What It’s Like To Be Tested For COVID-19
DARTMOUTH – Nicole Kadey began experiencing flu-like symptoms back in early March. The Dartmouth resident would, eventually, be tested for COVID-19. She told her story, which spans an entire month, to Huddle, so people would understand the process of being tested. Here it is in diary form.
March 3
Kadey woke up this morning with flu-like symptoms, such as a fever and cough. She went to a walk-in clinic, where they tested her to find out if she had a viral or bacterial infection. She also got a note from a doctor to stay home from work.
March 6
Three days passed but Kadey began feeling worse. She went back to the same clinic and she noticed new safety measures were put in place. She was given a medical mask and told to sanitize her hands. Because Kadey still had a bad cough, the doctor ordered a chest x-ray. While at the clinic she was told to call 811, just in case they wanted to test her for COVID-19. According to Kadey, the person she talked to at 811 said, because Kadey hadn’t been travelling, there was no need to test her.
March 26
Even though three weeks had passed, Kadey’s flu-like symptoms haven’t gone away, so she attempts to make an appointment with her family doctor. The receptionist on the phone, however, tells Kadey she must call 811 because of her symptoms.
Unlike weeks before, Kadey finds out the people at 811 are taking her symptoms much more seriously and they make her an appointment to get tested for COVID-19. This time, it didn’t matter that she wasn’t travelling outside the province.
While waiting for her appointment, Kadey was told she would have to self-isolate, which would be problematic since she shares an apartment with her boyfriend. She was even advised to use separate bathrooms, which wasn’t possible in the small apartment.
“They seemed very serious about what they were telling me about self-isolation until I could get tested. Some of it was pretty unrealistic…especially if you’re living in an apartment…but I did the best I could.”
“We did the best we could; he slept on the couch, I stayed in the bedroom as much as I could. Ultimately, we had to use the same bathroom; there wasn’t anything we could do about that.”
April 1
Since Kadey doesn’t have a car and usually takes the bus, she was told by 811 that they would arrange a ride for her. On the morning of her appointment, a shuttle bus came to pick her up. The driver called ahead of time, telling Kadey he would leave an envelope at her door containing a medical mask. She was to put the mask on before entering the bus.
Kadey entered the bus from the backdoor. The bus driver also wore a mask and was protected from the patients through a partition. In total there were four patients on the bus that day, sitting spaced out from each other.
“On the bus, no one interacted. I was really nervous; I get the sense other people were too,” said Kadey.
When they arrived at the COVID-19 testing centre, there was no one to greet them at the door, according to Kadey. So, they had to open the front doors by themselves, which led to them gathering close together momentarily.
“Of course, being Canadian and polite…the first person opened the door and tried to open the door for the rest of us,” said Kadey.
Someone was quick to remind the door-opener that they needed to remain at a distance from each other.
Kadey noticed that everyone in the testing centre, thankfully, looked fully protected with PPE. But with everyone covered in medical equipment, it made for a surreal atmosphere.
The whole thing is really nerve-wracking, especially since you can’t see anybody’s face; so, no one is super chatty,” recalled Kadey.
Much like a walk-in clinic, Kadey had to take a number and sit down, waiting to be called. The centre had cleaning staff on hand so, every time someone got off a chair, it would be wiped down right away.
When it was time for Kadey to be tested by a nurse, she had her nose and back of her throat swabbed. The swabbing process isn’t nearly as bad as many people think. In the early days on the pandemic, a meme circulated on social media, showing a cotton swab being shoved to the very back of someone’s naval cavity. Kadey says that meme, unsurprisingly, is fake news.
“I had a friend send that to me and, while I don’t know much about facial structure, it doesn’t feel like it goes back that far,” said Kadey with a laugh. “It did make me want to sneeze, but it didn’t feel like the picture where it’s going all the way back to your brain.”
Kadey and the other patients were sent home on the same bus and were ordered to self-isolate while waiting for the results of their swabs. For Kadey, the results came back three days later, on April 4. To her relief, the test came back negative.
For Kadey, the worst part of the whole ordeal was the waiting, and not knowing whether she had the coronavirus.
“You want to get answers quickly because you want to know what’s going on and you want to make sure you’re not making anybody else sick.”