Got tested for COVID-19 Thursday morning.
Went home for lunch on Tuesday not feeling great but brushing it off as the smoke in the air, even though the far greater quantities during the wildfires of 2017 and 2018 only left me with the occasional sore throat and watery eyes.
By late afternoon Tuesday, however, I was lying in bed exhausted, with a fierce headache and feeling like I had been backed over by a semi.
Slept 10 hours that night after a hot bath and didn’t feel much better the next day but had a good appetite and no problem breathing. Worked from home for the morning and met with the other managers in the afternoon on a previously scheduled conference call. I was told to stay at home and not come back into the office until I had my brain jabbed by someone wearing a face shield and a medical gown.
It’s not actually a brain jab.
It’s more like waterboarding.
Well, no, it’s not that, either.
It’s more like doing a handstand in a pool and the chlorinated water runs into the back of your nose and throat, bringing the pressure of the water and that uncomfortable, unwanted intrusion into your sinuses.
I’m hardly the first to be tested, of course.
As of Wednesday afternoon, nearly 442,000 British Columbians had already been tested at least once for COVID-19, with 7,500 positive cases, which works out to a positive rate of about 1.7 per cent.
We’re so much more sophisticated about the testing process here in Prince George. If you’ve been watching the national news and think you have to physically line up for hours outside or in your car (and then get turned away because testing is finished for the day), that’s not what happens here.
Your wait happens in the comfort of your own home.
After confirming I should be tested when I completed the online self-assessment (bc.thrive.health), I called the Northern Health Online Clinic and Info Line at 1-844-645-7811 and was told there was a long wait ahead and calls were taken in order they were placed.
One hour and 45 minutes of listening to Cirque Du Soleil-style elevator music through the speaker of my cell phone while alternating between games of Wordscapes (1,574 levels completed since March!) and seeing what was happening on Twitter, a live person came on the line.
She asked me a series of questions – name, address, date of birth, personal health number, symptoms and so on – and then said I would get a call from someone the next day for an appointment.
That call came at 1020 Thursday morning for an 1120 appointment. I was told to go to the primary care clinic at Parkwood and wait in my vehicle until I received a call asking to come to the door.
More Wordscapes, more Twitter and then at 1135, the call came.
I was led into an examining room where I was left alone for 10 seconds before the examiner with the gown and the face shield came in. After a conversation less than a minute long about what was about to happen and what it might feel like (some people’s eyes water, some people gasp, gag and/or choke, some even wave their arms around so just close your eyes and relax, I was told), the world’s longest Q-tip was pulled out of a sterile container.
I tilted my head straight back as far as it would go.
Before I really had time to process how weird and uncomfortable it felt, the sensation was gone.
Through watery eyes, I accepted an information sheet, the door opened and I left, having been inside less than three minutes.
When I got home, I signed up for the feature to be notified by text, sometime in the next four business days, that my test was negative.
If it’s positive, I’ll get a phone call.
Just like wearing a mask at the store, the whole thing was a little uncomfortable but an easy precaution to take to protect myself, my family and my colleagues.
So if you’ve got cold and/or flu like symptoms, do the right thing. Stay home, take the online assessment (or phone your family doctor) and, if necessary, make the call and get tested. Don’t self-diagnose and don’t put others at risk because you’re stubborn or can’t be bothered to take the time.
The chances of getting COVID-19 are hundreds of thousands of times better than winning big money with a lottery ticket so play the odds, just in case.
