On Saturday I received my first COVID test ever. I’m sure the person who was testing was being as gentle as possible – my poor nostrils. I honestly was expecting that blood would come out of my nose. It didn’t help matters when Roland (who’d been tested fair) coughed and spewed – or whatever he was doing. He is NOT a wimp and I am so if he was having problems I figured it was bad.
It
actually was not as bad as I had allowed myself to believe. Nor was it as easy as my friend, Carol, had
indicated the previous day. It
hurt! And when I said it allowed, I
heard Jenna behind me saying, “Thanks, Mom”
The
person doing the testing told Jenna how brave she was –
really? Hadn’t
I been any less brave? We were told to
wait 15 minutes for the results. Roland
started joking that “mom and Jenna”
would be negative but his would come out positive. Not funny.
So we were all more than concerned when they had him take the test
again. Negative. We had all been vaccinated and had tested
negative. That is reassuring.
We
were told in the beginning (was it last year? Or last century?) that the rural
areas would be hit the hardest. The
cocky people of this county didn’t
believe –
many still don’t –
even though Douglas has been proved to be the worst county in the state (don’t
forget, Douglas County is also the fifth largest county in the nation) and
guess which city in Douglas County currently has the most cases? That is right, Myrtle Creek’s
three thousand somewhat population has contributed to the most cases in
Douglas.
I think
I have mentioned before that aside from the massive geographical size of our
county, Douglas offers only one hospital located in Roseburg. Recently they lost a patient from the
emergency room. The patient had been
there for two hours or more waiting for an ICU bed to open up. The patient died of COVID.
Jenna had come in contact with a friend who had tested positive for COVID. Hence our little jaunt. Thank you Public Health for your service.