Home Test Kits and Other Rites of Passage

 My spouse and I took home COVID tests yesterday. I know that some have been taking these rapid tests regularly and routinely now, but it was a first for us. For a long time there were no test kits, so I got the kits from the US government, back in the early part of the year when they were mailed to us for no charge.

But because of that scarcity, I've been hesitant to use them. Lately it seems like the world is one huge exposure to this pandemic. Once we would have taken these tests when there was any chance we had been exposed, but now we are likely to be exposed every time we leave the house.

I thought about testing before and after the retreats that I went on in April, but I had no symptoms, so why waste a test? When you look on the CDC website at the list of symptoms, it seems to cover just about everything. Once I thought that as long as I could still smell the coffee in the morning, I was fine. But now I've heard of plenty of people who have COVID, and they still have their senses of taste and smell.

Yesterday we heard from my mom--what she thought were allergies is a COVID infection. My dad is still testing negative. We don't know for sure when she developed COVID, but we were around them this weekend. We decided it was time to use one of the home tests. I have no symptoms, but my spouse has been stuffy and sneezy.

As I watched the response sticks, I thought about all the other types of testing that people do in their houses, like pregnancy tests. Some of these are a rite of passage. I thought of other types of test results we wait for, the ones done in a lab. Is the biopsy showing cancer? What are the results of the HIV test?

I haven't experienced a lot of these types of tests, and it seems late in the life of a pandemic to be experiencing this test now.  But I was glad to have them; otherwise my spouse’s every sniffle and sneeze would have made me wonder. I realize we should probably test again today or tomorrow, since false negatives aren't uncommon. The tests expire in August, so there's really no point in saving them.

My mom says she feels fine except for her sinuses. She has always had sinus trouble, so this is not an unusual feeling for her. She feels tired but no other symptoms. She is vaccinated and boosted, so hopefully she'll be fine.

My spouse and I are also vaccinated and boosted, so hopefully we'll be fine.