Thread by @JSODonoghue

A little bit of an update on my personal #coronavirus situation....

My spouse got tested this afternoon at @FollowMercy in St. Louis County. We were told they would tell us the result of the test in 48 hours.

This morning, the City of St. Louis health department called us and said that we might qualify for testing because the federal government now deems people who have traveled to France to be high-risk. We were in France last week for our honeymoon.

Reminder: Our travel to France did not allow us to be tested on Tuesday when my spouse had a fever. I'm not sure if what has changed is that @realDonaldTrump has banned travel from France or what...but the health department official said the situation had changed overnight.

The very nice and helpful city health official interviewed both my spouse and I about our symptoms and asked when we had returned from France. (We landed in New Orleans Sunday). My spouse has a fever. I have a slight cough and -- as of this morning -- a cold sore. Fun times!

I am mostly fine though and still working.

After she interviewed us, the city official -- who again...was super nice -- said she would call us back once she had talked to the state about whether we qualified for testing. She called us back about an hour later....

She said the state determined my spouse qualified for testing, but I did not. As a reminder, my spouse is on immune-suppressing drugs. I don't know if that was a factor...but we had mentioned it.

Then the city health official asked which hospital we would want to use....

Some arrangements need to be made with the hospital ahead of time so that they minimize contact with folks. We said we wanted to go somewhere in the Mercy system because of the type of health insurance plan we have.

So even though we live in the city, Jed ended up getting tested at Mercy hospital in the county. The city health official says the state will be paying for the test...but I was worried about him going to an out-of-network place for this test regardless.

My spouse and I wore face masks to the hospital. When we arrived, we called someone inside the hospital. A nurse in a face mask and a plastic coverall thing came to the car and escorted my spouse inside. I wasn't allowed to go with him.

My spouse says they stuck multiple things up his nose and all the way to the back of his throat. They also wanted him to cough up some stuff. He said his "primary" nurses had the plastic coveralls and face masks. Some other staff members who talked to him didn't.

One nurse told my spouse that they had tested just two people the day before at Mercy. That's...not a lot of people in my opinion...but it is just one hospital.

I then picked my spouse up and took him to the house. We were already isolating ourselves. We are only going outside to walk the dog and take out the trash -- and we wear masks when we do that. We also don't get near other people AT ALL.

However, my spouse has been told he can't even go out for those tasks. This is...troubling. Let me explain...

If he tests positive, then the state will require me to get tested. If he's positive, I'm likely positive. We will survive this illness but....

If we both can't go outside at all for more than two weeks, who is going to take out our trash? Seriously...our trash goes in a dumpster a few hundred yards from our house in an alley. It can't help two people with #coronavirus to have trash stacking up in a small apartment....

Also, who is going to walk our dog? I might be able to find someone to take our dog...but how do we do that hand off without exposing someone? And it's kind of a lot to ask someone to take your dog for more than two weeks. Also, my dog is not great with other humans.

Also, we share a laundry room with our upstairs neighbors. I've been wiping down the machine when we use it as a precaution. But how are we supposed to clean our clothes and sheets if we both can't go to the laundry room?

These are very practical concerns and I'm sure we aren't the only ones wrestling with these types of things. It is....hard to isolate yourself...even for practical reasons. There's a lot of things I hadn't previously considered.

Thanks to everyone for all the support you have offered. We've been overwhelmed by your kindness and concern.

But let me say again...I'm only being this detailed about our experience because I want people to understand how strict the testing requirements are in Missouri.