General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGot tested today. It is NOT that bad!!
I kept hearing how horrible it was, swab up the nose as far as it will go, etc. Well, yes, they do stick a swab up your nose right up to your nasopharynx and then they wiggle it around for 10 seconds, but it's not that bad. It's not pleasant and you can certainly feel it but it doesn't last that long. Mostly, it makes you want to sneeze.
So for anyone who is putting off testing because they heard the test was bad--you'll be fine. Do it.
onecaliberal
(32,888 posts)FBaggins
(26,757 posts)onecaliberal
(32,888 posts)Trying desperately to get tested and have been told they dont meet the criteria. This is a common story in this city
FBaggins
(26,757 posts)The symptoms are common to lots of viruses.
Almost half of those tested in NY have been positive for the virus... but the other 55% or so have been sick enough to qualify for the test... its just that they were sick with something else.
Here in NC, thats the vast majority of even those who qualified to be tested.
onecaliberal
(32,888 posts)California has tested the least of almost anywhere. Its no surprise this is a minority majority county.
There are ZERO test sites in the entire county. ZERO.
tazkcmo
(7,300 posts)No or inadequate testing. It's why we're all at home.
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)And the thing is, I KNOW I don't have it. I told the doctor that I only had a URI with an asthma flare but he still isolated me. I can either wait another five days to go back to work or I can get tested, so I opted for the test. Plus, there was another employee in the same boat as I am and for some reason they wouldn't order a test for her. It seems so arbitrary. I don't understand.
onecaliberal
(32,888 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)onecaliberal
(32,888 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)People have got to advocate for themselves from here on out.
onecaliberal
(32,888 posts)MFM008
(19,818 posts)Ordered 3 for me.
Covid.
Strep
Flu.
I had been fighting something off for 3 weeks.
Felt worse today.
My son had strep so if its anything i hope thats it
Wont know till tues or weds on covid.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,403 posts)Merlot
(9,696 posts)Skittles
(153,182 posts)RhodeIslandOne
(5,042 posts)Its the prep that sucks.
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)Skittles
(153,182 posts)maybe if they scraped your nostril with a fingernail file
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)a la izquierda
(11,797 posts)My doc says I'm a poor candidate for an IUD as a result.
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)I was half-joking with comparison, it's only the process that's similar.
Skittles
(153,182 posts)BusyBeingBest
(8,059 posts)It's not open to the general asymptomatic public who doesn't work in healthcare.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)I'll just stay hunkered down for now. I get nosebleeds pretty easily from my medications, no sense in inviting one.
kairos12
(12,869 posts)think to make the numbers low to placate Trump.
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)The testing center called me yesterday and gave me a choice of three times they had available; once booked they told me where to show up, although I already knew. They have a tent sent up on the outside of the clinic. I must say it was extremely well organized. I drove up, parked where it said to, and called the number on the sign at the parking place. They told me to go to the opening of the tent and wait for a couple of minutes. A nurse came out to make sure I was masked, squirted some hand sanitizer on my palms and escorted me inside. They took my B/P, temp, pulse ox level, and the doctor asked me a few questions. The nurse told me to sit in a recliner and explained exactly what she was going to do. I was in and out in less than five minutes. They only take in one patient at a time. Everyone was real nice and supportive.
kairos12
(12,869 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)One thing that concerns me a little: I haven't been that active this week since I'm under the weather and isolating. When I got back home from my three mile, twenty-minute trip, I was exhausted. Wonder how I'll do putting in an 8-hour day at work now?
Hotler
(11,443 posts)I guess I'll run up to Walgreens and get it. I'll report back.
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Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)Part of me wonders if it's because they want my ass back at work ASAP.
Hotler
(11,443 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)That is likely it - they want you back working.
I hope you are ok!
So, do you remain in quarantine until result is in? How long do you have to wait for results?
I read today CDC has revised reporting guidelines to include clinical symptoms, I think with a requirement of possible exposure.
Keeping you in healing thoughts!
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)The 20 minutes (total) I spent going to get the test was the first time I've been out of the house or yard in what seems like forever. If the test comes back negative--and I know it will--I can go back Monday. I miss my co-workers, so I'll be glad to return even though it's stressful because, well, it's a clinic.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)I'm.glad to know you are certain you don't have it! Scary stuff! Stay well.
