I just spent hours waiting, outside, in the cold and rain, at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles waiting to get my daughter tested for #coronavirus after a week of symptoms and the discovery of a recent exposure.
We were told to sit outside in the driveway of the ER in the rain for over two hours and only got into the tent after I went back into triage twice and frankly, kind of freaked out. When we finally got into the tent, we were treated respectfully and with kindness by the doctor.
But after a series of questions about exposure and my daughter's symptoms (cough, fever, shortness of breath), the doctor, who was respectful, sage, and honest, told us that their tests are being rationed. They simply don't have enough tests to test people with no pre-existing
health issues. It is not their fault. I felt bad for him and for the hard-working nurses and administrators who are basically flying blind. They have no real data. They have no tests. And he told us that even if we could test her, the test is incomplete and would have to be sent
to a lab, and that those results would take a week to come in. He told us to self-quarantine and rest. And that was it. We gave our insurance information, although I'm not sure how we could be charged for sitting outside in a driveway for two hours only to be refused-
But I am guessing we will be billed in some way, as the tent was outside the ER. And then we were released. All we are trying to do is prevent spread on the off chance that we have the virus. But we left the hospital after almost three hours with no more information
than we had before we got there. We are lucky enough to be healthy and not elderly. And we are lucky enough to have some kind of insurance. But there is an astounding lack of information, data, testing and reassurance coming from the federal government.
Please be kind to the doctors, nurses, administrators, and healthcare workers who are just as uniformed and unprepared as we are. They are at the mercy of the information being farmed out to them. And they are going to be under siege. The reality is...
If you are relatively healthy, under 65, and not showing symptoms, and frankly, even if you are showing symptoms, they more than likely won't test you. They have to save the few tests they have for the elderly and immuno-compromised.
Stay home. Self-quarantine. Be smart. And be kind. We are all in this together. Seriously. The whole world. So let's not go all Lord of the Flies and steal and hoard and accuse. This may be a while. So let's try to behave in a way that we can feel okay about when it's all over.
