And it's here... The Coronavirus...
So, Friday afternoon Leena was just out and about, running errands. She saw there was no line outside the nearby urgent care clinic by our apartment and just went in to ask how quick it is to get a COVID-19 test and if it's free. It was, with our insurance, so she scheduled one for Monday afternoon.
Monday afternoon she went out for her 3pm test. She described it as a terrible experience. She checked in and was put into a stuffy exam room. And nothing happened. Nobody came, she just waited. Finally when she opened the door to ask someone if she could wait with the door open, someone realized she was in there.
The test itself was quick and easy, if mildly uncomfortable.
Then Monday night, after I went to bed, she developed a stomach ache, a sore throat and a fever.
Tuesday morning I got up as usual to begin my workday and she felt horrible. She had some Tylenol and went back to sleep. The rest of Tuesday she was clearly sick.
Around 3pm on Tuesday she got an email from the urgent care clinic that she had a 5pm telehealth call with the clinic's doctor, which made no sense as she hadn't requested one and she was afraid they'd charge us hundreds of dollars for it.
Then she saw she also had an email with the test results... In big bold red letters it said the coronavirus was "DETECTED". Then I guessed that the 5pm telehealth call was probably required by the doctor to discuss the positive test with her.
We put together a list of questions to ask the doctor about Leena's condition, about what we should do to take care of her, about what I should do regarding my own upcoming doctor visits, and so forth...
Only at 5pm we got into the telehealth website the email linked to, and waited. And waited. And waited some more. By 5:20pm the doctor never signed in and Leena gave up. She's less patient than I am, and she was sick.
After that she called the clinic and gave a rough overview of the situation to the receptionist who said she'd get a doctor on the phone. And Leena waited and waited and waited, for nearly an hour on hold without ever getting the doctor. So she gave up.
Today she's feeling much improved, talking with a lot more energy. I think her sore throat is mostly gone, and the fever is more mild than it was yesterday.
I've scheduled a test for myself for tomorrow morning to see if I might have it, since I've definitely now been exposed to it as we live in a tiny apartment.
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Follow up Friday afternoon... I got my test results: Negative.
And I keep thinking of the band W.A.S.P. with their Live... In the Raw album. It's got a short sequence in the song I Wanna Be Somebody where Blackie Lawless leads the crowd in a bit of "audience participation". They do a bad job so he admonishes them, "What, are you guys sick or something? I'm supposed to be the sick motherfucker around here." Well, after all my heart related exams and appointments recently, it's not Leena, it's me, "I'm supposed to be the sick motherfucker around here," not her...
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