After successfully evading COVID-19 for almost two years, the nasty virus hit my family last week.

The first inkling that something was amiss came when my husband came home and said, “I think I have a tickle in my throat,” followed by a couple of coughs.

Sure enough, an at-home rapid test came back positive. I’ll admit I didn’t handle the news in the best way I could. For all my posturing and tough talk, truth be told I was scared. I was scared not just for my husband, who is in fine health and has two shots of Pfizer under his belt, but also for our walking germ factory — I mean, our beautiful little 18-month-old daughter.

We immediately decided to sequester ourselves. He was quarantined to the sick ward, known outside times of crisis as the family room, while the toddler and I began isolation upstairs. Our quarters were somewhat accommodating, and as a family, we agreed the kitchen was permissible as a shared space as long as proper sanitizing practices were followed.

The next five days melded into each other, a steady stream of phone calls for work, rescheduling appointments and interviews and trying out new recipes with items found in our pantry. If nothing else good came from our time in isolation, at least I can now make a mean Thai-spiced ramen.

My poor husband had one bad night of fever and nausea before his symptoms mostly abated. Still battling fatigue, I’m sure he enjoyed the excuse to watch far too many episodes of “South Park” and the extra time to finish filing our taxes.

The toddler fared mostly well as I was reduced to my only line of defense: Endless hours of Disney Plus. Truly, in times of crisis, I wonder why the streaming service isn’t FSA eligible. She also may or may not have eaten an entire bag of yogurt bites on one particular day when my resolve was at its weakest.

Miraculously, she and I did not contract COVID-19, which we confirmed at the end of isolation. Words can’t describe how thankful I am that neither she nor I are worse for the wear health-wise.

The events of the past week upended nearly all our plans, but I am grateful that it wasn’t worse. All jokes aside, COVID-19 can be very serious and we are lucky that the only lingering side-effect is a little cabin fever. While it’s up to each of us to make our own decision when it comes to managing coronavirus and protecting ourselves, I do think my husband’s mild bout with the disease and my narrow miss of it was due to us being vaccinated and boosted.

Take it as you will, but to me, that’s a personal testimony to the shot’s effectiveness.