If you think this is going to be a sappy post about how my life was nearly taken away from me during 9 days in the Emergency Room because of the Coronavirus, you are very, very wrong.

I am very upset with how the COVID is diagnosed, tested, and the procedures for a positive test case are confusing and do very little to help "curb" the virus.

Here is my story...

March 13th is the day that the sports world went on it's Coronavirus hiatus and on "Don't Hassle Us We're Local" we continued to push on.

We had shows nearly every day despite zero sports to highlight.

We had to talk about COVID-19. Of course we did--EVERYONE WAS. PLUS, WHAT ELSE COULD WE TALK ABOUT!!!

Oh yeah, there was that time Robert T. Green helped us out. That was a fun interview.

Anyway, we pushed our show through it all. But eventually, it happened-- I tested positive for the Coronavirus.

Let's be completely and totally upfront, transparent, and honest with each other-- me as the author and you as the reader:

ME

Masks were never my thing, unless they were mandatory. I never really wanted to wear a mask, nor did I throw a fit if I needed to wear one. I do not like what has happened to the economy and the shut down of businesses. Also, I don't think we, as a society, has learned very much from anything from the past 5 months during the global pandemic. Myself, I have looked at the Coronavirus as a type of flu that we are all possibly going to get and I just, sort of, followed any guidelines and procedures and seemed fitting and relevant.

YOU

YOU may not agree with wearing masks and that is your right. YOU may wish everyone would wear a mask and that is your right. YOU may read this whole entire series and say that I am ill informed and misguided and that is your right. What YOU can not do is tell me what I have gone through during this entire journey of testing positive of SARS-CoV-2, also known as COVID-19, is not true.

The following is my story. It is all 100% absolutely true and in the end you will understand that the system we have for testing and slowing down the spread of disease is flawed and how we will be at 100% in home learning by October 1, 2020.

DAY 1

I was contacted by a person, that had tested positive for COVID, in the afternoon. I had been exposed to this person 4 days prior to the test results and 48 hours before the person showed any symptoms.

Here are the symptoms, by the way:

Fever or chills
Cough
Shortness of breather difficulty breathing
Fatigue
Muscle or body aches
Headaches
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Congestion or a runny nose
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea

I did not have any symptoms but I have a family and I felt I have an obligation to the radio station to get tested.

I called a walk-in that I knew gave COVID-19 tests. I was told that I could not get a test because I did not have symptoms. I pleaded with the person to allow me to take a test because I knew that I had been exposed to the virus and that it was important to get results because my kids were starting school soon and that I am around kids when I coach softball.

I was told NO and that even if I were to have symptoms that provider may not deem me necessary for a test.

I was confused. I went on to Test Iowa website and was approved for a test and they gave me an appointment time. Unfortunately, Day 1 was a Friday and the test would not be administered until Monday morning. As of 7:00 PM CST on Day 1 I put myself in a quarantine in my basement.

Although I did not have any symptoms, I thought it would be best to keep myself from the family.

DAY 2

Still have zero symptoms.

I talked on the phone with one of my friends about being denied testing for COVID. He told me to go to the walk in clinic and just tell them you have symptoms. Reluctantly, I followed his advice-- I am glad that I did.

I went into the walk-in clinic and explained to the person at the front that I had:

Been exposed to the virus
Had a headache (I did not)
Had a cough (I did not)
Had a runny nose (I had the sniffles the night before-- I had grilled out and pollen was high)

The person at the front desk explained to me that they would see me but that there was no guarantee that the provider would give me the test.

WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO GET PRE-APPROVED FOR A TEST???? WHY IS THERE A COMPLETE LACK OF EMPATHY THAT THERE ARE 3 MORE FAMILY MEMBERS IN MY HOME THAT I DO NOT WANT EXPOSED???

I was sent back to a room to be examined and the nurse could not have been nicer.

I did not have a temperature-- it was 98.4 degrees. I explained to the nurse that my symptoms that I listed were very small if not there at all-- I was trying to come clean for lying to the person in front.

The nurse was very nice and reassured me that they will definitely be testing me today because of the exposure. I asked her about the trouble getting to this point because of no symptoms and she said that she did not have an answer.**

**this will be a common response-- nobody knows why they turn you away. It will be brought up again.

THE TEST

The doctor came in to give me the test. The doctor was very nice and explained the testing and about results, etc.

But that test, yo!

I have never gone through what they did during that test. She shoved an 8" stick with a swab on the end into my brain for 20 seconds. I reacted terribly. I mean, I think I may have even cried.

THEN SHE HAD TO DO THE OTHER NOSTRIL!!!!

It was awful. That GIF above makes it seem nice and easy and my first test I took on Day 2 was no where close to being that nice or easy.

It gave me a headache for the next 8 hours-- my first "symptom" of COVID was from the test itself.

Now I just had to sit back in quarantine and wait for results.

DAY 3

Still no symptoms.

There isn't really anything big that went on Day 3. I still felt really confident that I would test negative. I felt great. I continued to jog outside but quarantined inside.

I do have to clarify one thing that happened during these first 3 days. I had to tell the radio station that a COVID tested positive person was in the building.

The radio station had to shut down for the week of August 17th - August 24th and I was not going to be allowed into the building without a negative test.

So there you have it. That is why "Don't Hassle Us We're Local" has not been on ESPN 1170AM in 2 weeks. The people in the building did not want us to tell you that there had been COVID-19 exposure and I can't explain to you why. But we have been gone for over 2 weeks now.

First week was derecho related.

Second week was COVID-19 related.

So hold on to your seats, my friends, and get some popcorn ready.

Because Days 4 & 5 get a little crazy.

Day 7 is an absolute sh*t show.