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  2020-09-27

  My Experience Taking A COVID Test

  I had been feeling progressively more sick for 2 weeks when my boyfriend got positive results from an antibody test he did through work. Apparently his results meant that he may have had the virus and was asymptomatic but he no longer had the virus, though he seemed unclear on the details. In any case, he came into contact with the virus at some point. Since I have asthma and I started coughing pretty bad very early Sunday (9/27) morning on top of other COVID symptoms, I worried that I had also come into contact with it through him and figured I should get tested if I fit the criteria to do so. California has you take a symptom test before you can make an appointment for drive-thru testing, and I checked off more symptoms than I realized I had. It was very fast and easy to make an appointment, and I got one for literally a few minutes later at a nearby hospital. We followed the signs taking us to a few covered tables and stations in the back where they handed me instructions through a small opening in the window with one of those long grabby things usually used to pick up trash. They then had us pull forward and show my appointment number and ID card to a women through the window. She then gave me a sticky note with my name and number on it to stick on the windshield and instructed me to pull forward. At the next station they gave me a test kit. With the window closed, I took my mask off and stuck the swab into each nostril and for a 10 second turn as instructed, about an inch in, but not so far in that it was painful. I then put the swab into the provided tube, broke the end off of the swab and capped the tube. I dropped the bag containing my test into a bucket and they said I'd get my results in 1-3 days and that I must self-isolate until I got my results. Easy, I haven't left my apartment save for 2-3 outside walks and 1 doctor's appointment since March. There are too many people walking around without masks, and with my asthma I'm not taking any risks, a big reason why I was surprised to even be taking the test in the first place. When I woke up this morning (9/28) I already had a text message saying my results were in. Negative! I'm very glad for that. Honestly it was so fast and easy I was sort of surprised considering the mess testing was at the beginning of the pandemic.