How Long Are They Waiting?
Dylan flew to Texas to see his girlfriend. While it will be his last trip for awhile, it isn’t his first since the pandemic started. For me, of course, it is agonizing. Lately, I’ve even been considering asking him to stop working at his delivery job.
He is almost 20. It’s time for him to make his own decisions. We are always very careful on our end, and his girlfriend and her family are equally cautious.
But there’s the plane ride. No matter how much you tell me about the “safer” filtered air, I am a mess with him getting on the plane. So we got him a face shield, in addition to his N95 mask, which he wore in the airports and on the plane. After that, he was in his girlfriend’s car and house – so I could breathe again.
Still, given the surging numbers, I thought it would be a good idea to schedule a COVID test for his return; so I did. After two days of trying to get him into the CVS drive-thru where I got my test – and finding that they only scheduled two days in advance – I gave up and found a clinic that schedules further out. I chose a clinic we’ve used before, and I made the Friday morning appointment for him.
When Dylan showed up for his test, however, he discovered that I’d made it for the wrong Friday. The first available appointment was two weeks from when I made it! There was nothing at all available for the current week, and Dylan was sent away. For whatever reason, they couldn’t just swab him while he was there. They told him to come back in a week.
Which begs the question: what about people who actually have COVID?
What is happening to those people? Where are they going? How are they being tested? How long are they waiting to be tested? By the time their test time rolls around, it’s been two weeks! How is THAT helpful?
All of this happened after we tried to get him a COVID test the last time he went to Texas – and he went to a place that was swarmed with maskless people clamoring for their tests. In a way, it was worse going to his first appointment because there were sick people everywhere, and he couldn’t get away from them.
There’s been a lot of talk about testing in the news, and I guess I never realized just how horrid this situation has become. If you have a symptom, you need a test. If you are contagious and you want a test quickly, you have to go to a no-appointment-necessary clinic, which is swamped with sick people, where you may or may not contract the virus while you’re waiting to be tested.
And that’s where Dylan has to go tomorrow – back to a place where he’s more likely to contract the virus at the facility than he was on the plane.
The only other option? Wait two weeks to be tested – by which time he could have contaminated an entire community by himself.
Writing about this makes me think it’s a better idea to get him an appointment next week, on one of his days off of work, so he can go to the contactless drive-thru like I did. I think I will try to make that happen instead.
Thanks for listening as I talked my way through this.