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To Test or Not To Test
Who thought that testing for COVID could be so frustrating? I guess I’m just lucky …
My adventure started with what I thought was an allergy attack. I almost never catch colds or viruses, and rarely have allergic reactions to pollen. But I figured I’d pop a 24-hour allergy pill, and I’d be fine. And I was for a little while. Or so I thought …
But on Tuesday, my “allergies” were worse. And by this morning, I sounded like a sick sea lion and had to cancel a breakfast with a friend. And then I thought the worst—
Maybe it’s COVID.
So, I’m not so much worried about me catching COVID, but I live in a 55+ community, and we have our share of nonvaccinated folks, with many people who are terrified of COVID, overweight, diabetic, and suffering from various other maladies. So, I figured I’d be a good citizen and get tested. Simple, right?
Wrong.
Tests were not available in the local pharmacies without signing your life away with application forms. Most locations had no testing slots available today or tomorrow. Meanwhile, my nose is still stuffed up, and my cough won’t quit.
So, I finally called my doctor’s office to see if they could refer me to somewhere — anywhere — in central Florida. Instead, they asked us which symptoms we were experiencing and said if we could come to their office, they’d test us.
Just like that. Almost.
So, we drove to the office and waited in our car outside, and we got a rapid test from the nurse. If we tested positive, we’d get a call on my cellphone. A part of me wanted to get that call just to get the whole thing over with! But instead of calling, she came down to plunge the swab up into our brains again and said we’d hear something in a couple of days. She suspected we had some run-of-the-mill virus, and we should avoid people until it was gone, get lots of rest, and drink liquids. Naturally, we were thrilled with the customer service, given the extra trouble they’d had to go to.
Here’s the interesting part for me: A part of me wanted to test positive, since I’m twice shot and boosted, and at least I’d have better protection. Another part of me wants to test negative from the second time she swabbed so that I don’t have the virus and don’t have to quarantine for umpteen days. A part of me wishes I’d assumed that I’d caught the rare cold and stayed away from people, and forgot about testing.
So, we’ll wait for the final results. Should I hope for positive results? Negative results? Or be smart, and forget the whole thing for now? That gets my vote.
I hate this COVID stuff.
Published in Healthcare
Maybe because he’s not being constantly blocked and insulted and stuff for the crime of being REPUBLICAN?
Maybe, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how reasonable he’s been. We have a couple local school districts who even ended their mask mandates this week. No complaint from the gov. You might have seen he’s been quoted as saying, “the emergency is over.” Credit where it’s due.
Mr. C thinks he’s running for the Democrat nomination in 2024. He’d be the first “openly gay” president and I think he’d give Mayor Pete a run for his money. Someone with real executive experience and having governed as a moderate.
Sure, but my point was, if he was a Republican doing the same things, the media would be all over him.
Except the testing regime he’s set up, I agree. Even Republicans would get credit for that.
And Republicans including DeSantis might do the same thing or even better, except they’re constantly being obstructed, defamed, etc, because they’re Republicans who “want to kill grandma!”
The good news is no Covid! The second test came back negative. The bad news is that the virus lingers, but I’m definitely improving. So I will still avoid people to not spread it around. Thanks for all the input, everyone!
Well, at least there’s that. Hope you continue to improve.
Borrrriiing. Beating COVID would have been way more interesting. Good news is so dull.
I felt something coming on a couple of days ago. I doubled down on vitamins and minerals and upped my mushroom intake (just started that a while back) and even took some Dayquil (which I loathe doing) because I was determined to be OK for an invitation from Spanish friends yesterday for a meal of “black rice” (squid ink makes it black) loaded with shrimp and squid. That fantastic dish removed all lingering symptoms.
There are so many things that are probably good for us but we don’t have an official answer because who is going to spring for all the formal testing for a generic, existing natural product? The system is so wedded to Big Pharma that it probably hinders the use of other beneficial options.
Yeah, I know what you mean [snore]. I already take a good regimen of vitamins and such, some in the aftermath of chemo. I hate taking any kind of pills anymore. But mushrooms? H.m.m.m….. When in Spain (before I was trying to cut out some non-kosher things), I had my first meal with the squid ink. Oh my gosh, it was fabulous! When we went out for lunch the next day, they had something similar on the menu–yum! But I don’t think it’s kosher . . .
I agree with you about all the things we could be taking/eating that would improve our health. But Big Pharma would not be happy with us. So I do my best to eat healthy most of the time. Except for a couple of mini-chocolate snickers after dinner . . . a couple of those at night can’t hurt.
Did you go to your dinner, OB?
Of course.
It made me realize why Rome and Carthage fought so intensely over Spain. I used to think it was just over control of the olive market but clearly, there is much else to be prized there.
I don’t know if mushroom supplements have been proven to be effective as immune boosters, but according to LMA’s integrative medical specialist, they have been shown to inhibit tumor growth, which would be very helpful for LMA’s condition if she could tolerate them. But I’ve been taking them ever since we learned about it since I was treated for breast cancer, too. Had to pause during COVID due to supply shortages.
I admit to being deeply impressed by the film Fantastic Fungi on Netflix. I took Microbiology and Botany along with other bio courses back in the day but never spent any serious time looking at fungi. The amazing connections among trees using mushroom fibers to communicate blew me away. (There was also stunning footage about how an ant species had evolved a defense against particular mushroom toxins that could endanger the nest by having soldier ants check each returning ant, and if the toxins were detected, then two soldiers took the offender aside, bit her head off then committed seppuku since they had also touched the toxins.) Even if one is dubious about some of the health claims, the film is amazing.