I finally got the COVID-19 antibody test done, and the results came back negative. While this result may not mean absolutely that I was not infected, it was still good to get this answer.
During the first week of May, I got an e-mail from Piedmont Healthcare, the company under which my primary care doctor works, saying that they now had the COVID-19 antibody test available. I’ve been wanting to have this test done for some time to see whether or not the illness I had back in March, described here, was caused by COVID-19. I immediately signed on to the Piedmont MyChart site to make an appointment with my primary care doctor. I made the appointment for May 12th.
I went to the doctor’s office on May 12th and had to wait in my car until someone could come and ask about symptoms, travel, and other things potentially related to the coronavirus. Once I had completed answering the questions, I waited in my car until time for my appointment. When the time came, someone came to my car to get me. She took me directly to the patient room area and led me to my assigned room once she recorded my weight. She took my blood pressure, wiping down the cuff with an antibacterial wipe once done. My primary care doctor, who is actually an NP, came to see me a while later. I told her I was there to request the COVID-19 antibody test and had no other issues. The nurse came in later to draw my blood and said the results should be back in a couple of days.
The following week, today, I got an e-mail with my results. They were negative.
Of course, one would think that a negative result would mean that he or she would be in the clear. However, according to this article, one may have a negative antibody test and still have had the infection because the antibodies might have been gone by the time the test was done, the person may not have made antibodies to the infection at all, or the person may not have made enough antibodies to be detected. The person could even be currently infected and may not have started to make antibodies yet.
Even after getting the antibody test done, it still may not be clear whether or not I had been infected with COVID-19 back in March, but at this point, I’m going to assume that chances are good that I was not infected. Either way, I would need to be careful to protect myself and others while in public by wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and practicing good hygiene.
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