Waiting for the lab results of his novel coronavirus test, Chris Lierle is wondering how many people he may have been in contact with since late February, during a journey from Houston to California.

Lierle, 52, was in Houston in late February to pick up his possessions after recently deciding to move to San Francisco. He’d been caring for his now late mother in California and found a job when he was there. Having what at the time felt to him like a wild adventure, Lierle filled a Budget rental truck and drove 2,000 miles across the country. He stayed in hotels, ate in restaurants and had a drink here and there in bars along the way, with a Mardi Gras night in San Antonio as a highlight of the trip.

Just as he arrived at his new home on the West Coast on March 1, he started feeling sick, and another journey began. One filled with frustration and anxiety enhanced by what he believes are governmental inadequacies to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Now self-quarantined with his girlfriend Jaclyn Patterson in an Airbnb property they rented in Las Vegas, Lierle talks in this Q&A about his story marked by some “surreal moments” and the nerve-wracking ordeal of getting tested and fearing for a looming lab result.

His story illustrates how so many people are feeling anxious about the pandemic and whether they have the virus, as evidenced by the 3-mile long line of cars whose passengers waited for hours to be checked at a free test site in Acres Homes on Thursday. Lierle’s story offers a peek into one person's story on how he has been confronting it.

Q: How do you feel while waiting for the test results? Are you afraid of testing positive to coronavirus?

A: Waiting has me feeling anxious and powerless. I want the results, yet I can't do anything to make it happen. And it’s nerve wracking.

I think that a different testing regimen, something fast and cheap or even a self-monitoring solution, would have changed things the most. I got tested last Friday, but very few people are getting tested and then, a long wait for the result.

To get an idea about how much you may have been inadvertently tempting fate, how many places did you visit in Houston and on the road trip to San Francisco?

I arrived in Houston at 6 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 23), at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and spent the evening in a bar near the airport. I took an Uber to the truck rental place in town and then went to the storage unit in Bellaire. I spent the night at a hotel in the Galleria and returned to the storage the next day. Then I went to a restaurant, the Little Woodrow's in Bellaire next to the storage place, a CubeSmart. I didn't see any friends in Houston. Some folks were mad about that, but I guess now… not so mad!

Then I took off for San Antonio, staying there Tuesday night (the 25th) and celebrating Mardi Gras at Pat O'Brien's. Similar stories followed along the way in west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and L.A. restaurants, gas stations, hotels...

You felt sick as soon as you arrived at your new home in San Francisco. Was the coronavirus in your mind at the time?

No, not at all. I remember going to Costco two days later to stock up on some products because I figured I'm going to have the flu. I didn't really think about the coronavirus. I didn't know much, and it wasn't at the top of mind.

You told me that, at the time, you didn't feel there was enough awareness about the seriousness of the pandemic. When did you get concerned about COVID-19?

On the third day that I was sick, I actually did start looking into what the virus symptoms were and realized I probably needed to get tested. I was feeling terrible and had the deep dry cough, the body aches, and the fever that just kept coming back and go away, and come back.

On March 4, I contacted my doctor and asked for the test, and he said I didn't qualify because I hadn't been to high-risk countries. You know, it's very hard to get tested in California but also nationwide. I kept looking for options. I have an employment benefit that is like a concierge medicine service, and they had an office that was testing. They also denied me at first, but I kept pestering them. My girlfriend has an autoimmune disease and is a high-risk person, so they cleared a slot for me instead of her to avoid exposing her. I got tested last Friday. I don't think it's lucky to get tested on Friday the 13th, but that's just me (laugh).

How was the experience of being tested? Take us there with you.

It was an odd experience. I am walking up to the door of the office, and a receptionist with a mask and some protective gear is waiting for me. There's a table, and a mask for me, and hand sanitizer that I'm required to use.

They led me into what looked like a regular doctor's office, except that they had stripped all the surfaces of things that could collect germs. You are looking at everything with different eyes. It was almost empty, with a painting on the wall that seemed out of place like it came from a museum. Everything was as basic as it could be.

