My Covid test

So in preparation for visiting my soon to be 96 year old mother, I went to get a Covid test. I had called my primary care physician last week to schedule it. My care provider has a drive through testing site near my home. I made an appointment and showed up. There were two cars in front of me. I was 10-15 minutes early. When my turn came up, one person came to the passenger side of my car and held up a card asking for my ID card. I showed it to them. They took the information and went over to a table that seemed to have the individual kits for each patient being tested. When the car in front of me finished they waved me forward. A person fully gowned, with face mask, face shield and gloves, had me roll down my window. They told me that they would first swab my throat. I had experienced this before for strep throat and it was the same sort of experience. Then they told me to mask my mouth but keep my nose outside the mask. I was asked to lean back and the technician told me to “relax and slowly breathe through my mouth”. This was while she inserted a long skinny pipe-cleaner tipped wire up my nose. I swear I was ready for it to come out through my tonsils. She stopped, said she had to try again. So back to it. I couldn’t help but cough incessantly while the technician was plying my nasal cavity for whatever germy thing they look for. She finished that side. “Now for the other.” This I did not expect. I did not expect to get both nostrils swabbed, but here I was. She went up my right nostril to the point I had to pull back. “I think I got it.” Good I thought because I did not need to do that again. I rolled up my window and drove off. I feel like my face is stuck in that look you have when you smell something disgusting. But over the hour since my test, my face has slowly returned to normal.

I swear those people who don’t wear masks, will be really upset when nurses start swabbing their nostrils and worse, intubating them should they end up with this disease. I’ll take the mask any day, thank you very much.