Almost a dozen calls with five health care providers over five hours. Two hours of hold music. Two hours in a hospital. Four days of anxiously checking an online portal for results. And lots of confusion.

That’s the winding path through bureaucracy that took me from placing my first phone call last Wednesday to getting my positive coronavirus test results on Monday night. Five days in limbo.

I’m 33 years old and healthy without any existing respiratory conditions, so the illness itself is perfectly manageable. It feels like a medium-grade flu, with some extra coughing and chest pain.

But the process to get me here was a maze of inefficiency, and I’m one of the fortunate ones.

Enormous numbers of people across the country — even those who have severe symptoms or who are especially vulnerable — are facing roadblock after roadblock as they try to get answers.