After a little bit, this gentleman walks in wearing a white head-to-toe suit made of Tyvek, this synthetic material used in the construction industry. There's only a little cutout for his face. He has a mask, and he's wearing clear plastic goggles that are sealed against his eyes.

He said, 'I am going to test you,' and takes out these incredibly long cotton swabs like Q-tips with a wooden handle. He sticks the thing, not up my nose but directly into my face like a 90-degree angle through the nostril. You feel like it hit your brain. He used two swabs, one for the flu and one for the coronavirus, so he got me in each nostril. They may not know whether I have the coronavirus, but they can probably test my I.Q. from a little bit of the brain they probably got on that thing. I have a sense of humor about it, so hopefully you don't mind.

The whole experience really seemed surreal. Everybody was stressed. Everybody was wearing crazy things. I just had somebody inserting a yardstick into my nostrils, or at least it felt like it, and, you know, I was a little discombobulated.

Did anything feel different after you left the test site?

Everything changes. I walked out with my mask on, heading down the street, and I realized I need to buy some groceries as I pass a little corner mart. You feel responsible for others. I find a loose piece of paper, and I grab it and I start picking out just a few items I need without even touching them.

I realized I don't want to put my germ-covered credit card in the machine, so I had to figure out how to use Apple Pay. And I am scrambling, unwillingly taking snapshots and turning my phone on and off instead of pressing the right button to pay. There are not that many buttons on an iPhone, but I don't remember which one it is! I finally ended up finding it and paying, and while I am leaving, I can see them taking bleach wipes and wiping down everything that I was near as I walk out.

That social reaction toward you, did it hurt you?

I'm pretty rational about this stuff. I don't want to kill anybody, and I feel responsible for somebody getting sick. So I understand that.

But I had a different experience another time when I had to go to a Subway to pick up sandwiches we paid for online. I am walking out wearing my mask and gloves, and this morbidly obese man who's taking a smoke break from work, standing outside, starts talking to another man just making fun of me. He said out loud that people like me are the ones overreacting to this and blah, blah, blah…

I am 50 feet away from this person who may have risk factors for complications if he gets the virus, like high blood pressure from obesity and smoking, who thinks that I have the mask and gloves on to protect myself. And while he mocks me, I am thinking, "buddy, you don't get it. I am protecting you!" I wondered, am I protecting people who won't protect themselves? But that's not really my choice to make. People need to realize this is everybody's problem. As we drove to Las Vegas, I noticed that many people are not taking precautions, and It's horrifying. I don't understand that.

Why did you travel to Las Vegas to self-quarantine with your girlfriend after taking the test?

We got this great Airbnb property in Las Vegas for cheap because business is slow and they need the (rental) money. This place has a lot of fun things to do; we even get to play some old slot machines here at the house that don't use real money.

We decided to do it because in the area of our place in Palo Alto, it's kind of dark and dreary these days, and we saw it was going to rain. We were in a mood that couldn't handle that. We looked for the weather in other places and chose Las Vegas because we wanted to get fresh, dry air into our lungs and see if that helps. We bought extra rental time here so that they won't come in and clean it until the virus is long gone. Also, if we have the virus already, we think that being away from home for some time would kill the infection (on surfaces) there.

What’s your takeaway from your ordeal?

There's a lot of extra suffering from not knowing, for not being tested, from delayed test results that take five or more days here but not that long in other countries. We are less prepared than we could (have been).

Then, when we keep seeing CEOs in the press briefings but not so much of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), we focus people on the financial aspects of quarantine, which are genuinely debatable, while not on the public health aspects of it, which aren't (debatable).

You know, we're really suffering from bad politics on top of the virus.

I am getting more concerned. I was told my (test) result is delayed. I am fainting now when I cough. I think I am getting less oxygen into my lungs. I know it isn’t the flu because that test came back negative the same day of the test. Waiting for the other one… what else could I have if not the coronavirus?

olivia.tallet@chron.com

Twitter.com/oliviaptallet