SURGE TESTING

 I forgot to mention Natureman also got the heavy duty flu shot at the end of his hospital day last week. The next day he wasn't feeling so great so he laid low. He looked as miserable as he felt. 

The crummy feeling passed by the following day and he was back to the the usual chemo combo side effects most noticeably the gravelly voice only now a nasty sounding cough persisted.  He attributed it to his lifelong nagging allergy cough but I think it sounds different and more intense.  My shot was over a month ago and I just experienced soreness. His Doctor wasn't alarmed but I'm with the guy 24-7. His sister, a nurse commented that flu symptoms usually don't occur right away.

Being concerned,  I took advantage of the 15 minute  COVID Surge testing being offered on the UW-L campus in  the Cartwright building 3rd floor on State Street yesterday. I mention this for you in the region and because your communities probably also have something similar.  Take advantage of this COVID service.

This community service at UW-L is scheduled to last 6 weeks as the need is great to identify carriers whether asymptomatic / not. Tracers are needed to try to impede the spread. You can be tested up to 4x without a charge.

On Thursday the testing was offered to 30 individuals, Friday  200 and yesterday Monday 450 folks had preregistered. 

Here's the link: hps://www.uwlax.edu/info/covid-19/tesng/

If you don't preregister, you can do it there but you're just adding on to your wait time.

So it was simple. Once you register, you have a registration number which you bring with the 'masked' you. You stand at 6 ft apart which are marked on the floor and the line moves smoothly. I arrived 15 minutes early and  was seen 10 minutes past my time. There was one computer printing glitch at registration but 3 people are signed in with different registrars at a time. A nurse then takes you to her station, explains the swab method so you can administer the swab test to yourself as she watches.  

BTW an ENT friend made the suggestion rather than leaning your head backwards, lean your  head down while inserting the swab stick in your nostrils for less discomfort. Once inserted you rotate the swab stick a couple times and repeat the same procedure in the other nostril. That's it.

Then you go to a waiting  room. Most people didn't wait the 15 minutes as a follow up email/ text will be sent. The suggestion is to wait in case you are positive because then you can do follow up immediately for tracing, instructions, etc... My email went to spam but one of the organizers was kind enough to grabb my printed results. When I returned home, there was a follow up email even though I was negative for a different test if I was interested. 

Well, I was already home so I can't fill you in on that possibility.

Another exciting day in the Times of COVID.