've read, can last for multiple days after infection occurs. Seems like isolating only after the infected person feels poorly enough to say "I'm sick" is like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.