A soccer coach from California believes he has been infected with coronavirus and is having a difficult time getting tested for it. The coach wrote a guest column for TooFab, sharing his story about how long it took him to get tested for coronavirus after having the symptoms. He started the column by revealing the early symptoms he had and what he was doing last.
“Last Monday (9th of March) I started coughing quite badly,” he wrote. “I joked to my wife Heidi that I had the virus. She reminded me that I had just spent the weekend coaching two games and had also led a mass try-out the day previous. ‘Your throat is just damaged from the shouting on the sidelines.’ Made sense.”
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He continued: “As the day wore on, I began to feel tired and fatigued. I went and coached a session with my wonderful girls and felt okay(ish), but on my drive home I really began to crash. I slumped on the sofa and felt very weak and exhausted.”
The soccer coach went on to say he felt worse as the days went by and by the end of the week he decided to get tested. He called his doctor and he said the receptionist was “dismissive.” Here’s how the conversation with the receptionist went as he wrote it:
“You think you have coronavirus?” he asked, in an almost condescending tone.
“No sir, I don’t know what I have, but I’ve been symptomatic for five days now and would like to be tested”.
“Well we don’t have tests here and you shouldn’t come into the offices if you are feeling those symptoms anyway”.
From there, the coach called the Long Beach, California health department hotline number. He said the lady who he was talking to was helpful but she was also really busy. He had to answer questions and then they would determine to see if he can be tested. A few hours later, he called back only to be told he had to call his doctor to say he needs to be tested. However, that didn’t work as the receptionist said to call the health department. The coach was able to talk to the doctor only to say he didn’t have coronavirus and then prescribed him to Tamiflu, Prednisone, Albuterol Inhaler and Azithromycin along with over the counter Robitussin.
The medications didn’t work as his conditions didn’t get any better. He contacted the Mayor’s office, but was told to contact the health department. He eventually went to Long Beach Memorial Hospital. After checking his vitals and telling them he recently traveled to New York, they determined that he was a high-risk urgent patient. He was then tested for coronavirus and he’s still waiting for his results.
“What I would implore is that we all keep banding together (6 feet apart please) and keep helping those that need help,” the coach wrote at the end of his column. “I understand this is worrisome and we’re scared as am I, but lets really try and be empathetic. Now’s not the time to be selfish. It’s hard I know but we’re literally all in this together.”
