When a negative is a positive

Suzi got the call first. My phone rang a few moments later.

Both calls were the same … the local health clinic letting us know we had tested negative for COVID.

Phew.

The pharmacy down the hill from our house was offering shots without an appointment, so we dropped in, figuring it would be easy-in, get the shot, easy-out.

Not so fast.

We were just trying to do the right thing.

Getting flu shots is a good idea in general, but we especially wanted to get them this year because of the concern over a second wave of COVID during flu season this winter.

The pharmacy down the hill from our house was offering shots without an appointment, so we dropped in, figuring it would be easy-in, get the shot, easy-out.

Not so fast.

When the pharmacist checked our temperature, one of us checked in a few ticks below 98.6 degrees, but the other came in at 99.5, and even though that seemed pretty small (and neither of us had any symptoms otherwise), she recommended we both get COVID tests, since we live together.

At least the clinic giving the tests was a few doors down in the plaza, and even though I did gag a bit at the end, the test was a throat swab, and not the one through the nose that supposedly feels like “being stabbed in the brain.”

Results would come in three to five days.

And so the wait began.

 

The thing about getting a test — for anything, really — is that it puts in your mind the possibility that you could have what you’re being tested for, even if you don’t feel any different than you did before.

Is that a sore throat, or is it just dry?

Are those chills or fever, or is the house just cold?

Can we still smell things, even though I barely have a sense of smell on a good day?

Suzi used to say there was a “Seinfeld” reference for everything, and in that spirit, any infection would have probably required something similar to a “magic loogie,” since we don’t go out a lot other than walks and are pretty careful when we do anything else.

But I still wondered if we hadn’t kept our circles tight enough.

If we had let our guard drop.

If I done something wrong.

Yes … “I” … because I would have blamed myself even if Suzi was positive and I wasn’t. 

The funny thing is, upon hearing the news, we both repeated it — “negative” — just to make sure it was real.

We’re pretty much homebodies under normal circumstances, but while we were waiting for the results, we each declined invitations and skipped our weekly Sunday drive, just in case.

And while we hoped that maybe we’d hear something sooner, at the very least, we hoped the answer would come within the three- to five-day timeframe and not drag on.

It did. Our phones rang early in the morning of the fourth day.

The funny thing is, upon hearing the news, we both repeated it — “negative” — just to make sure it was real.

It was.

Now we have to go get those flu shots.