Whenever my son starts to run a fever, it sends me into a panic. 
He is one of those people you hear about in the abstract but maybe not one of the people you know. The term they use to refer to people like him is ?medically fragile??he was born with a rare disease, he has a profound intellectual disability, global developmental delay, and autism.  This doesn?t necessarily mean he?s ?in poor health??rather, it means there are underlying, complicating factors that could take something that seems innocent and simple?like a childhood fever?and turn it into something really bad. 
Which is why being Isaiah?s mom has always necessitated a hyper-vigilance matched only by the collective paranoia of parents everywhere in the beginning, when this pandemic hit first. Remember the early days of lockdown, punctuated by dried and cracked skin from the excessive hand washing and worrying at the first sign of a sniffle or a cough"  I?ve always had to fret like that, wondering what common thing may lurk around the corner to hurt him. I?ve always had to wonder how the challenges his own body faces each day may prevent him from recovering from some typical childhood illness. We?ve been worrying for nearly eleven years, without interruption.  So when the pandemic started and we had to mostly stay home and be super cautious when we did go out, and we had to assess and reassess risk?it was nothing new.
And it was nice?heartwarming even?to see people and parents actually come together ...