From time to time, people have said I'm a good cook. But I think of it more as finding good recipes. Recipes that don't have super complex ingredients and deliver good flavor. I enjoy the search. For the last few years, we typically will get a bulk order of beef from a friend that raises steers. We are going to eat beef and it's our modest effort to buy local and lessen the impact. When you buy in bulk, you end up with some cuts of beef that can be a bit tougher to turn into something yummy that the family will enjoy. So I'm often searching for new recipes for those cuts and a thick and lean Sirloin Tip Roast can be in that category. We are approaching that bulk purchase time of year again so I'm trying to empty out the freezer and decided I'd pull said roast from the freezer and look up a recipe. It was a rainy weekend so it seemed like a good chance to fill up the house with that classic pot roast aroma. This reci...
The last few days of July, I began to feel a tightness in my chest. I had no other symptoms besides feeling pain in my chest cavity if I took a deeper than normal breath. So I chalked it up to being old and possibly have tweaked a muscle or cartilage in or near my rib cage.
But it worsened. It really felt like there was a harness strapped around my chest that was preventing me from taking deep breaths. Amazingly, I think my body was able to shut down the need for yawns or sneezing for 2-3 days while I was experiencing this pain. Then I started to look up some COVID-19 symptoms as this clearly was more serious than a muscle pull. I noticed some folks would say it felt like someone was sitting on their chest. As it relates to trying to take a deep breath, I would agree with this. I was growing pretty concerned about my inability to breath normally. This was something I had never experienced before.
By now, it was Saturday, August 1st. I felt like I had made a slight improvement in my chest pain, so I was hopeful that I was on the way to recovery from this mysterious chest pain. But that's when other symptoms began to set in. I should mention, throughout this process, I was checking my temperature regularly and never experienced an official fever. So, back to last weekend. I started to experience body aches and difficulty regulating my temperature. I would alternate between chills and sweats and the body aches worsened.
Now that I had multiple symptoms, and I normally don't get very sick, I decided to reach out to my doctor's office. I don't think I've used a sick day at my job for 3+ years but I was about to. I called the office on Sunday, August 2nd. Obviously they would be closed but they did have an answering service take my information and the on-call doctor called me back. She explained I should get a COVID test the following day and provided some instructions for the next steps. Meanwhile, the only treatment available was over the counter cold / flu medicine per the doctor to help alleviate symptoms.
Four phone calls and one Zoom meeting later, I was able to get tested in the parking lot of my doctor's office on Monday, August 3rd. Despite the many examples of tests taking several days to get results, I was pleasantly surprised my test results were back in almost exactly 24 hours from when I was swabbed. I was thoroughly convinced that I had COVID-19 and had spent the last few days wondering how you go about self-quarantine when you have a family around you, who would I have to notify? What about my employer? Needless to say, I was a bit surprised when the nurse said my test result was negative. Instead of relief, I was confused. I told the nurse I was surprised compared to the severity of my symptoms and that's when she said: "Well, it does have a 30% false negative rate".
That left me a bit shocked. I went through a fair amount of effort to get this test done. I wanted to get tested due to my concern for the health and safety of others. I have repeatedly heard about how great our testing has become in the USA. But 30% false negative rate? That sure didn't seem very reliable. It left me doubting the accuracy of ANY numbers that we Americans see regarding this pandemic.
So here I sit. Roughly two weeks since I first had symptoms and I can say I was covid-negative. I wanted to share my experience in case it's helpful for others. I also wanted to share my symptoms and explain that I am in my early 40's, male, with no underlying health conditions and the difficulty I had breathing was very alarming. When I consider how that may impact someone who has asthma or some other underlying condition, I can understand 100% how this could escalate and create serious complications for people.
Lucky for me, with 70% accuracy, I didn't have COVID-19. Also wanted to note: My family has been generally cautious during the pandemic. No restaurants and bars for us. We mask up. But I still got sick from "something".