August 12

I took a COVID test yesterday. I felt it was the right thing to do in light of my symptoms. To New Jersey's credit, the process was remarkably easy. I went to the state's website and it directed me to several different testing locations near me. I clicked on a link for one of the pharmacies, took about 1 minute to fill out a basic questionnaire, and selected a time for my appointment. About 30 minutes later (yes, that quickly), I was parked outside the pharmacy. I called from my car, a technician came out and handed me a simple testing packet that included my voucher (which had my name and DOB), a testing vial with some liquid in it, and a long Q-tip. The instructions for self-testing were sent to me via a text link to my phone. I took the Q-tip out of its wrapper, shoved up each of my nostrils, and then inserted it, swab-side first, into the vial, snapping off the excess part of the shaft and sealing the bag. I called the pharmacy back, the technician came outside with a box and I dropped the kit into it. I was in and out of the parking lot in 5 minutes. No hours-long lines, no workers in PPE, very smooth and very simple (and free!). My one concern was human error - relying on lay people who are not medical professionals to self-test. Like, did I shove the Q-tip far enough up my nose? The instructions said 3/4 of an inch, but that is a hard distance to measure when you're doing something like that. Oh well. I am supposed to get my results back in 3-5 business days, which is not great, but better than nothing.

I am feeling a little better, certainly better than I did overnight Monday into Tuesday. I'm still a little dizzy and "low energy" (I did struggle a bit to get through a conference call yesterday), and so I have gone through several different emotions, perhaps not unlike the five stages of grief. Assuming I do have COVID, I do marvel at its ability to transmit, because I never leave the house to do anything other than grocery shop. How I could have contracted COVID in those 10-15 minutes, twice a week, is impressive, but also (obviously) annoys me as I have done all the right things and appear to have still caught the virus. I also think about risk - if you stay home almost all the time, your risk of contracting the virus is very low, which makes all of the negative outcomes from catching it moot, but if I do have it, now I suddenly drift into the roughly 1 in 100 chance that something really bad happens. Thankfully, I do not have co morbidities that put me at greater risk, and assuming I did catch it in the grocery store, my exposure was brief and I was masked, which has been shown to reduce the amount of virus you take in. 

There would also be some piece of mind (weirdly) in having been infected. At least I know I have it. At least I know if things go south with my health, I have some lead time to plan and get in touch with an emergency contact to take care of P and G. And, if things don't go really south, and I sort of muscle through a mild (or even bad, but not have-to-be-hospitalized bad) case, the other side is less fraught. That is, although I would of course remain vigilant in terms of my social interactions and how often I am out and about, I will have developed antibodies that likely protect me from another infection. All things being equal, I would prefer to have not been infected, but if I am, the odds are still in my favor. I will keep you posted.

Follow me on twitter - @scarylawyerguy