Hantavirus, loss of work, and vacation
Took a week off from work on early April because I began feeling symptoms after working on a few things in my garage. Long story short, I had to clean some stuff off the top floor of the garage. As I was cleaning up there, a bunch of little black dots kept falling on me. I didn’t make anything of it at the time so I just kept going and going.
Fast forward 2 hours later, i find myself googling what it can be and low and behold, it’s most likely mouse/rat feces. I was disgusted, distraught and puzzled. I began to panic. I immediately told my boss who told me I was to take a week off work and to not worry. And so I did.
Around day 6 of my first week off, I began feeling a bit of a headache so I immediately told my
Boss and he told me I was to take another week. Turns out the headache was just routine. The second week was almost over and I almost retuned back to work in mid April.
But, I actually have a sleep walking problem and so I woke up in the garage one night without even thinking. Immediately, I knew I had to take another 2 weeks off because I don’t know if I came in contact with the poop again.
So now it’s a months since I last go in to work and I had to tell my boss that I actually did get sick. To tell him the truth, that I actually went back into the garage and found feces on me again would be an alternative I was not ready to explore.
It is now early May, and at this point, my boss is waiting for me at work. I text him and tell him, listen, like I’m sorry I’ve missed so much work and that’s when he says it’s alright. Next thing I know, I realize i actually had a 2 weeks off vacation planned for May. I took the two weeks off. Vacation was great; got to spend time with my wife, her boyfriend and family. However, the least expected thing ever happened.
We were getting ready to pack things up to return back home. I went into the garage to pack my bags because that’s where we had left things at. Again. at this point I’m not sure I’ll ever step into a garage again. I took the flight back and promised this was the last 2 weeks I’d take off work ever. So now it’s June.
It is now almost July and I decided to take June off and call it a summer break. The boss hasn’t texted me since mid May but I actually can’t wait to go back to work. Just thought I’d share my story to see if anyone has gone through something similar.