Herald-Tribune music critic Al Cohen faces an anxious 10 days waiting for coronavirus test results

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I am an 87-year old with well-controlled diabetes who is in reasonable health. I am physically active. This is my experience with the health care system over the past two weeks.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday, March 15. Unfortunately, our afternoon concert by the Sarasota Orchestra had been canceled. So my wife and I took a walk around the neighborhood.

We came home, had a quiet dinner, drank some wine and watched TV.

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About 9 p.m., I felt a bit funny: My nose felt as if a cold was imminent. Since I have allergies to pollen and grass, I dismissed it as the result of our walk.

By bedtime, I felt feverish, with a scratchy throat. I checked my temperature, and it was 100.6 degrees.

On Monday, I awoke feeling feverish, but no runny nose, which has always been my experience on the second day. Lungs were clear, but if felt as if bronchitis was on the way.

On Tuesday, my temperature was 100.8 and I felt more congested. I use a private “concierge” doctor, and he told me to come to the office but wait in the parking lot. He came down to the lot fully gowned and masked, checked my lungs (clear) and my pulse oxygen (low at 94%, just above the threshold for sending me to the emergency room) and took four swabs. I went into self-quarantine, moved to a separate bedroom and kept a distance from my wife at all times.

Two of the swabs were sent to Sarasota Memorial Hospital and were reported back late Tuesday as negative for flu or rhinovirus (cold). The other two were sent for coronavirus testing.

Then the wait began. At this point the anxiety level skyrocketed, since I apparently didn't have a cold or flu. The pulse oxygen number also troubled me, as I usually tested at 99-100%.

I remained the same with a low-grade fever through the rest of the week. I checked daily on test results and was told that Friday was the likely day.

On Friday, I was told the lab in Florida was too busy, so the sample had been sent to Quest Labs in California. It was received on Thursday, and a report was expected on Monday morning. I continued with a low-grade fever until Tuesday, when it returned to normal.

On Monday morning, the lab in California reported it had been so busy over the weekend it had shipped my sample to Virginia for testing and that the results would come in a few days.

My doctor's office kept calling and pressuring management, and they finally agreed to finish the testing on Wednesday.

The results were negative. The first thing I did was kiss my wife, which was my way of telling her the results were good news.

On Thursday, I went for blood and urine testing to determine what might have happened to me. On Friday, the results came back normal. I have no infection. I feel normal. My pulse oxygen was 99%.

What I haven't recovered from is the anxiety and sense of dread I felt after learning it wasn't flu or a cold on Tuesday, then having to wait eight days not knowing whether my life was in present danger or not.

I am also still in total shock that the great state of Florida did not have a facility available to test my samples.

My wife and I are still practicing a self-quarantine.

Albert H. Cohen has been a music critic for 43 years, including 20 writing for the Gannett group of newspapers in Central New Jersey. Now a freelance music critic, he was managing director of the Music Critics Association of North America for 13 years.

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