"You will be on Stay Home Notice" the GP informed me procedurally. Also known as Stay Home Notice, "SHN" is not a new abbreviation these days, after more than a year with Covid and its evolving variants. The bank account opening, a furniture demo, pick the kids, home lunch with a friend, see a cancer patient and help her submit her claims, then pick my #3, finally grocery. All that for today, crushed by SHN.…
"But I do not have the symptoms of Covid.... and I had my 2 shots of vaccinations more than a month ago" I bargained.. “I just wanted to grab a nasal spray and pain killers and go on with my day….” I whined pathetically. The reply is expectedly no, my heart sank.
Knowing that one has to go home straight after SHN, I pitied my wife of 15 years who has to do most of that alone. "I should have scheduled this clinic visitation after the grocery!" I lamented under my breath. But its not over yet....... "A nurse will do the ART (Antigen Rapid Test) and PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) in the next room, please wait outside."
I was ushered to another room where a middle age nurse gently asked me: "ART result will be out in about 20 mins. PCR test result will be out in 24 to 36 hrs time. You can skip PCR and wait 5 days or do PCR and wait 3 days?”. Of course I took the latter. Too much work to be done. “Please be gentle, this is my first….” I joked trying to shake the fear. “Its gonna be a little itch, and soon both testes will be over” She assured. “And I am quite good at it”.
If ART is like a toilet brush, scrubbing on your home’s toilet bowl, then the PCR is like the same toilet brush running through your toilet bowl, up the sewage pipe and into your neighbour’s toilet bowl. With both nasal passages inflamed, the pain was amplified! Vertigo threatens to kick in when I saw what came our at the end of the stick!
OK…. I exaggerated at a few things here! The ART was a breeze, a little itch in both the nostrils. You probably shaft a rolled tissue paper higher if u know what I mean when we have our runny noses. The PCR went in a little deeper, a slight pressure can be felt at the end of the nasal airway. There is no pain, just a little discomfort, and the swab into each nostril was a brief few seconds.
I am also glad that the doctors and nurses are patient and assuring to us to do the right thing. I was kind of relieved to hear from them that there is no wiggle room to excuse one from running amok even with a negative ART. In this case, we stay at home and exercise a little social responsibility for our love ones and also the loved ones of the people we came in contact with, directly or indirectly.
I rescheduled my appointments, they all understand... Wife immediately took over the fetching, and did grocery herself with our eldest kid to help carry. It isn't difficult to adapt and adjust with my situation. This episode reflects our self centricity, resistance to change and less then positive attitude which constrict our heart to be socially mindful and responsible.
Inoculate yourself as soon as the vaccine is available to you, see a doctor/stay home when you are not feeling well, and encourage your family and friends to do the same. #jiayousingapore
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