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)BTW, how many doggos do you have?
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)1 pit 🐶 & 1 🐯 (the queen lol)
you?
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)One is my 12-year-old deaf rescue, a Catahoula (my soul mate); and the other, I still call the puppy even though she's 2-1/2, is a mix of what looks like border collie and sheltie. She's the first hearing dog I've had in twenty years. My first deaf rescue, an Aussie/heeler mix, died a few years ago at 15. I also have a kitty cat who hates and torments both dogs.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)She looks so disgusted with him...indescribable, but I'm sure you know "the look."
Awesome that you have your soul mate & another -- part Sheltie 😍. And that you have deaf dogs. I've never known a deaf dog. It must be different living with them. Is their eyesight stronger to compensate?
Sorry to hear about loss of your pup too. 😢
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)And they are 10x more observant. They will watch you like a hawk and know your physical queues in no time flat. You train them with hand signals instead of voice and they catch on quickly. They bark less and respond to visual incongruences instead of sounds. I'd forgotten what it's like to have a hearing dog and as much as I love my puppers, she will be my last non-deaf rescue, because, the barking! My God, the barking drives me crazy. She's just being a dog, but it is so loud.
onecaliberal
(32,888 posts)Having been tested, they are putting me and my immunocompromised husband at risk and who knows who else. Im sorry but its a risk I am NOT willing to take. We dont know who really has had it or where it is if we are not testing.
Caliman73
(11,744 posts)I got tested yesterday. It was painful but as Laffy said, brief. It is good to know that you do not have the virus. I have been having respiratory issues in the last week but no fever. Yesterday I developed a low grade fever. They checked everything and based on my symptoms they were reasonably sure I did not have it, but because I have some health risks, they tested me to be sure.
I came back negative which is a relief. I was more worried about my family who is stuck in the house with me.
It is worth it despite the discomfort. I also got a strep swab so got it in my nose and my throat. Not Fun!
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)Wow! They told me 2-4 days. Anyway, glad got you got tested and are clear. I hope you feel better soon. This is a good time just chill and rest.
winstars
(4,220 posts)I never heard that it was "bad" either.
But thanks for sharing your experience with us...
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)I meant not wanting to get tested. I have a co-worker who decided against the test after exposure when she learned what the test entailed. I texted her today right after my test to tell her it wasn't so bad. She replied this evening that she had contacted her provider to say she'd changed her mind, but they won't order her test now because she returned to work a week ago following her quarantine and she's not symptomatic. She missed her chance.
winstars
(4,220 posts)dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)swabbing your brain.
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)You know what it reminds me--and this is kind of weird--but it reminds me of a Pap test, except at the opposite end. Paps are unpleasant but don't last long. And at least with the COVID test, you can leave your pants on, LOL.
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)my way not to look at the Gyn. office.
DFW
(54,436 posts)Just today it was announced in Düsseldorf (the adjacent big city to us) that testing was up to 800 people a day. That means in about three years, if they don't take weekends or holidays off, they'll have been able to test almost everybody!
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)Soon, I think, we'll be able to be tested for antibodies.
DFW
(54,436 posts)Either a way is found to test on a much greater scale than is now possible, and with quicker results, or the world's economy will collapse.
Eight weeks ago, I could travel to any place in Europe or North America, stay in any hotel that had room, eat at any restaurant that had a free table, and go visit anyone I wanted to.
Today, I can't leave my little German town. Most hotels in Europe and North America are closed, and so are the restaurants. Offices and manufacturing facilities are either on reduced schedules or closed altogether, and many medical facilitiies are operating well beyond their human and material capacity.
Current statistics on infection and fatalities are the equivalent of standing at the edge of a forest and saying you can see and count the number of trees there are in it.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,856 posts)It definitely surprised me in the past, when a nurse stuck it so deep in my nose, but it really wasnt that bad.
A little forewarning from that nurse wouldve been nice, thats all.
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)I've never had an influenza test, although I bet it's the same.
Demsrule86
(68,643 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)I bet some testers are more gentle than others.
Gothmog
(145,489 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)Gothmog
(145,489 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)It sounds better and is not as frequent.
Flaleftist
(3,473 posts)I'm not sure that they were testing, but it was a swab up the nose. There is a picture going around that makes it appear more unpleasant than is really is.