Good afternoon, my friends.
I appreciate your understanding as I have not been able to post the last few days. The truth is that I have been really under the weather for awhile. Although there is not a strong likelihood AT ALL for me to have COVID-19, my provider required m to get tested since I am going into the third week of being sick and am still not getting better. While I seriously doubt that I have COVID-19 with the strict protocols we have been following, I want to protect not only myself, but my family, healthcare providers, and community. So yesterday we got me all ready to go get tested at a local triage tent. With their permission, we took a few pictures as we went through.
The general procedure to get tested (where testing is available) goes something like this: you contact your provider via phone call and explain your symptoms. After she or he conducts an interview with you for further symptoms then determines your risk and can choose to order a test (like ordering a flu test can only be through a medical professional). Then a time is set for you to drive through the triage tent so that the healthcare workers there are never inundated (as much as possible).
As you can see from our experience, it was not overflowing when we went. First, you pass a police officer confirming that you have an appointment and are wearing your own proper protective equipment to drive through. After that, you go to a receptionist who is standing with a clipboard. I did not see a chair or any place for this kind woman to sit in the 30-something degree weather. We thanked her profusely for her time and contribution to the general wellbeing of our community. She smiled us on to the next tent where spirits were high. Here there are two lanes--this is where they check your health history and confirm more sensitive information about your healthcare history and write strange cyphers (okay, it was really just a check mark) on your windshield as you proceed to the last tent. Again, we thanked everyone we came into contact with and they all seemed to have high morale.
This is the part where you wait until a healthcare worker in full PPE comes to your window, motions you to roll down your window and uses a swab to get a sample from your nose (it feels like it is coming from your brain) to test you for COVID-19. The woman who did my test made jokes before doing my test and put my mind at ease after everything that I had heard about how uncomfortable the test can be. She was a rockstar, not just for being an expert at efficiently and effectively getting my sample, but also for being out on frontlines she probably never in her wildest dreams had conceived.
After this tent, they give you a tissue to wipe your eyes if they feel a little watery and send you on your way. We drove in and out in under 10 minutes. I should have results in 1-2 days.
Thank you to all the healthcare workers and administrators who are making this system work as best it can in such an unprecedented time. We see you, we are so grateful to you.
Prepare, don't panic.
-Allison
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