Too Close for Comfort

A couple of weeks ago, we had a couple of COVID cases at the barn. It was pretty scary. It's since come out that the cases were separate incidences and were not caught at the barn itself. The moment the individuals felt sick, they stayed home, we got notice of it from our barn, and we went into a small lockdown at the barn (stricter COVID guidelines, no lessons, asking for people to be tested, no one allowed outside of boarders and trainers). No one else has caught COVID since and it's been two weeks (all who had it are recovered) so we should be in the clear. 

Still, it was scary! I ran out to get tested and it was an interesting experience, so I figured I'd write about it. 

My barn has felt a little bit immune
all this time 

The SO and I chatted and decided that while there was pretty much no chance I had it (hadn't been anywhere near the few people who were diagnosed in over a month), I'd still be very careful. I'd go straight to the barn to my private tack room and straight home, wearing a mask and gloves at all times. I also went to the barn very early in the morning on the day I took my test and until I got results. That way there was no way I'd be around other people (except the workers who I made sure to avoid by taking routes to and from my paddock that they don't typically use). 

So, I rode that morning and then went to the testing site. I'd made an appointment for several days from then but emailed my office job and explained that I needed to take half the day to stand in line and get it done. That was fine, so I canceled the appointment and went to the testing site.

I was there at 10:50am, 10 minutes before it opened and WOW I should have gotten there the night before or something. The line was circling a square block, an entire elementary school. I stood in it until 11:30am when I was finally given a colored wrist band and told to come back at 12pm. I decided to move my car closer just to have something to do, that took a couple of minutes. Then I saw that people in line had my color wrist band so I decided to go back in line. 

The line wrapped around this entire field and down
the block behind me

It was rather unnerving to be standing in line with a bunch of people who all had a reason to be getting tested, although they were pulling people out of line who had symptoms already. It occurred to me that even if I tested negative, I could easily get COVID in the line (luckily it was 99% outside and we all socially distanced but still) so then would go get tested again and be exposed again and... yeah. Luckily Kate was on the phone with me basically the entire time I was in line, so it was good to take my mind off of it. 

I finally got up to the tents at around 12:15pm or so. They gave me a clip board asking for demographics and contact information. They also had three sheets of paper detailing when I'd get test results and what to do in the mean time.

It was refreshing to see that I didn't need to quarantine as I had not been in "close contact" with a positive person in the last however many weeks. Close contact was defined as being within 6 feet of someone without a mask for more than 15 minutes. Nope! Definitely don't get that close, for that long, and without a mask to ANYONE anymore. How weird is it going to be to hug someone again? I'm kind of glad the "kiss people on the cheek" kind of greeting is going to go away, there was always this one person who did it to me and like, how do you ask people not to do that? I have no boundaries in my life with other people so I certainly don't know how. 

The 2020 meme game is pretty amazing 

It took about 30 more minutes to get into the gym to get tested. I gave them my insurance card, which was not necessary but helpful apparently. They put me in the database and sent me over to get tested.

The testing was NOT bad. I was all freaked out and kept leaning back, thinking they were going to go further in, but they didn't. The lady was so nice, she told me that she gets tested regularly and that she knows how uncomfortable it is but that it'd be over soon.

When it was over, I thanked her and headed home to hop on a meeting. 

Me when waiting for test results

Two days later, less than that actually, at 11am on Thursday I got a text and email saying that I could get my test results. I was driving so I immediately pulled off the highway and entered my info into the website. 

Negative!

I obviously felt way better after that. The brain is an amazing thing, as I'd been having a lot of anxiety that I thought I could have been COVID. Like feeling short of breath is something that happens when I get anxious... and stomach aches... and feeling woozy... and feeling full of adrenaline. You know, COVID symptoms. Fabulous. But it was negative and so was everyone else's at the barn! Phew! Best case scenario, no spread and everyone who had it feeling great by now. 

Happy Holidays everyone

I'm still obviously being safe, as we all should. But other than early March when my whole family had it and they wouldn't test you without symptoms (and had to shove it all the way into your brain, and it took 10 days to get results), I hadn't had any kind of exposure. I've known people who have had it, obviously, but no one who I interact with regularly has had it. 

Scary stuff! Hopefully by this time next year, we'll be much better off.