When The Results Are Negative But You’re Still Sick

When you start a diet program, you hope for positive results. When your kid starts playing sports, you hope for positive results. When, your wife says that she bought a home pregnancy test, you hope for positive results. (I have 13 kids remember?)

You don’t want negative results from your diet. You don’t want negative results for your kid. (Okay, let’s skip that last one.) The point is that positive is good. Negative is bad.

Except when the test itself is bad, or negative. In that case two negatives make a positive.

I ain’t got no money.

You realize you just admitted you have money?

Huh?

What’s a negative test? A bad test? Sickness tests. Cancer, Covid even the flu.

Are there even any other diseases this year besides Covid? It seems that way. But, there have been.

USA Influenza positivity rates are down 98% in 2020

Other diseases are down around the world. By wearing masks and social distancing we have not only had an effect on the spread of Covid, but other less infectious diseases as well.

But, how many of you have really worried about anything except Covid? Every time someone sneezes or coughs, anytime someone has a slight fever, a headache or just feels slightly off one day, we worry about Covid.

We’ve had a sign on our door for a year, “Someone in this house has a compromised immune system.” After Covid happened, we added another on, “Oxygen in use.”

The running thing about the oxygen sign, when the company delivered the oxygen machine they included a sign in Spanish. So, our sign actually says, “Oxygen en uso.” We put it up anyway. I lost track of how many times we’ve been in quarantine. Multiple false alarms (tests were negative) and a longer one during our positive test.

So, a few weeks ago we assumed the worst when another one of our kids started feeling achy. She quarantined and got the test. And a couple others of us got the test too. All the tests came back negative. But, she was still sick.

Now what?

We had almost forgotten what you do with people who are just regular sick, not Covid sick. So, naturally, we had her tested a second time for Covid. That also came back negative. Apparently, she’s just. . .sick. We decided it was probably mono. (And since she’s a service missionary, we assume it was acquired innocently enough.)

So, she’s doing what she did before, wearing a mask, quarantining in her room.

What a strange world when Mono is a positive result.

Stay safe

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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