Cold, Or Something Else?

On Saturday I woke up an hour later than my usual time and felt 'off'. I had a drippy nose, a slight cough, a tinge of a headache, not much energy, and a mildly scratchy throat. After breakfast I took allergy medicine and waited for it to take my symptoms away.  That didn't work.

If it had been October of 2019 I would have figured I had a cold, been annoyed, and shouldered on. However, what if this was more than a cold? I knew that 80% of people with COVID-19 have mild symptoms. Could I be one of them? Later in the day Hubby Tony and I were going to get together with some friends for a socially-distanced Halloween event. I would feel awful if someone got really sick because of me. After talking it over with Tony, we decided we would both go to the urgent care and get tested. Not the most exciting date we've ever had, but at least I wasn't in it alone.

At the urgent care we got signed in and escorted to a room. It took less than five minutes for a tech to come to take our vitals, ask about our symptoms, and administer the COVID test. Following her directions, I removed my mask and blew my nose to clear out my nasal passages, then tilted my head back while she stuck a long Q-Tip looking swab up my nose until it wouldn't go anymore, rotated it around, then removed it and placed the swab into a container. She performed the same procedure on Tony. When she was done she told us to hang tight until the doctor came in.

We had to wait another ten minutes for the doctor to show up. He looked down my throat and in my ears and listened to my lungs, then gave Tony his turn.  Based on my mild symptoms he stated that he was pretty sure I didn't have the virus, but just to be safe both Tony and I needed to quarantine ourselves until we received the results of the test on Monday.

I laid around the house for the rest of the day. My symptoms never got worse, but they also didn't improve. After dinner we watched TV until it was time to go to bed. Sunday I felt better (and would have gone out if there was anywhere I could have gone), but other than watching a video Mass and piddling around on the internet did little of substance. 

This morning when I came into the living room Tony greeted me with a big smile. He said he had already received his test result, which was negative. I quickly logged into the laboratory portal and found out I was also COVID free. That was the best news I've heard in a long time!

We needed both fruit and vegetable produce, so after breakfast I was thrilled that I could run to the grocery store to stock the refrigerator. It felt great to know that I could mask up and not worry about giving anyone germs.

Five years ago today: Nooch Me