PORT ORANGE, Fla. — During a global pandemic, uncertainty abides.
Questions pop up: What if — in February, when my wife was sick, coughing her lungs out — she was actually suffering from the coronavirus? Should I have taken that change from the clerk? How can I stop touching my face?
So I got tested.
To cut short the drama, I was negative for COVID-19, at least as of 10 a.m. last Wednesday. I didn’t think I had contracted the virus, but knowing carriers can be asymptomatic, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to verify.
I had the opportunity and took it.
I approached Advanced Urgent Care, 1690 Dunlawton Ave., Port Orange, and a woman in a mask seated at a card table near the entrance greeted me. She took my temperature, 97.7, and allowed me to enter.
Like all doctor’s offices, there was a waiting room with a front desk behind a sliding glass door. No one was waiting in the room.
After doing some reporting work, I was offered a test. Melody Johnson, a physician assistant, showed me to a room. She gave me some paperwork as I gave her my driver’s license to verify my identity.
I answered the questions: No dry cough, no shortness of breath, no congestion. Because I work as a reporter and have had some exposure to people in person over the last month, they had me write where a nurse explained I would be taking an IgG/IgM test, a science-y name for determining whether I have COVID-19 or whether I’ve ever had the virus.
I offered my left index finger, which he swiped with alcohol. Then, taking firm hold of it, he pushed a small, square device — a lancet? — into the flesh.
As he did, he narrated: “Prick it real good.”
I barely felt a jab. It felt more like someone squeezing my finger. Because that’s what he continued to do.
He had me turn my hand palm-side down, so gravity would help him force out enough blood, just three drops, into a small, clear tube.
After all of 30 seconds, he handed me a bandage to stop the bleeding. He exited the room to mix the blood with a solution, then into two different cassettes — which would then indicate any existence of COVID-19 antibodies.
The blood drops met the control line — ensuring the test would be valid. “If it’s positive,” Johnson explained, “there’s a T over here, real faint, and a line will come up there if it’s positive. You have to wait the full 8 to 10 minutes.”
There was no presence of immunoglobulin M (IgM) or immunoglobulin G (IgG), the antibodies that indicate the recent or current presence of COVID-19.
Right on schedule, Johnson, the physician assistant, returned to deliver the good news.
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