FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — The last three weeks have been a roller coaster for one Northern Virginia family dealing with the ups and downs of the coronavirus.
Fairfax County resident Liz Eads is a single mother who cares for five children between the ages of 6 and 15.
On April 14, Eads said her youngest child, Cyrus, tested positive for COVID-19. After that, Eads and three of her other children also began showing symptoms of the deadly disease.
"Yes, this sucks, so, so much," Eads said. "But, I have good insurance and I have good doctors and I have good support, and I have great kids."
Cyrus was born with a rare genetic disorder called recombinant fourth chromosome. As a result, the 6-year-old is immunocompromised.
"What that means for Cyrus is, basically, none of his organs are where they're supposed to be," she said. "They don't do what they're supposed to do."
Over Easter weekend, as first reported by InsideNoVa.com, Cyrus started to show symptoms of a sickness.
His mother, a former combat veteran, said there were blood clots the size of Cyrus' fingers in his vomit.
"And, I was really concerned about that," Eads said.
A local hospital first thought Cyrus had acid reflux. Eads then decided to take her son to his care team at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
"First thing in the morning, they called me right after they did rounds and they informed me that he had tested positive for adenovirus, enterovirus, and rhinovirus," she said.
But, then, a little later, Eads said she got another call.
"I get a phone call from Walter Reed saying, 'Hey, we just incidentally did a test for COVID, and you should know that (Cyrus) came up positive,'" she said.
Eads said she initially freaked out when she learned her son, who she calls a social butterfly, had contracted the coronavirus.
"When I dropped him off on the 14th, I cried and cried and cried," she said. "I couldn't stop crying until I got him home, because I genuinely believed that I would not be able to see him again."
Luckily, Cyrus recovered.
But then, the rest of his family began showing symptoms of the disease.
"It gets kind of weird, like you would expect that it would be devastating for him, but it wasn't," she said. "But, my teenager, she couldn't leave her bed for a week."
Eads said her 12- and 15-year-old children were feverish and could not eat food. Her 11-year-old was cranky, tired and suffered from diarrhea.
Eads said only one of her children has not shown symptoms of the disease to date.
"My 7-year-old, nothing, and still to this day, nothing," she said.
Eads said all of her children eventually started to improve, but last Tuesday she began to feel sick as well.
She said she started to cough after taking Cyrus to a follow-up appointment at Walter Reed.
"And, then, by Friday, I spiked to 102.5 (degree fever)," she said.
The Eads family stayed indoors, under quarantine, after Cyrus' initial diagnosis and the other kids' subsequent illnesses. Eads said the situation only became more complicated when she got sick.
"I'm a person of faith, and God put it on me to take care of these children," she said.
However, in Eads’ time of need, the community around her family would step up to the plate.
"I've had meals showing up at my house every day or every other day," she said.
The Eads have gotten help from their friends at Floris United Methodist Church. Eads' boss at Youth for Tomorrow even dropped off care packages for the family.
Still, Eads said she is curious how the disease got into her home.
She said after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued a stay-at-home order for the Commonwealth in March, her family followed it to a tee.
"It could have come in on a package," Eads said.
As Eads tries her best to recover from the disease, she asks that the public continue to take it seriously.
She said she cannot understand why some people choose not to listen to the advice of medical experts.
"We took all the precautions," she said. "So, I think the idea that people can go out and throw all of that (information) to the wind, like it doesn't matter, it's appalling to me."