Well, Covid-19 finally entered my home about 10 days ago when my 17-year-old son got sick with it. It came on as a sore throat and then as a fever for a couple of days. He bounced back quickly, but still tested positive at day 5, so had to spend the entire 10-day quarantine at home from school.
As for myself, I was feeling unwell for a few days before my son felt sick. I didn’t get tested because I wasn’t having typical Covid symptoms. Instead, I experienced nausea, weird eye pain, muscle pain and extreme fatigue. I was practically sleep walking at work for a week, but decided to go ahead with the booster I had previously scheduled anyway.
As I always say, procrastinate is my middle name, but my procrastination might have timed things perfectly this time. I got my booster one week before he got sick, but then, maybe I’m the one who got him sick. I don’t know. All I know is that Covid finally entering the house was very anti-climatic. And that’s fine with me!
One thing that was kinda silly about the whole experience was not knowing where to go to get tested. You’d think, after living with a pandemic for over two years, we’d know exactly what to do. Well…I didn’t. I had seen some pop-up testing sites in Decatur, most notably the one in French Quarter West on West Pershing Road, but wasn’t sure what to think of it. Was it even legit?
So, I took my son to the urgent care clinic across from Brettwood. I wouldn’t advise doing that. For one, you’ll have to wait a long time, and secondly, if you didn’t have Covid before you entered the building, you probably would afterwards! They do have symptomatic people wait in their cars, but you still have to spend a good amount of time inside giving them your information.
I was under the impression that they had a quick drive-up type testing thing going on. Nope. You have to register inside like you do for any other reason you would go there. That seemed silly to me. I thought the tests were free? But I’m definitely not complaining. Everybody was friendly and helpful. I don’t know how they’ve handled the workload. They all deserve medals.
Anyway, I would just advise that you go to one of those pop-up testing sites in town and let the clinics take care of sick and injured people.
My son and I left early, and he never got tested at the clinic. He was feeling terrible, and I was stuck inside the car with him and his germs. But hey, I didn’t get sick! The booster and/or previously having Covid did its thing. Knock on wood.
I have to say I was impressed with the testing center. I went there in the worst mood, ready to toss a table or two across the room, but the lone worker ran a tight ship. It was done as quickly as it could be. You can check out the link to their site and pre-register. The tests are free, but you’ll need to fill out insurance information, if you have insurance.
And now you can also request free at-home Covid tests. This should help tremendously!
The good news about all of this is that by the end of the winter, most of us will have already experienced Covid, and/or been vaccinated and boosted up the wazoo. Maybe that’ll be the end of it, finally.
