Living in Los Angeles has been challenging in the last few years.  Having lived here my entire life, I can say that life here has changed in dramatic ways.  With a child that lives with Cystic Fibrosis, making sure she is safe is a daily challenge.  This became most evident when what was supposed to be a 14 day stay at the hospital for her tuneup turned into almost a month.  She was scared because during her stay, she was constantly reading about how people were not following the rules and testing was only for first responders or those who showed signs of illness.

 

When Mayor Garcetti announced testing for all as a way to help fast track reopening of our local economy, I immediately made my appointment.  Here is how it went.

My appointment was set for noon, April 30.  Knowing there were going to be at least 100 other cars there I decided to arrive early. My test site was the VA in Los Angeles just off Sepulveda.  I arrived at 11:44 and got in the line of cars turning left into the site. Surprised, I didn’t think anything of it until my line started moving much faster.  Turns out parking enforcement arrived and was redirecting us to join the line of cars turning right.  By the time I got inside the gates, I have been sitting in line for just over an hour.

 

As we rolled along, we got the first person who held up a binder like it was a PowerPoint presentation.  As she flipped through the pages (the first telling you to keep your windows up) asking if I had my ID and confirming I had an appointment and at the correct location.  After I confirmed with a 👍, i moved on to the next person who informed me it will be about another hour.  By now it was about 12:45.

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I moved slowly along as I watched the people working on resetting the parking lot they split the line into.  By the time I left, instead of two lines that meet at the far exit, the created a maze of yellow tape and cones.

 

I finally made it to the first tent where another notebook PowerPoint asked if I had my ID and appointment confirmation ready.  Thumbs up 👍.  Next is the verification person who gave my confirmation to the people sitting in the first tent.  The wrote my confirmation number on a plastic bag and handed it to me.  Yes, this is a self administered test.

 

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Next stop was the young lady who walked me through the process.  You take out the vile with the liquid and put that in your lap, pull out the bag that contains the swab (a short stick with a little bit of material on one end).  Already, I am not liking this but I pull up my big girl pants and move on.  She explains to me that I need to turn my head to the right and cough five times into my sleeve.  Next, I need to take the swab and rub it against the back of my throat and back of my tongue/sides of the back of my mouth.  As I start to attempt this nearly putting my whole hand in my mouth as the wand if he swab is pretty short, proceeds to say, “Don’t worry, everyone gags.”  What?  I realized I was not going going back  apparently enough.  So I forced my hand further back and started gagging.  Thus process is to last 20 seconds.

 

Finally done with the torture, I move on to the last tent where a young man comes along with a long stick and plucks the test out of my hand and drops it in a blue bucket.

 

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Finish time – 2:38pm, just six minutes shy of exactly two hours.  That being said, I recommend everyone get tested if you have not done so already.  A brief moment of discomfort can save lives.