2020, Family, Food, Health, home, Kids, Medicine, Nature, Uncategorized

Invent Your Own Covid Test

40 Comments

Last Friday I was on a MS Teams meeting in a weekly group supervision session I participate in with staff from another Human Service Center. The clinical director of that agency was really amused by the ingenuity of  one staff member and the young adult child of another staff member, both of whom accurately self- diagnosed themselves with Covid.

The staff member was suspicious of some symptoms,  and took a couple swigs of lemon juice, couldn’t taste it, and went for a formal test at the doctor and tested positive.  The young adult was out with friends drinking shots of Fireball whiskey, realized she couldn’t taste it, and went for a test and was positive.

The clinical director wryly suggested that perhaps we all needed to drink shots of Fireball whiskey throughout the day to self-monitor for Covid.  Cinnamon flavored whiskey isn’t my drink of choice, but I could think of other strong tasting things I wouldn’t mind monitoring with.

Make up your own Covid test.

40 thoughts on “Invent Your Own Covid Test”

  1. I might use some tonic water. It’s bitter enough to have a definite taste, but still tastes good, in case your test turns out to be negative. Could be administered without without gin.

    Hope your team members and their families will be OK. It’s getting kinda scary how fast this has taken off in the past couple of weeks.

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  3. Every time we enter a medical place, which we have done often, they ask us if we have any of those symptoms. She would say yes to most of them from the state of her lungs from lingering pneumonia, if she told the truth. So we just lie because otherwise she cannot go to her appointments. I pity the poor women at the door–have yet to meet a man–for their risk and responsibility. We met one a couple months ago who said we could not go in because she had passed 4 tests at that point because the tests were so unreliable. A true petty tyrant. I got insistent. She told us to step outside and she would call. In less than a minute the other woman working came to let us in. When we came back through on the way out she was gone. Maybe on a break. But we have not seen her since. I hope she did not get in trouble.

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    1. I’ve seen men guarding an entrance…At the liquor store near my house. I’ve seen a couple of different men but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman out there.

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      1. Haha. I do not go to liquor stores. Demon rum shall not pass my lips. Unless it is warm Bicardi with spices, or cold Bicardi, or any brand for that matter.
        Seriously, I should go see if they question you at the door here. How many would be honest at the door? Can you get it delivered? I am so innocent of that world.

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  4. COVID test at 5041. Money, in large bills, would start falling from a tree in the backyard. If I don’t enjoy this phenomenon, I must have Covid.

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  5. I’m a Pfizer vaccine trial participant. I got two shots. There were many blood draws but they ended a few months back. Now I simply fill out a weekly diary. No symptoms of c19. Double blind study so I can’t be sure i received the vaccine. Someday I’ll be informed of my status.

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      1. I didn’t expect it but with all the blood draws I made over $1000.
        At my last testing they asked permission for more. I said fine.
        Are you sure? We want this much.
        Normally it would be two vials. They showed me ten.
        Do it!
        Got $268

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    1. The scariest movie I saw as a kid was Invasion of the Body Snatchers. People would become infected or taken over by the evil force, then they would go about infecting others. But they looked almost exactly like they always looked. So you might be talking to your neighbor . . . only to slowly realize he was now one of the pod people trying to kill you.

      That movie essentially became real when COVID could hide in the body of an apparently healthy person and yet be transmissible.

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      1. The first time I saw Body Snatchers, I was babysitting as a young teen. It scared the bejeebers out of me and I was so happy when the couple came home and I was able to go back to my house. The second time I saw it was as an adult and the plotline holes were so large you could drive a truck through them.

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  7. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I think mine would be a life choice check list:

    1. Do you wear a mask in public?
    2. Are you a necessary worker who must go to work?
    3. Are you an Evangelical Christian?
    4. Who did you vote for?
    5. Have you attended a #45 rally?
    6. What Cable News channel do you watch?
    7. Who is your favorite Supreme Court Justice?

    You can guess where I am going with this…

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    1. I was just speaking on the phone with a friend of mine. They had been socializing with another couple – outdoors at a safe distance and wearing a mask – assuming that that was always how this other couple behave. Then last week she saw photos this other couple had posted on Facebook of a recent get-together with another bunch of friends. This time, only one woman was wearing a mask, everyone else interacting as if the virus was of no concern at all. My friend will not be interacting with that other couple anytime soon. You’re no safer than the weakest link in your chain of acquaintances.

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  8. Yes, that is so true. We are going into some self-isolation now. I just went shopping in a mask AND a face shield. Now I will order supplies for a while. I will work at home for a period until things calm down.

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  9. Afternoon –
    The fireball whiskey challenge made me laugh. It might take me a few shots to be really be sure. And then after that, the real test was how long you can stay up right.
    Sort of related, and forgive me if I’ve already told this story because I have such a short memory, Out at our townhall, all summer we’ve been finding Phillips Vodka bottles that are only 1/2 empty, (or full) and including 1 that was still sealed. I bet we’ve picked up 20 bottles this summer. So it’s a real mystery who’s leaving them, and when, and why do they never finish them??
    There’s not much taste to Vodka, right? Maybe they’re trying to see if they have Covid and they keep trying?
    We’ve gotten a lot of good laughs about that.

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  10. I had to work a lot of hours last week. I was called in repeatedly with multiple shifts available. Three of my coworkers have been exposed to COVID19. Two went to the same large indoor wedding where a number of their close relatives have since tested positive. One of these two went to get tested and she found out that she was negative. Her mother, also at the wedding and also a coworker, refused to go get tested. “Oh, my son and my daughter are negative, so I must be too.” Another coworker’s son was positive and her husband was showing symptoms. I fear false negative tests.

    All of this kind of freaked me out, I must say. I had such a huge mix of emotions last week. I went through doubt, suspicion, concern for my fragile and confused Mom, terror, anger, elation, and finally exhaustion. I think we are all being wrung out by emotions. It’s like things are coming at us so fast and so hard these days.

    Of course, I am appalled at my coworkers coming to work with medically fragile people when they are not even certain that they don’t have the virus. I was so nervous about it that I decided to stay away from my mom yesterday. I didn’t want to risk bringing the virus in if I am infected and I don’t yet know it.

    I make sure I can taste something every day. I eat an orange every morning, so it’s usually the orange. I also check my temp daily for 10 days if I think I have been exposed. I have stocked up on stuff so I should be in good shape for several weeks and I’m planning on staying home except for going to see Mom or going to work.

    I also have some spicy brandy. Hmmm. Maybe I should taste it…

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    1. My son got married on October 11. There was no way he and his wife would have had a large event for fear of all that you just described. Who wants their wedding remembered as a super spreader event? There were 6 of us–the officiant, Ben, Katie, their friend the photographer, Lou and I. I am eternally grateful for their good sense. They will have a big party next summer (assuming that is a good time for it, and safe).

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  11. Ongoing saga of my son’s kidney removal. Today he went in for covid test and pre-op. Found out on way in by phone that he was exposed to someone with covid last Friday and exposed to those exposed to her on Saturday. Waiting to hear if surgery is postponed again. So upsetting.

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