You've got to be on top of your game to pull off a fish in cycle without stressing the fish. It's a real balancing act between keeping your ammonia low enough to not stress the fish too much, but have enough to actually get your cycle started. Daily testing, partial water changes and prime, to detoxify, are your friends at this point. It seems you didn't do yourself any favours by leaving someone else in charge for a week at such a critical point. I think you can count yourself pretty lucky thus far.Fighting a bit of a nitrite spike at the moment, not quite sure how people do this without constant testing. Was gone for a week and had someone who left a bunch of decaying tilapia in the tank. Fish were all breathing very heavy. To make matters worst they did a water change by vacuuming the substrate which I’m assuming destroyed any beneficial bacteria in the tank. Pretty much a disaster recipe, did a 50% water change and added prime/stability again. Removed one of the more valuable fish to a temporary tank until the nitrite level decreases. Definitely will not be doing a fish cycle again but I guess that means I’m learning something!
All you can do at this point now is monitor your parameters very closely. Watch your fish for signs of stress and like I said, partials and prime should see you through. Good luck.