About 10 days ago, I woke up with a headache and a cough.

I was weak and my chest felt tight, like I couldn't quite get a full breath.

I took my temperature, and it was 99.5.

Not quite a fever, but higher than normal.

I wondered, of course, if I had COVID-19.

For a little background here, I'm six months pregnant, and I also have an autoimmune disease.

So while I'm not as high risk as some people, seniors, people with more serious pre-existing conditions. I am at a higher

risk than most people. The day before, I'd been at my obstetrician's office. I didn't feel sick

then, but I was worried that maybe I'd exposed her and her staff. When I talked to her on the phone,

she wanted me to get tested, but it was impossible

in her hospital system. So I called my internist. All of this, I should note, was before New York

tightened its guidance to only test hospitalized patients. So given my risk factors, my internist

asked me to come in right away. When I got there, I was

ushered in a side entrance wearing a mask and sent straight into a back room that they were

disinfecting every hour. My doctor wore a mask, gloves, eye protection, and a gown as he swabbed my

nose for both flu and COVID-19. They really stick that swab up there, by the way.

My test was sent off to a big commercial lab run by Quest, and then I waited.

That same week, I had a family member in their 70s get sick. First, they got a drive-through

test in Maryland. Then they ended up in the hospital in Washington, D.C., and got another one.

Both of their tests came back, thankfully, negative, in 18 hours. My test, on the other hand, took seven days. I'm negative, I tested positive for

flu, and I'm okay. But since then, I haven't been able to stop thinking about why we had such

different testing experiences, and why so many people are having trouble getting tested in the first place.

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