One test at a time, we’ll be figuring out COVID19 through 2021

The health care worker leaned her head through the door of the COVID-19 testing site to tell an older man that the facility would reopen at 1 p.m.

“Please come back then,” she told him.

She noticed me standing behind him, looking for the same information.

“Did you preregister online?” she asked.

Yes, I replied, but my appointment time had expired. “I was supposed to be here last week,” I said sheepishly.

“That’s OK. Come back at 1 and we can get you in today,” she replied.

When I returned 30 minutes later to the testing site in Portage I expected a ridiculously long line. I was wrong. Only six people were ahead of me, all wearing masks and waiting patiently to enter the building. Except for one man who tried, twice, to cut in front of the others. “I already registered,” he told the worker. “I understand,” she replied politely. “But you need to stand in line like everyone else.”

Another man exited the building to mildly complain about his nasal swab test.

“Well that wasn’t pleasant,” he griped to the others who waited in line.

There’s always these kind of people who feel compelled to share their reaction with complete strangers after experiencing something new to most of us. It could be a COVID-19 test. It could be a rollercoaster ride. They know they have a captive audience for those few seconds. It worked. Two women looked at each with raised eyebrows over their masks.

I talked with another man whose appointment date was for later that week. He was anxious about his test result and didn’t want to wait another two days.

“I don’t have any symptoms but I want to know as soon as possible,” he told me.

That’s how I felt when I received my first COVID-19 test in August. At that point, it had been five months since the pandemic infected our lives. I figured I would likely test positive for the new coronavirus. Unless you’ve been completely quarantined from society since March – and I have not – there’s always the risk of contracting this virus.

I was wrong about my first test result. It came back negative.

For my second test last week, I paid less attention to my initial concerns in August and more attention to the workers at the testing facility. From the first interaction with an office staffer to the last interaction with the nurse who administered my test, everyone there tested positive for politeness and professionalism.

“Sorry for your wait,” one worker told me when I entered the building after a 10-minute wait.

I apologized for missing my appointment date one week earlier due to a work-related schedule conflict. She didn’t mind. She seemed relieved that I had registered online. One less task for her to do on-site. She asked me a few basic questions from behind a plastic partition: Am I symptomatic? Has anyone in my home test positive? What is my overall health status?

“I apologize for having to ask these questions over again,” she said.

I was just thankful to get inside the building, I told her.

She said my test results should arrive via text in four to seven business days. She handed me a small piece of paper with the number for the Indiana State Department of Health (877-826-0011). Call it if my results don’t arrive by then, she said, before handing my test kit to a nurse.

“You see, I told you we could get you in,” the nurse told me cheerily.

I followed her into a nearby room, sat down, and listened to the same spiel she must have told hundreds of other people. Maybe thousands by now. Nonetheless, she was patient and thorough.

“OK, this may make your eyes water. Or make it feel like you jumped into a pool of water and held your breath,” she said, handing me a tissue paper. She guided me through what she was going to do with the long nasal swab – insert it into each of my nostrils, twist it around five times, then pull it out.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

Thirty seconds later, she was done.

“You did good,” she said. “Some people freak out a little.”

I thanked her for working on the frontline of this pandemic, literally, and I exited the building.

“Have a wonderful afternoon,” another worker told me.

I returned to my car and jotted down a few notes. The first words I wrote: “kind, polite, professional.” I don’t know how these test facility workers do it day after day. I can’t imagine possessing these qualities for every patient, again and again.

A new text popped up on my phone from the Indiana State Department of Health: “Jerry, your test is complete. Thanks for doing your part to help Indiana stay healthy.”

In Indiana, 2.3 million Hoosiers have been tested, with double that number for total tests taken (including repeat tests). Last week, Illinois recorded more COVID19 deaths than any other state, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. In our country: 14 million confirmed cases and rising, with more than 275,000 deaths.

Pike County in southern Indiana once had the lowest numbers in the state, as I reported in July after visiting that small rural county. As of Friday, it has more than 600 cases and 21 deaths, now listed as a “severe outbreak.”

“My house has yet to get it, but we kind of wonder if we haven’t already had it,” said Jill Hyneman, director of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce. “I feel like we have been quarantined every other week.”

This is how most Americans feel these days.

As I wrote after my first test: We will have to figure out how to coexist with this virus. As we head into 2021, we’ll be figuring this out for quite some time, one test at a time.