Getting a COVID test hasn’t really been something I thought about too much. When the pandemic started, it was not easy to get a test. Only those who had symptoms could get them, and I didn’t really have any symptoms. And then when it was easier to get a test, I felt no need to get one because I wasn’t leaving my house at all. I’m aware that being in LA I am privileged and can easily get a test if I need one and not everyone in every state could do that. But I didn’t do one because I didn’t need to for any reason and figured it wouldn’t be good to waste a test just to do it.
And technically, right now I don’t need one, but I did get one as an extra precaution. I’ve had a really bad cough for close to 2 years now. I know it’s not COVID, but I know that it made some people in my family nervous. So before I am going to see my family, I’m not only doing a full quarantine but I’m getting COVID tests to prove I’m ok. I was told that you should do a test before doing a 2-week quarantine to prove you don’t have it already and then another at the end of your quarantine to prove you weren’t exposed right before your first test. So that’s exactly what I am going to do.
Getting an appointment for a test wasn’t too bad. Originally I was going to go to the hospital to do it, but that ended up being harder to do. So I went to the LA County COVID test page to find a place I could get a test and sign up there. There are a lot of locations near me and appointments were available every day. I was surprised by how easy it was to sign up. And the test was going to be free, but they did ask me for my insurance information so my insurance would cover the cost.
The test was a drive-thru and I never had to get out of my car. I was a bit intimidated by the line of cars when I arrived for my appointment window, but I figured I’d just listen to podcasts and work my way up the line. But even though the line was over a mile long, it went by quickly. I was through the entire thing in under 45 minutes.
The first station I stopped at was just to confirm I had an appointment. I had an email with an appointment code and I had to show that to someone so they knew I didn’t just show up. The next station was to tell someone the code so they could look it up and find my information. Then they wrote that on a bag with all the testing supplies and used a grabber to pass it to me.
This test was not the nasal swab but the mouth swab, so I was going to administer the test myself. Before my appointment, there was a video to watch about how to do it, but they also had people there to help.
So after getting the bag, I drove to the next station where there was a man who was going to guide me through doing the test. First, I had to roll my window back up and cough 5 times while wearing a mask. Then I put my window down a little bit so I could hear the man giving the instructions and he had to take the swab out of the sterile bag and told me how to swab my mouth. You had to get both cheeks, top and bottom gums on both sides, all over my tongue, and on the roof of my mouth. It was about 30 seconds of swabbing and it felt almost like brushing my teeth. Then, I put the swab into the little vial and broke the handle so I could close the vial. Then I closed the bag and drove to the final station where there was a bin to drop my test into. I actually missed the bin and it hit the ground because of the wind, but there was someone there to use a grabber to pick it up and put it in there. And that was it!
Honestly, it was such an easy process. I know that the nasal swabs are a little harder to do, but from my friends who have done them, they still aren’t too bad. Many of my friends have to do multiple tests a week because of their jobs and nobody has said it was too difficult. But it’s still nice that the test I took was the easiest one.
They told me that I would get results within 3 days, but the next morning I got an alert that my test results were in. And they were exactly what I expected.
I actually would have been shocked if I didn’t test negative. This was more to just confirm what I already knew, but at least I have proof.
I’ll be doing another test right before seeing my family, but it’s nice to know that it’s going to be a simple test to do and I have nothing to worry about.
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